Pilgrimage to Paine Field

There is a reason why Seattle is alternatively known as the “Jet City”. Though the Boeing Company’s headquarters is now located elsewhere, this is still the region in which William Boeing first realised his dream of building a better aircraft to serve humanity. And indeed, some seven decades after the maiden flight of Boeing’s first flimsy linen and wooden seaplane, the company that bears his name continues to be a, if not the, jetsetter in aviation.

It was at the Everett Factory that the first jumbo 747-100 rolled off of the production line, down the runway at Paine Field, and soared into the skies. For decades, thousands more jumbos took to the heavens, bridged far away continents and shortened distances between people and places. Indeed, as the introductory film on the Future of Flight tour reminds us, compared to a 14 month epic voyage across the seas from London to Vancouver in the 17th Century, modern aviation is saving us both much precious time and money.

The Everett plant began operations in the late 1960s, and has today expanded to become (what is claimed to be) the biggest building on Earth by volume. It was said that due to the immense size of the building, together with the heat generated by the million or so light bulbs, clouds actually formed near the ceiling and that it would sometimes rain down on the thousands of workers below. Modern air-circulation systems prevented all that, and with the expansion of the plant came 26 overhead cranes capable of carrying up to 40 tonnes, and close to 4km of underground tunnels beneath the factory floor, the walls of which are lined with many more kilometres of piping and wiring.

All this is necessary to keep the production of Boeing’s twin isle wide-body jets going 24hrs a day. The mighty 747 may have today been overtaken by its European rival, yet Boeing’s innovative technologies, such as better fuel efficiency and quieter engine output, coupled with passenger comfort-oriented features, like ambiance lighting and bigger windows, have become integrated into Boeing’s latest products. The 747-8, with its swept back wings and composite alloys is nicknamed the Intercontinental, and will have the range to bridge city-pairs as far apart as London and Sydney or New York and Tokyo. Next to the reinvented jumbo is the world’s record-holding long-haul jet, the 777, which in 2007 flew non-stop for 21 hours from London westward to Hong Kong. Also my favourite plane at the moment, the Triple Seven is also the record holder for the passenger jet with the largest and most powerful engines, the GE90 Turbofan. And no future can be without dreams, hence Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, with its much reduced noise and fuel emission levels, light weight and streamlined shape, is (said to) set to revolutionalise plane travel in the coming decades.

I gazed in awe at the immensity of the assembly plant, and began to feel so small. Spread all over below were machinery of all shapes and sizes, as cranes inched overhead on the ceiling. There were hundreds of cabinets containing precision instruments and tools, as well as rows and rows of computer terminals and stress engineers hunched over vigorously testing, and retesting specifications. For a plane to be put together, first the wings are meticulously put together, then sections of the fuselage, and towards the end, the wings, fin, wings and body of the aircraft is pieced together like a snap-fit model plane. At this stage, the fuselage looks green, the colour due to a layer of protective vinyl sprayed on to protect the metal from scratches and bumps during the assembly process. Meanwhile, as all the assembling of the exterior of the aircraft is taking place, seats (or cargo compartment if it’s a freighter), wiring, computers, and some 6 million or so bits and pieces of bolts and components are placed inside the plane. All this can be complete within 3 days, and it takes another 5 days for the entire plane to be spray painted to the customer’s custom logo and design.

I stood there for a while, breathed in the slight scent of welding, listened to the cacophony of drilling and hammering, and watched the (wo)men rush, sometimes on bikes or even golf carts, back and fro like busy ants below. In one corner of the 777 assembly line was a plane with the distinct orange and green fin of Eva Air, while two other 777s carried the unmistakable red dot of JAL. On another side of the hangar, the world’s first 787 to be placed in commercial service—which will soon enough bear the blue and white livery of All Nippon Airways— seemed to glisten and outshine the rest.

“All Asian airliners,” a local visitor muttered, “What happened to American carriers?” Deregulation, and years of heavy indebtedness, cutthroat and destructive competition, overcapacity, downward price pressures, and, at times, poor management sprung to my mind.

No cameras were allowed on the tour on-site, but I have seen part of the secret behind Boeing’s success, watched first-hand the stringent yet efficient production process unfold before my own eyes. I even gave Boeing back part of my scholarship money in exchange for scale models, T-Shirts and fridge magnets of my sponsor’s latest aircrafts. On the panorama deck I looked out onto Paine Field. A row of finished 777s stood on the tarmac waiting to be delivered. The last 747-400 ever produced hid in one corner, while two 787s stood still close to the runway, their lights blinking as if impatient waiting for the next test flight. In the distance, the gigantic hangar doors of the world’s largest plane assembly plant were closed tightly.

The runway was deserted, for now. But this very plant, these very paved tarmacs, and down this very skid-marked runway, planes will hurtle, rise and soar into the skies on their maiden flights.