What are some of the mind-blowing facts about Boeing and William Boeing?

When an accident damaged the plane, Boeing decided to repair it himself. He soon became convinced that a whole new plane could be made. He received enthusiastic encouragement from a young construction engineer at the nearby Bremerton Navy Yard and Pacific Aero Products Co. was born.

 

1916, Established the Pacific Airplane Company, which became the Boeing Airplane Company a year later and built its first two planes, both float biplanes.

 

Throughout his life, Boeing possessed the keen sense and ability to capitalize on good prospects. Realizing the importance of the airplane for both civilian transportation and military combat, Boeing formed the Pacific Aero Products Company to “act as a common carrier of passengers and freight by aerial navigation.” The company, renamed the Boeing Airplane Company shortly thereafter, received its financing largely from a loan from a bank of which Boeing owned about 75%. Boeing also used his personal account as collateral.

 

With the possibility of World War I looming overhead, Boeing advocated military aviation and Westervalt, now in the procurement office of the Navy, urged Boeing to apply for government contracts that supplied airplanes to the Navy. Winning the contract was a simple task for Boeing, but he missed an integral piece of airplane manufacturing – an engineering department. His Chief Engineer, T. Wong, had recently resigned and Westervelt was serving with the Navy in Washington D.C. Resourcefully, Boeing solved the problem by offering the University of Washington a wind tunnel in exchange for establishing an aeronautical engineering course and filtering the best graduates to Boeing.

 

Just before his retirement, Boeing received the coveted Daniel Guggenheim Medal for “his vision and willingness to spend his money that has resulted in the formation of one of the best manufacturing and transport organizations in the world.” Accepting the award he said, “as the past years devoted to aircraft activities have been filled with real romance, the many forward projects not in the making will continue to keep me on the sidelines as a keen and interested observer.”

 

Here are 10 myths / facts about the Boeing Factory

 

Largest Building on Earth?

TRUE. Guinness World Records list the Boeing Everett factory as the largest building in the world by volume at 472 million cubic feed (13.3 million cubic meters).

 

Boeing City?

True. The Everett factory is like a small city, requiring its own fire department, security force, fully equipped medical clinic, electrical substations and water treatment plant.

 

Boeing Factory employees 100,000 people?

False. There are about 30,000 people working at the Everett facility, and they work in three shifts around the clock.

 

The Boeing Factory is so big it that is rains in the factory?

False. Although the factory is the world’s largest building, it does not rain nor does it create any cloud / rain inside the factory building. However, when the factory was first built, clouds actually formed near the ceiling. The weather cleared when an air-circulation system was installed.

 

There is no air conditioning (a/c) on the production floor?

True. Due to the weather in Seattle which seldom peak over 90′, the production floor does not have any a/c. The temperature is regulated by two things, the weather outside and the light bulbs. If the factory is too warm, they would open the factory door and run fans to blow air into to the factory. And if it gets too cold, they rely on the light bulbs above the production floor. The factory uses over 1 million light bulbs!

 

Conventional cranes are used to move planes around during assembly?

False. There are twenty six overhead cranes that run a network of 39-miles of ceiling tracks throughout the factory. These ceiling cranes are used to lift and move airplane components and sections during the production process.

 

Is there a maze of walk way running below the factory?

True. There are 2.33 miles or 3.7 kilometers of pedestrian tunnels running below the factory. The tunnels are also utilized for operating the utilities and comes in handy during winter when getting around in the cold and snow can be a challenge.

 

There are 1,000 bicycles in the factory to help employees get around?

False. There are 1,300 bicycles and tricycles in the factory that is used by employees to get around.

 

The have the largest mural in the world?

True. According to the Guinness World Records, the mural on the six factory doors is the largest digital graphics in the world.

 

747 final assembly at the Boeing Everett Factory

Here are some facts about the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental and Freighter planes. The 747-8, as the current new development is the Boeing’s largestairliner till date.

747-8 Intercontinental Fun Facts

General

• The total electrical capacity of a 747-8 can power up to 480,000 thirty-two inch flat screen televisions.

• The 747-8 is able to travel the length of three FIFA football fields in one second.

• The 747-8 is able to travel the length of a standard 42.195 km marathon in 2.5 minutes.

• The 747-8 tail height is 63 ft 6 in (19.5 m), equivalent to a six-story building.

• The 747-8 is the longest commercial aircraft 250 ft 2 in (76.3 m).

