Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 3, 2022 0:40:54 GMT 12
Boeing is American technology at its best
By LEONE STEWART
“How long does it take to put one of these together?” I asked, as we stood in the world’s largest volume building, dwarfed by bits of the Boeing 747.
“Right now, we’re rolling out one every three days,” came the reply ... casual, almost nonchalont.
Seven models of the Boeing 747 are now being produced. The latest, the 747SP (Special Performance), first went into service for Pan Am in 1976. Shorter by 47 feet than the regular 747, it is being proposed for use at Wellington Airport by Qantas.
Such is the demand for jet travel generated by new, low fares — a 747 every three days. There ought to be lots of hungho shouting and rushing about. But no, the whole operation is super smooth . . . American technology at its impressive best.
The Boeing plant at Everett, 30 miles north of Seattle, beside Puget Sound, was built by the company specially for the manufacture of the 747 in the late 1960s. Now it is being expanded by nearly 2.5 million square feet to produce Boeing’s new twinjet. the Model 767.
The 767 is the first of a new, technologically-advanced, low-operating cost aircraft family for the early 1980 s and onward. The first orders have been for the seven-abreast, 767 model, accommodating 200 passengers with three in the centre and two seats on either side of the aisles. The twin-engine, standard-body 757 will follow. The 777 is in the preliminary design phase.
Market surveys have shown that experienced travellers like the seven-abreast seating arrangement in the 767. The interior has more window seats, more aisle seats, and larger overhead stowage space for each passenger.
It seems likely New Zealanders will see the 767 on the shorter Pacific routes. As New Zealand was Boeing's first customer. It is fitting that we should keep up with developments.
The New Zealand Government bought the first two small seaplanes designed and made in Seattle by William E. Boeing and Conrad Westervelt in 1916. The B and W was used here for our pioneering airmail flights, and for pilot training. As museum pieces they would be worth a great deal today. But to the consternation of all concerned, the little seaplanes appear to have disappeared. Legend has it that when a Japanese invasion seemed imminent during the Second World War, the aircraft were “buried” in volcanic caves in Auckland, sealed up to prevent capture, the caves, it is said, have long since become covered by Auckland’s urban sprawl. So some unwitting Aucklanders, it seems, have a Boeing in their backyards . . . growing peas or whatever on a fortune.
According to Boeing history the United States Army and Navy ordered derivations of the first Boeing plane. “The immediate outcome was a production order for 50 Navy seaplane trainers the Model Cs — the first large contract for the fledgling company.”
The Everett site is not the sort of place you stroll around. It is a world all of its own; and it’s huge, 780 acres. If you want to talk to the engineers in the modern office blocks, watch progress in the massive assembly areas — more than five storeys high — or check on the arrival of some component part like a new galley made to customer specification by outside contract you go by car.
Boeing takes tours over its plant. During the summer vacation as many as eight groups of tourists a day were being shown the manufacture of the world’s largest jet airliner. The main section of the 115-foot high building for major and final assembly has three large bays, with 1,365,000 square feet of covered work area. The area for wing panel riveting alone is larger than a football field.
The primary manufacturing area is adjacent. With its dividing balcony this section has 522,000 square feet — and not an inch of it looks wasted.
It is an eerie feeling looking down on this gleaming assembly line. In places it seems almost noiseless and decidedly underpopulated. But this is a workforce of highly trained specialists. The work systems are finely honed, too, making each working hour count.
The 747 comes together at Everett, right down to its sparkling new paint job of the customer airline, ready for its place in the pre-flight area, and final preparations for take-off. It keeps cosmopolitan company, with Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Air India, Qantas, the Chinese, even the Iranians . . . Wonder what is going to happen to that one now?
Nothing is left to chance. In a large building beside the main structure, engineers worry away with their slide rules, working on the full-scale manufacturing mock-ups. Elsewhere on the site, legions more are developing the planes of the future. The company’s new family of aircraft for the 1980s have been designed for a cost-conscious, environmentally-sensitive world. The combination of lower maintenance cost and fuel burned will, Boeing believes, result in superior economics in commercial transport.
