Day Fourteen - The Boeing Factory

A drive up north to Everett kicked off day fourteen. Everett is the location of Boeing main aircraft manufacturing plant and is used for production of the Boeing 747, 777 and 787 airliners and is situated around half-an-hour drive from the Seattle City Centre. Everett is also the location of the Future of Flight Museum from which you can arrange to attend a tour of the Boeing production line; which we of course did.

The production line tour does not allow any cameras to be used so we needed to arrange for a locker for our gear. The tour goes for an hour-and-a-half and starts with a view of the B747 line, followed by the B777 and B787 lines. The production of all of these aircraft is undertaken in one building, the main hangar which is the largest building in the world (by volume). It is around a mile long and just under a mile wide. A bus takes us around the main runway from the Future of Flight Museum to the Boeing Factory. The tour is just fantastic and very interesting.

At the Future of Flight Museum they also have an observation deck from which you can see aircraft parked outside, some of which are painted, others not. We were lucky to see a brand new B747-8 arriving at Payne Field as we were on the observation deck. Here's some pics:

The massive GE90 engine used to power the B777. These cost over $20M each,

Schuyler at the controls of a Boeing 727.

A B787 bound for Air India (when it gets those expensive engines fitted).

A boeing 747-8 Freighter for Cathay Pacific.

The huge Boeing 747-8 Freigher.

After the trip out to Everett, we went to Pike Place in the heart of Seattle. Pike Place is a market that sells mainly seafood, but also just about anything else you can imagine. Also, it is home to the World's first Starbucks, so I obviously had to have a Caramel Latte. Ah, memories of Tracey's Place at RAAF East Sale drinking coffee with TV. ;)

We finished the day by taking some 'arty' shots around town, I hope you like the results.