Wings

• One 747-8 wing would accommodate the total living space (total floor area) of four, 3 bedroom/2 bathroom single residence homes (at 1,375 square feet each).

• 747-8 wingspan is as wide as two 737-700’s end-to-end.

Engines

• Engine thrust has grown from 43,500 pounds per engine on the early 747s to as much as 747-8 GENx-B2 engines are rated @ 66,500 pounds per engine.

• The engine fan diameter of the 747-8 GENx is nearly the fuselage diameter of a B-29 bomber fuselage.

• One 747-8 GEnx-2B engine has approximately the same take-off thrust as all (8) engines together on the original B-52 bomber (PW YJ57-3).

Fuel

• The 747-8 can carry approximately 422,000 pounds or 63,034 USG (238,604 liters) making it possible to fly extremely long routes, such as Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia.

Flight

• The 747-8 range is approximately 7,790 nautical miles (14,430 km).

• Maximum takeoff weight is almost one million pounds.

Interior

• There are 14 stairs in the stairwell to the upper deck.
• Just the upper deck of a 747-8 Intercontinental has the same square area as a 737-700, while retaining the same passenger experience as a Boeing Business Jet.

747 Fleet

• The 747 fleet has logged more than 42 billion nautical miles (77.8 billion kilometers), equivalent to 101,500 trips from the Earth to the moon and back.
• The 747 fleet has flown more than 5.6 billion people — the equivalent of 80 percent of the world’s population*.

747-8 Freighter Fun Facts

General

• 747-8 Freighter could hold approximately 19 million ping-pong balls or golf balls.
• 747-8 Freighter payload capacity is able to transport 10,767 solid gold bars from Fort Knox.
• The total electrical capacity of a 747-8 can power up to 480,000 32-in. flat screen televisions.
• A 747-8 Freighter is able to instantly airlift nearly 9 million 72 hour medical kits or 122,000 military MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) to a location in distress.
• The 747-8 is able to travel the length of three FIFA football fields in one second.
• The 747-8 is able to travel the length of a standard 42.195 km marathon in 2.5 minutes.
• The 747-8 tail height is 63 ft 6 in (19.5 m), equivalent to a six-story building.
• The 747-8 is the longest commercial aircraft 250 ft 2 in (76.3 m).

Wings

• One 747-8 wing would accommodate the total living space (total floor area) of four, 3 bedroom/2 bathroom single residence homes (at 1,375 square feet each).
• 747-8 wingspan is as wide as two 737-700s end-to-end.

Engines

• Engine thrust has grown from 43,500 pounds per engine on the early 747s to as much as 747-8 GENx-B2 engines are rated @ 66,500 pounds per engine.
• The engine fan diameter of the 747-8 GENx is nearly the fuselage diameter of a B-29 bomber fuselage.
• One 747-8 GEnx-2B engine has approximately the same take-off thrust as all (8) engines together on the original B-52 bomber (PW YJ57-3).

Fuel

• The 747-8 Freighter can carry approximately 400,000 lbs or 59,734 US gallons of fuel (226,113 liters), making it possible to fly long routes, such as Frankfurt to Chicago with a full payload.

Flight

• The 747-8 Freighter range is approximately 8,000 4,325 nautical miles (14,815 8,010 km).
• Maximum takeoff weight is almost one million pounds.

*as of October 2012

It wouldn’t be fair if this big beast doesn’t come up in the answer.

This one here is the Dreamlifter…the plane that looks like an anaconda that ate a horse. This one in particular was built to transport the fuselage of Boeing’s new jumbo jet, the Dreamliner.

The 350-400 person 747 once carried 1,087 people at once.During the Operation Solomon evacuation, Israel played some serious clown airplane, tripling standard capacity by modifying the airplane. This beat Quantas’ 747 evacuation record of 674.

The Wright brothers could have fit their historic first flight inside a 747.
And could have stayed strictly within the 150-foot economy section.

The landing gear tires are filled with nitrogen to prevent explosive tire blow outs.
This, in turn, prevents spilled Bloody Marys.

There are 365 switches, dials, and lights in the incredibly confusing cockpit.
One for every day of the year. Apparently this is down from 971.

The engine fan diameter is almost as girthy as a B-29 bomber.
Which was an enormous plane in its day.

It would take Usain Bolt seven seconds to run from tip to tail.
To be fair, the 747 can cover 100 meters in 0.36 seconds, besting Bolt’s time by 9.22 seconds.

 

There are tons of facts out there that I haven’t mentioned. Posting just the ones I found after a quick search. Feel free to contribute.