PRESS, 14 NOVEMBER 1979
By LEONE STEWART
“How long does it take to put one of these together?” I asked, as we stood in the world’s largest volume building, dwarfed by bits of the Boeing 747.
“Right now, we’re rolling out one every three days,” came the reply ... casual, almost nonchalont.
Seven models of the Boeing 747 are now being produced. The latest, the 747SP (Special Performance), first went into service for Pan Am in 1976. Shorter by 47 feet than the regular 747, it is being proposed for use at Wellington Airport by Qantas.
Such is the demand for jet travel generated by new, low fares — a 747 every three days. There ought to be lots of hungho shouting and rushing about. But no, the whole operation is super smooth . . . American technology at its impressive best.
The Boeing plant at Everett, 30 miles north of Seattle, beside Puget Sound, was built by the company specially for the manufacture of the 747 in the late 1960s. Now it is being expanded by nearly 2.5 million square feet to produce Boeing’s new twinjet. the Model 767.
The 767 is the first of a new, technologically-advanced, low-operating cost aircraft family for the early 1980 s and onward. The first orders have been for the seven-abreast, 767 model, accommodating 200 passengers with three in the centre and two seats on either side of the aisles. The twin-engine, standard-body 757 will follow. The 777 is in the preliminary design phase.
Market surveys have shown that experienced travellers like the seven-abreast seating arrangement in the 767. The interior has more window seats, more aisle seats, and larger overhead stowage space for each passenger.
It seems likely New Zealanders will see the 767 on the shorter Pacific routes. As New Zealand was Boeing's first customer. It is fitting that we should keep up with developments.
The New Zealand Government bought the first two small seaplanes designed and made in Seattle by William E. Boeing and Conrad Westervelt in 1916. The B and W was used here for our pioneering airmail flights, and for pilot training. As museum pieces they would be worth a great deal today. But to the consternation of all concerned, the little seaplanes appear to have disappeared. Legend has it that when a Japanese invasion seemed imminent during the Second World War, the aircraft were “buried” in volcanic caves in Auckland, sealed up to prevent capture, the caves, it is said, have long since become covered by Auckland’s urban sprawl. So some unwitting Aucklanders, it seems, have a Boeing in their backyards . . . growing peas or whatever on a fortune.
According to Boeing history the United States Army and Navy ordered derivations of the first Boeing plane. “The immediate outcome was a production order for 50 Navy seaplane trainers the Model Cs — the first large contract for the fledgling company.”
The Everett site is not the sort of place you stroll around. It is a world all of its own; and it’s huge, 780 acres. If you want to talk to the engineers in the modern office blocks, watch progress in the massive assembly areas — more than five storeys high — or check on the arrival of some component part like a new galley made to customer specification by outside contract you go by car.
Boeing takes tours over its plant. During the summer vacation as many as eight groups of tourists a day were being shown the manufacture of the world’s largest jet airliner. The main section of the 115-foot high building for major and final assembly has three large bays, with 1,365,000 square feet of covered work area. The area for wing panel riveting alone is larger than a football field.
The primary manufacturing area is adjacent. With its dividing balcony this section has 522,000 square feet — and not an inch of it looks wasted.
It is an eerie feeling looking down on this gleaming assembly line. In places it seems almost noiseless and decidedly underpopulated. But this is a workforce of highly trained specialists. The work systems are finely honed, too, making each working hour count.
The 747 comes together at Everett, right down to its sparkling new paint job of the customer airline, ready for its place in the pre-flight area, and final preparations for take-off. It keeps cosmopolitan company, with Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Air India, Qantas, the Chinese, even the Iranians . . . Wonder what is going to happen to that one now?
Nothing is left to chance. In a large building beside the main structure, engineers worry away with their slide rules, working on the full-scale manufacturing mock-ups. Elsewhere on the site, legions more are developing the planes of the future. The company’s new family of aircraft for the 1980s have been designed for a cost-conscious, environmentally-sensitive world. The combination of lower maintenance cost and fuel burned will, Boeing believes, result in superior economics in commercial transport.
PRESS, 14 NOVEMBER 1979