Boeing Tour

Carole's son, Bruce, has worked at Boeing for 22 years, so Carole has been through the Boeing plant several times. She was not interested in another tour, so I went to the Boeing plant in nearby Everett, Washington, to take the plant tour and watch airplanes being assembled.

The building is the largest building, by volume, in the world. The front of the building, shown below, has eight large doors, each one as wide as the length of a football field . . . 100 yards, 300 feet.

The building is probably as tall as a 7-8 story building as during the tour we were on an observation balcony on the 4th floor and we were nowhere near the top.



Cameras, handbags, and cell phones were not allowed on the tour, so I was unable to take pictures inside of the plant. But, needless to say, it was really fascinating to see large wide-body jet airplanes in various stages of the assembly process.

We did get to see Boeing's newest jet, the 777 Dream Liner, in production as well as out on the flight line for flight testing. The first of these are yet delivered to an airline.

After the plant tour, I visited the "Future of Flight" building where Boeing has a lot of displays relating to past, present, and future aircraft.



On the left below is the engine which is in the new 777 Dream Liner. This is made by both Rolls Royce and General Electric. On the right below is a body section of the new 777 Dream Liner which is made completely of composites materials rather than metal. It's kind of like fiberglass, but much lighter and stronger. Both the airframe and skin are made of these composites.
















This was all so very interesting to see, both the tour of the plant and the Future of Flight exhibits.

All in all, a day very well spent.