WHEN you are building the biggest passenger aeroplanes in the world, you need the biggest building in the world in terms of sheer volume, to build your aeroplanes in.
Which is how the Boeing Corporation came to build a factory in Everett City in America’s Washington State that has an extraordinary 40ha of floor space, which is six hectares bigger than all of Disneyland, and roughly the same size as fifty-nine football fields.
And all-up has 13,000,000 cubic metres of space under one roof that’s some 30m high.
Since 1968 Boeing has built over five-thousand wide-bodied aeroplanes in its Everett factory, 1546 of them its signature 747 Jumbo, 1116 the 767, plus 1560 777s, and 716 of its 787s.
And with orders for a mind-boggling 1,280 more wide-bodied jets already on the books and others coming in daily, it’s little wonder that Boeing’s factory, warehouses, company and visitor parking, and other outdoor requirements, total-up to an amazing 415 hectares.
As well, with 30,000 staff working seven days a week, it has 20 separate cafeterias that serve 25,000 meals a day, a day-care centre for children of Boeing’s staff, a shopping centre with cinema, its own fire department, and even a Boeing museum open to the public.
And a mind-blowing 1-million light bulbs and fluorescent tubes to keep the inside of the factory lit as bright as daylight.
Aerial View of Everett Boeing; View from South to North; includes 777X Wing Building; Puget Sound; Sunny Day; Blue Skies; K66575
Daily 4.5 hour visitor tours by trolley include the aircraft assembly line, the paint shop where it takes seven days to paint a Boeing 747 using 454 litres of paint, and even a look inside the amazing pilot flight simulator.
Some 150,000 people a year do these tours, that currently cost around AU$130 per person.
David Ellis
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