Today we visited Future of Flight which is the Boeing factory tour in Everett. We arrived for the first tour at 9am, and there were only 3 other people besides us. Due to the reduced size, we were able to spend a little more time in the factory on the 90 minute tour.
On arrival and before the tour, I was taking photos of the airfield. Helen and John were already inside. The local Sheriff happened to drive in, and stopped to question me why I was taking photos of the airfield. The fact I am standing right outside the visitor's centre and I obviously looked like a tourist wasn't good enough for him! Anyway he had a big shotgun next to him, and a gun on his hip, so I politely explained my reason for engaging in such suspicious activity. He let me carry on. Phew!!!
Helen and I visited here, in maybe 2006, before we started writing this blog. At that time, we visited on a Saturday and the factory wasn't operating. We saw the factory but nothing was happening. At that time, we saw some of the Air New Zealand 777-200ER planes in progress. Some were partly assembled, some were outside the painting hanger. We thought that was pretty cool, as these were the new pride of Air New Zealand's fleet. Also at that time Boeing was talking about the 787, they had a mockup in their Future of Flight gallery we could sit in, but as we all know the 787 has had some problems getting into production.
Wind forward 4 1/2 years and here we are again. Today we were taken into a working factory. We saw three production lines. The new 747-8 (still a 747 but with newer technology), the 777 (which Air New Zealand has now taken delivery of some 777-400s and we sat in one at Ohakea air show earlier this year), and the 787 Dreamliner.
The production line for the 777 has changed, they used to assemble planes in place, now they have a moving production line where the entire assembly is wheeled forward like a car assembly plant.
It was fantastic to see the factory working. So many people! Amazing there were loads of workstations (ie. desks) on the factory floor with people sitting at computers. The factory is quite noisy and I don't know how they can work like that.
Two other awesome things....
There was a 787 Dreamliner being delivered to LAN airlines. They were setting up for the delivery launch later that day (video, speeches, etc) in the Future of Flight building. We watched the plane be wheeled across to outside the building, ready to have its "keys" handed over. The first time we've seen a real 787 in motion.
We also saw a 747 being test flown, it was painted plain white all over and would have been undergoing an operational test.
Finally we bought goodies at the gift shop such as hats and t-shirts. And spent some time looking at the gallery inside.
We were here for nearly 3 hours in total and enjoyed every minute. It is definitely best to visit Boeing on a weekday when it is operational.
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