A tour of Boeing’s Everett facility

I’ve been working at home since having all the hardware surgically removed from my ankle almost two weeks ago.  Finally today I had a day off and decided to get out of the house.  So what did I do?  I called Elisabeth to see if she wanted to go on a spur-of-the-moment tour of her dad’s “new-again” workplace, the Boeing Everett facility. 

 

She was game, so after meeting for lunch we headed up to the  Future of Flight tour center at Boeing’s Everett facility and bought tickets for the tour.

Then the shocker – especially for a die-hard blogger: NO CAMERAS (or cell phones or any other electronic devices)!  We had to put our purses in a locker!

  I could hardly breathe!  (Elisabeth, a non-blogger, seemed to have no problem with it…)

The best I can do for you is this legally shot photo taken from the roof of the Future of Flight center, where the tour departs from:

And looking the other way, down the Paine Field runway:

If I COULD have taken pictures, you’d see the biggest building on earth filled with a whole bunch of huge aircraft – 747s, 777s and the new Dreamliner 787s.  If I COULD have taken pictures, you’d be in awe, like we were, at the sheer enormity of the building!  The best I can do is a link. Or two. Or three. Or four.  (Gotta love Google images!)

After we had finished touring the plant and we were headed back to the bus, who should greet us but TOM! (We’d left him messages that we were on the tour so he found us and finished the tour with us.) 

The rest of the tour was basically a self-exploration of the “Gallery,” a large room full of Boeing stuff.

The interior of the 787 Dreamliner:

The (19’ x 11”!) windows won’t have a shade; they’ll dim electronically!

The cockpit of a 727:

  Landing gear:

A plane hanging from the ceiling:

There was a HUGE tail fin:

And some HUGE engines:

 

(Apologies to Boeing.  She’s always been defiant! )

Coincidentally, this had arrived in the mail when we arrived home:

It’s a tin of delicious chocolate cookies from Boeing to employees, partners, customers, etc., thanking them for their involvement with the launch of the Dreamliner.

Yup, Boeing is definitely my new best friend.

(My other best friend is Marco – to whom this post is dedicated.  Next time you come back to Seattle, Marco, we’ll bring you on this tour!)