Headed Home
Headed back from a nice 2 day business trip to Seattle. Didn't take my regular camera gear as I knew I wouldn't have time to use it. Next trip up will be early fall and we'll be making a trip through the Cascades. Real camera equipment will be required for that trip.
I spent 2 days at Boeing Aircraft. Sorry, no cameras allowed. But, my minds eye recorded it all. We had an awesome tour of the assembly floor. Talk about humungous; this one building covers 54 acres; its over 2.5 miles around it.
What did we see?
Up close and personal assembly of 757's, 67's, 77's ,and the brand new Dreamliner 787.
And we're not talking about off in the distance from a roped off aisle. We were walking under wings, fuselages, landing gears, horizontal & vertical stabilizers and avionics bays. We got to walk under, in, and through fixtures as big as warehouses used to fit sections together. We saw machinery used to make wing assemblies that are so big they ride on railroad tracks and the operators ride on them.
We saw the 787's they are rigging with sensors in preparation for static testing. Even the one that they'll bend the wings on until they snap. Some engineerd are betting they'll be able to bring the tips over the top of the plane without breaking. Either way, I'd love to be there for it.
Talk about a gearheads dream come true....
Unfortunately, no pics allowed so all you get are these crummy shots from my cell phone camera of my flight home from San Jose.
