Boeing Everett: Where they build the big ones

Let’s start with the truth: the photo above is ‘fake news.’ I was there, but not on the floor.

And they don’t let you take your own pictures inside the factory. But they do take visitors on a breathtaking tour of Boeing’s Everett factory, the world’s largest building by volume (nearly a half-billion square feet) covering just shy of 100 acres. It’s where Boeing builds all its two-aisle planes, except for some 787s built in South Carolina.

The immensity of it can be seen in the photo above. And this is only one bay of what is now a 6-bay building. So big that after you tour one bay, where 767s and 747s are being built, you return down a half-mile tunnel and take a bus to another to see the 777s and 787s under construction, all from balconies high above the busy, busy floor.

But the first step in a visit to the factory, which is about a half-hour drive north of Seattle, is at the Institute of Future Flight, a sort of combined reception center, museum, activity and education center and, of course, a gift store that’s the ultimate temptation for real avgeeks.

The large exhibit hall has a number of planes and models hanging from the ceiiling, and quite a few more down on the floor. Next to that front-half of an Eastern Airlines 727, you’re free to climb into the cockpit and imagine you’re actually flying it. There was a line, and the average age was not young!

Where the youth were, instead of flying the dream planes of our past, was on the balcony, where a museum class was trying out some of its very complex paper (and cardboard) airplanes. Some took a dive, but some had quite a flight!

Also among the floor exhibits: Jet engines. They are big. Very big. Even bigger than they seem when attached to airplanes. There were also some landing-gear tires on display. They, too, made me feel quite small.

But back to the factory. Perhaps the most impressive part of the tour was not seeing the large nearly-completed planes, but seeing the earlier stages, where large parts are formed in bending jigs, where huge cranes move parts into place to then be joined to others, and the sheer number of people moving in different directions and departments.

But with that said, the overall impression is more giant workshop than mass-production factory. The planes are built in units per month, not hundreds per month, and there’s nothing resembling an automobile assembly line. Giant, busy, but each process with its own pace.

Of course, these days, not everything is built on site, and numbers of very large parts—fuselage parts, wing assemblies, engines, for example—come from outside. Some travel by rail (we saw some from the train to Vancouver), and others arrive by specialty planes, such as the DreamLifter, a custom-built 747 variation, and the leased Antonov An124. That’s the Antonov’s landing gear below.

The Everett factory is located on a corner of Paine Field, a full-size international airport that handles general aviation…and Boeing. It’s the place the airlines come to to pick up their new rides and fly home, and the field is covered with planes of all nations, as it were. In the top picture, a 747 waiting to go to the paint shop for its livery, and a 767 waiting for delivery.

If you go: get your tickets in advance; they’re timed and often sell out. There are packaged tours from Seattle, but there’s also plenty of free parking at the site. No direct public transit, but the 512 Sounder Express goes from downtown Seattle to Everett and you can taxi or Uber from there. 

More information and ticket sales from Future of Flight is HERE