NwVacationSpots.com
Featuring Quality Vacation Rental Homes around the Northwest
Plus Favorite Northwest Destinations
Featuring Quality Vacation Rental Homes around the Northwest
Plus Favorite Northwest Destinations
| BOEING FACTORY TOUR The tour starts at the Future of Flight visitor center alongside Paine Field Airport. While waiting for your tour to begin, you can enjoy the large exhibit hall, gift shop, and cafe. Exhibits explain aspects of aircraft design, the working of the powerful engines, the history of Boeing, and the advantages of the upcoming 787 Dreamliner. The tour starts with an introductory film, and then a charter bus takes you across Paine Field to the factory building. You access the building at its bottom through tunnels that run 1/3rd of a mile from one side to the other. A freight elevator brings your tour group up to a viewing platform, where you step out into the largest interior space in the world - an awesome sight. The bus brings you to two areas of the factory where 747 and 787 aircraft are constructed. We visited on a weekend when the factory was mainly idle, but during the workweek you might see huge sections of planes being moved overhead by the system of cranes built into the ceiling. These cranes can lift 30-40 tons of material at a time. Back at the visitors center, we went up to the roof for a view of Paine Field, the factory building, the painting hangers, and the nearly completed aircraft parked outside. Boeing's customers take delivery of their aircraft by sending their own pilots of Paine Field, conducting test flights, and flying them off to all points around the world. Paine Field is also a busy airport for small aircraft with a local fleet of 600. We watched several small planes land and a medium sized jet plane take off. I stood on a little hill just off the parking lot nearby to the runway. The jet engine was extremely loud and shook the ground under my feet - that might be one of the few places the public can get so close to a jet taking off. Photo Album Future of Flight Visitor Center http://www.futureofflight.org/ By Ethan Turner http://www.NwVacationSpots.com |
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