boeing

museum of flight at boeing field

plane taking off at boeing field

inside museum

concorde

air force one

air force one

prototype boeing 747 first flight feb 1969

dream lifter

boeing factory

new 787 dreamliners waiting to be delivered

me at boeing

Friday 4th June

Today was our last day in Seattle and we had two things that we wanted to see and do before heading off to Vancouver. The first was the Museum of Flight which was only a few kilometres from our motel. The other was the Boeing factory just north of Seattle. We got to the museum at 10.00am and entered, the museum was good, it had a selection of all old planes from the Air Force and lots of history with older planes and the designs of planes. The tour also included entrance to see the prototype 747 which had its first flight in 1969, this was amazing to think that this plane was the first 747 which today is so common to fly on. It is incredible to walk around it as the size is amazing. It is 6 stories high to the top of the tail. Also here was a Concorde, which now I think we have seen 4 of the last remaining ones. Here also was Air Force One from 1959 to 1962 a Boeing 707. This plane was used up until 1996 before being retired and put on display. We got to walk through the Concorde and Air Force One which was kind of cool. From the Museum we then headed 50kms north to the boeing factory to do the tour. The tour started at 1.30pm and we had booked our tickets on the Internet the night before. The tour was amazing, the shed where these planes are made is over 1000 metres long by 500 metres wide. It is the largest building in the world by volume and it's located at Everett, 50km north of Seattle and it's 100 acres (40.47 hectares) factory houses Boeing's 747, 767, 777 and new 787 Dreamliner aircraft production lines.
About 25,000 people work at the site, which has its own security force and fire department, a fully equipped medical clinic, a childcare centre, a water treatment plant, its own electrical sub-stations, and 19 cafeterias which serve around 17,000 meals per day.
They say 2142 average-sized homes could fit inside the factory. Just the hangar doors are each roughly the size of a football field......WOW!!!

The only thing with the tour is that you can not take cameras or phones on it so you can not get photos. The only photos I have are from the museum where the tour bus departs from. It is amazing too that Boeing have built a specialised plane 'Dreamlifter' which they fly all over the world picking up parts of the 787 plane that are made in all countries. The pieces of fuselage are made in full size pieces and fit inside the Dreamlifter. This is to save time in the building process. At the moment they have over 800, 787 planes on order at a starting cost of 173 million dollars, compared to over 270 million for a 747. The Dreamliner is also made of composite material ie carbon fibre and weighs considerably less than an aluminium plane the same size. We got to see the 787 line with 4 planes being built, 747's and 777's. Inside the factory the planes looked small but obviously they are not. The tour lasted for 90 minutes and then we hit the road for Vancouver. We arrived in Vancouver after stopping at Taco Bell for dinner at about 7.00pm. Tomorrow we are looking around Vancouver,