The first aviation was launched on November 21, 1783, of a hot air balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers. And today in 2018 the Aviation is all about travel, technology, experiences, food, luxury and yes off course safety. When we go to the Airport we just see the names written on flight and which one is ours. But nobody thinks who create and manufacture these air crafts? How much time does it takes to manufacture one? How many engineers are behind to create this beautiful technical bird who transfers millions of human beings per day? And how it comes with so much of safety?
There are many companies who manufacture aircrafts like:
- Airbus
- Boeing
- Bombardier
- Embraer
- Tupolev
Well! The one I am going to talk about is “Boeing”.
Boeing is based in USA with its headquarters in Chicago, IL, United States and was established on July 15, 1916. The famous flights are PAN AM, Air France, Lufthansa, Emirates, Air India, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, SpiceJet, Air Canada, FedEx and countless more.
Being a daughter of Air Force personal, I have been always surrounded by air planes. And it is my father to whom I asked once that
“Papa – it is a Air Force plane but who manufactures these big planes?”
And he answered that many of the big planes are manufactured by “Boeing” and they are imported from United States.
His answer was very informative but too much for a kid of my age at that time. But it was a strong kick for me when I got married and left my country. The time I reached International airport I saw many international flights and felt so happy getting opportunity to travel an international flight. I asked my husband which is our flight and he told me the flight number and I asked him the same question which I asked to my father. And coincidently the answer was same. I smiled from inside.
After boarding the flight we settled down and off course we saw beautiful Air hostesses guiding us the right way. I was so amazed to see the infrastructure of the flight, fresh food quality, power and the technology which was displayed on the back of every chair and channeling about movies, songs, games and the most compulsive was the weather outside and at how much feet we are flying.
My husband told me that Boeing is company of United States and there is a factory around the place where we are going to stay. He also told me that he wants to visit that factory once and I told him “I am in with your plan”.
Boeing factory is not easy to visit. We tried many days to book the tickets because they take very limited visitors per tour. Finally!! one day we got early morning tour to visit world’s biggest factory of planes Boeing.
We entered the factory reception which was like some big showroom of flight and we saw hundreds of lockers in our both sides. We were wondering why these many lockers? We just moved ahead by looking at all countries flag hanging on the top of the floor. I was trying to find my country flag and I just told my husband.. “Yes! Its there!”
They announced for every visitor to keep every single belongings in the locker and move ahead to watch the presentation. Yes, we were not allowed to carry anything for safety reasons. There were chances visitors might miss something in the factory which may harm the on going work for new planes. They showed us video about Boeing history, progress over all these years and upcoming technology they gonna launch.
So, the tour started with tour guide which was for 90 minutes. We sat in a bus with our tour guide and we moved ahead to the factory area. Our guide wished us all “Good Morning” and made us clap for everyone present there. Our guide was really friendly, funny and knowledgeable. We were so surprised to know that this factory is about 1.1 million square feet (102,000 square meters) which can actually consume 4 Disney Lands.
At last, we entered the factory where model numbers 747, 777, and 787 were getting manufactured.
It was really incredible to see how planes are manufactured in three parts, Front which includes cockpit, middle which includes wings and engines and last the tail. The tour guide told us that the every part of plane is manufactured separately and in end they join it to the plane. He also told us that the engineers working here are highly skilled and makes sure that even a single nut is fixed very precisely and perfectly with many quality checks. He told us that it take months to manufacture one plane spending millions on it. Because at the end millions of souls travel in these planes all 365 days.
Another interesting part he told us that the Boeing is big employment provider where thousands of people are working in many shifts round the clock.
So, after visiting all the three models we headed to the place from where we started. While coming back we also saw Dream lifter which is the World’s biggest plane and used to transfer the goods only. These are only 4 in the world and we were lucky to see one right in front of our eyes.
After leaving our bus we entered to a showroom where they were selling all Boeing accessories, we grabbed a pen, t-shirts, Boeing stickers and many more actually.
Tour is not completed yet, we visited to their museum where they had displayed few original parts of old planes like cockpit and engines. No matter how old they were, but for us it was still new and amazing. They also displayed a replica of a chamber from International space station currently orbiting our planet earth.
Now, the most important thing how could we take us our tour memories back…??? No Photos…!!!
No worries, there was a small counter in which photographer clicked our picture and we could select the background of our wish. There are multiple backgrounds to select from and many of them show the factory from inside.
All I have to say, it was really astonishing and breathtaking tour which I will remember in my whole life. I have been so fortunate to visit this incredible factory with my better half.
So after getting to know so much about Boeing, their technology and safety features their planes has. I would like to speak out loudly that…
“If it’s not Boeing, I’m not Going…!!!”
Thanks for visiting here and I hope you enjoyed reading my experience with some interesting information. 🙂
Photographs clicked by Anshul Rohilla!
To book your tour visit https://www.futureofflight.org/
To learn more about Boeing visit www.boeing.com
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