Aero construction

[tthurman]

I recently toured Boeing in Seattle and it is nothing short of amazing to see how these things are built.  It was actually nothing like I had envisioned, instead, it's sections built in random areas of the massive buildings before being brought together for final assembly.   It is literally a small city of workers, nearly 4000 at any given time.  The buildings are so large that special mechanical systems are installed throughout the facility to keep it from raining inside.

https://maps.roadtrippers.com/stories/boeing-factory

 

They won't let you take pictures, their reasoning is that someone in the 80's dropped a battery pack from a 35 mm that went right through a 747 wing resulting in $300K in damages.

There are only four of these big boys in the world, of which we saw three on this day.  Basically, they assemble sections in the South Carolina plant and them transport them back to Washington for final assembly.

The engines act as a fulcrum and around the factory are these 18000 lb concrete weights they use to stabilize the planes before the engines are installed.  This plane did nothing but deliver engines.

 

 

 

This is a really cool tour to do If you're ever in the area!