Boeing Aircraft Company

The Boeing Aircraft Company began in 1916 by William Boeing. His first plane was a B & W Seaplane and eventually sold it to New Zealand. The first 40 years were dedicated to building military or government plans such as the Model 40 Mail-plane, PW-9C fighter, B-17, B-29 and more military aircraft. After the war the company decided to go into the passenger travel and started to develop the 707.

The Boeing Company's first foray in the passenger plane travel was the 367-80 to be named the Dash 80. After some discussion about the name, it was proposed to be called the 700. This held until a salesman suggested that 707 rolled off the tongue much better than just... 700, and so it begins.

The 707 was a steep gamble on Boeing's part, they had spent all the company money to develop this single plane. At a hydroplane show in Seattle on Lake Washington in 1954 the pilot of the 707 did the unthinkable..."two barrel rolls" over the crowd! Two months later the Pan American World Airways orders 20 of the 707's and the rest is "history".

If you are lucky, you get to see an unmarked silver test plane taking off now and again from Paine Field. I say test not because it is a developing plane, but more like when they drive a car off the assembly line, it is first tested to make sure it starts and runs ok.

Although Boeing allows tours throughout its facilities by bus and some walking... cell phones, cameras and other electronic devices are strictly forbidden, and they check. The tour guide says it is for the safety of the workers and planes on the assembly line because we are about 50 feet above them, but other sources say it's so Boeing keeps complete control of all media. The large building across the runway is the assembly building, it's the largest building by volume in the world with a floor space of 4.3 million square feet. In this they build the 747, 767, 777 and the 787 Dreamliner... they are considered "wide-bodies". (I just noticed in researching that the second largest building in the world is also in Washington, not far from here in Lacey...the Target warehouse building)

These buildings are across a freeway (and runway) that separates the assembly building (linked by the only private bridge over a state highway in Washington) and paint buildings. There were 4 painting buildings that I counted and a 747 takes 3 days to paint.

After painting, (color and design is dictated by the buyer) the plane is filled with fuel to the top, then all but 6 hours worth of fuel is drained from the wings for testing. 

One interesting tidbit the tour guide gave us was that "Boeing is not an aircraft "manufacture"... it is an aircraft assembler". While it does design components, those pieces are then manufactured all over the globe to be fitted at Boeing.

Here the 747's body comes out of an assembly line, sheathed in a green vinyl to protect the aluminum from UV rays until it is painted. One other bit of info I got from the tour is that the 747 costs between $315 to $340 million dollars, depending on its configuration. That price is WITHOUT engines. The customer picks either GE or Pratt & Whitney and on the 787 you can add Rolls Royce jet engines. Single engines run from $7 million to $35 million...each.

Here is Boeing's new military KC-46A wide body tanker. It is based on a commercial 767 aircraft and there is lots of work left to do to transform this plane into a tanker.

This is the finish line where aircraft, after painting and testing, are ready for the customers to come and pick up... Boeing does not deliver.

One trick my brother taught me is to google the planes number...and in this case the JetBlues number was  #N536 JB and google says it's an Airbus 320? I looked online but could not find out why an Airbus would be sitting on Boeings pick-up line.

The people in the waiting area (yours truly included) were lucky to see this Dreamlifter open up. We then had to get on the bus without cameras, but were informed that the Dreamlifter is just a 747 that has a huge expansive fuselage to carry the composite center fuselage of the 787 that comes from Japan. While the Dreamlifter can carry more in volume than a regular 747, it can't match the 747's carrying capacity... weight wise. There are 4 Dreamlifters in the world, all owned by Boeing, to collect bits and pieces of the 787.

I borrowed this from Reuters just to show you where all the bits and pieces of the 787 are produced, this is the very first commercial aircraft designed completely by computer. (More about that next)

This is a hanger about a mile from Boeing, but owned by the company where they are trying to correct some of the many 787 problems. Some of the issues are from the plane parts being fabricated in 30 different countries, where quality control might be a little hard to maintain. Some of the problems developed with the carbon fiber flexing more than anticipated... mostly the passenger isles that flexed up and down like in an earthquake...they needed more reinforcement.

Behind the tail of the green vinyl plane is a composite piece of the 787 fuselage that came from Japan in the Dreamlifter. Like said, they only put the parts together at the Everett plant.

Here a 787 is undergoing some major refitting. Of the first 6 Dreamliners, 3 are unworthy of flight and 3 cannot be sold to commercial airlines... but if you have the money, as a private citizen, you could buy one of the 3 at a discount... ☺

If anyone knows the name of this airline, please pass it on to me.

The two Boeing tours are of its factory and The Future of Flight. I was going to do separate blogs, but the Future of Flight really does not have the meat for me to do it by itself. This is an actual  piece of the composite fuselage from Japan.

Until you stand next to one of these immense  jet engines it is hard to imagine just how powerful they are. One info card on the wall said that if the Rolls Royce was backed up to a window and started...it would take 4 seconds to drain this huge two story building of any air...wow!

Until next time.....