Everett churns out it's 3000th aircraft

The Australian

AEROPACE giant Boeing celebrated a major milestone this week when it delivered its 3000th aircraft, a Korean Air Lines 777-200ER, from its Everett site in Washington state.

The plane will join KAL’s fleet of 123 aircraft to be used for long-haul routes to the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. It joins the ranks of 747s, 767s, and 777s produced by the factory over the past 40 years.

Boeing vice-president and Everett site general manager Ross Bogue said the KAL 777 exemplified the accomplishments at Everett over the past 40 years and pointed to the strong track record of planes produced at the site.

The combined 747 and 767 and 777 fleet had completed more than 34.5 million flights to the end of June, logging 148 million flight hours or almost 17,000 years of flight time.

Boeing estimates they have flown about 71 billion nautical miles, or the equivalent of circling the world 3.3 million times. More than 80 per cent of them, or 2610 planes, are still in service.

“We can all take pride in the achievements these airplanes have made and continue to make,” Bogue said.

“The Boeing 747, the 767 and the 777 are amazing airplanes of an unparalleled record of reliability, which is illustrated by the number of Boeing widebody airplanes in service today.”

The first Boeing 747 rolled out of Everett on September 30, 1968.

The plane was destined for the now defunct PanAm and was derived in part from the company’s bid for US Air Force C-5A transport, which it lost to Lockheed-Martin.

To build the giant plane, Boeing needed an equally giant factory and the result was the structure near Paine Field, about 48km north of Seattle.

At 13.3 million cubic metres, the main assembly building is acknowledged by Guinness World Records as the largest building in the world by volume.

Its 39.8ha footprint is the result of several additions, including a 45 per cent increase in size in 1980 to house the 767 assembly line and another 50 per cent boost in 1993 for the 777.

The result is a building in which every statistic takes your breath away.

It could house 2142 average size homes, has 3.7km of pedestrian tunnels beneath it, and there are 1 million light globes in the ceiling.

It has no climate control because it essentially has its own climate: machinery, body heat and residual heat from lighting keep it warm in winter, and opening its huge doors is enough to cool it in summer.

Twenty-six overhead cranes with a combined lifting capacity of almost a million kilos travel on 72km of networked tracks, and more than 100 forklifts buzz around below. Staff scoot around in electric buggies or on bicycles and travel along thoroughfares with their own street names.

About 25,000 people work there in three shifts and the building is so big it has its own fire department, security force, fully equipped medical clinic, electrical substations and water treatment plant.

Four of its massive doors measure 91m by 21m and biggest digital mural in the world graces the factory’s south side.

Not surprisingly, the factory is a major tourist attraction and about 200,000 people visit it annually. Everett’s next big project is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, rolled out last month and expected to begin flight tests at the end of next month or in early October.