Boeing Future of Flight Museum & Spotting Deck
Today, I went with my family to the Boeing Future of Flight Museum at the Seattle Paine Field International Airport in Everett, Washington. This is not the most prominent aviation museum in the Seattle Metro - that’s the Museum of Flight in Seattle proper - but this museum does have its perks.
We started at the very windy (but awesome) spotting deck atop the museum. I got a glimpse of Lufthansa’s Centennial livery painted on a 787-9, which was incredible! It looks fantastic in person.
This place is 777X galore, which makes sense given that the 777 is constructed right here. There weren’t any 777Xs in any liveries yet, but they seemed all ready to roll for delivery (besides the engines, obviously) when FAA certification happens, which Boeing hopes is early next year. Fun fact: the green coating on the fuselage is to protect the aluminum from moisture, to prevent degradation.
The museum is quite small but packed with cool stuff. This is a full size 747-8i tail, and it’s just insane in scale. It’s also a very popular thing to take pictures in front of, as you can see this tour group doing (didn’t mean to capture them in the picture, but it is nice for scale).
There were two eVTOL craft on display, including this first generation model. It’s pretty neat looking, like a giant drone (which it basically is).
Here’s my favorite of the two eVTOLs on display, the Wisk craft made in collaboration with Boeing. I think the yellow suits it!
I also had the privilege of taking the tour of the Renton Factory. Sadly, you can’t take any pictures or even bring a phone/camera on the tour for security reasons - apparently the aviation industry is rife with corporate espionage, both from other companies and international entities, according to the guide. The Renton Factory is unimaginably huge. It’s the largest building by volume in the world. The building covers 278 acres, which is literally twice the size of the Vatican City. The Vatican obviously isn’t exactly known for its size, but it’s just insane that there’s a building larger than a country.
The tour really only covers one assembly line for the 777, which is enough. You see everything from a large balcony about 60 feet above the action. When we were there, there was about 5 777s at various stages of construction. If I’m remembering correctly, three were slated for Emirates Cargo, 1 for MSC, and a third for some American cargo manufacturer (there was no sign on it indicating the airline, just a US registration which I can’t remember). There’s plenty of pictures you can search up online of the assembly line, but to see it in person is a whole different ball game.
Being in that building really messes with your sense of scale. A 777 is a behemoth of a plane, but it doesn’t look that massive in comparison to the factory. It feels like looking at a car in a regular parking garage. It’s super interesting to see all the scaffolding built around the planes, which actually is constantly moving. It moves super slow, but the idea is the entire assembly should be moving at all times (2 inches/hour).
Half of the area we were in was devoted to the 777. In the middle, there’s a large office complex, and the other side is actually being converted from one use to another. Currently, it’s a space where they can bring an aircraft to troubleshoot any issues that crop up during initial testing (which we saw being performed on a 777F), but due to the incredibly high demand, they’re actually shifting it’s use to a 737 MAX assembly line.
What I think was most fascinating to me is the guide’s description of Boeing’s just-in-time assembly model. Essentially, every single part (which is about 2.5 million in a 777) arrives at the Renton facility from over 1,000 different sub-contractors in all 50 states and 30+ countries (couldn’t remember the exact number) no more than 48 hours before it’s going to be actually put on the plane. It’s really helpful for cost saving, but the logistics are mind boggling. There’s hundreds of people whose job it is just to order the parts and make sure they get there on time (but not too early).
