Boeing Factory Tour—What You Need to Know

Roopinder Tara posted 2016-06-15

While in town for the NAFEMS 2016 event, ENGINEERING.com was given an opportunity to tour Boeing’s Everett facility, where it makes the 747, 767, 777 and 787. Here’s what you ought to know about the tour.

Boeing’s facility for aircraft assembly in Everett, Wash. (near Seattle). (Image courtesy of Boeing.)
  1. You can’t go to the bathroom for an hour and a half. It seems like a lot longer.
  2. They will threaten to take your iPhone. No cameras or recording devices are allowed. You have to store them in a locker. Taking notes is frowned upon.
    William Boeing, the company’s founder. (Image courtesy of Boeing.)

  3. Boeing’s founder, William Boeing, dropped out of college in 1903 when he was 22 years old.

  4. The first engineer, Wong Tsu, aka “the Chinese Birdman,” was born in Beijing, and graduated from MIT in 1916. He was hired by Boeing when the company realized it had better get a real engineer.

  5. William Boeing left the company in disgust after the U.S. government accused him of monopolistic practices, and broke the company into three separate entities. The separate companies became United Aircraft Corporation (later United Technologies), United Airlines and the Boeing Airplane Company.

    30,000 employees work in Boeing’s Everett facility, but most of them are invisible to visitors. (Image courtesy of Boeing.)

  6. It’s the largest building in the world—by volume, if not by weight. Disneyland, with its parking lots, can fit inside it.

  7. It’s the only place in the Seattle area without a Starbucks.

    You don't want to be there when they let go. The 787’s wings being tested to 150 percent of design conditions. (Image courtesy of Boeing.)

  8. “The Dreamliner’s wings almost touch each other in stress tests,” said our guide, probably exaggerating.

  9. The 787’s fuselage section is over 19 feet from top to bottom (6 meters), but its carbon fiber composite outer skin is the thickness of a quarter.

  10. One airliner can require 1,000 pounds of paint.

    The GE90 jet engine turbine blades are works of art. Literally. (Image courtesy of the New York Museum of Modern Art.)

  11. GE90 jet engine turbine blades with their titanium leading edge and carbon fiber composite bodies cost $150,000 each.

  12. You can exit through the gift shop. You can buy your own 787 Dreamliner for only $160 million. A good deal, when you consider that the much older model, the 747, will cost you over $350 million.