Boeing Everett Factory
The Boeing Everett Factory, officially the Everett Production Facility, is an airplane assembly facility operated by Boeing in Everett, Washington, United States. It sits on the north side of Paine Field and includes the largest building in the world by volume at over 472 million cubic feet (13,400,000 m3), which covers 98.3 acres (39.8 ha).[1]
Boeing Everett Production Facility
1967
Everett, Washington, United States
Airplane assembly
30,000[1]
Boeing
Industrial
Total: 1,000 acres (400 ha)
Main building: 98.3 acres (398,000 m2)[1]
Main building: 472,370,319 cubic feet (13,376,037.9 m3), see List of largest buildings
3003 West Casino Road
Everett, Washington
The entire complex covers approximately 1,000 acres (400 ha) and spans both sides of State Route 526 (named the Boeing Freeway). The factory was built in 1967 for the Boeing 747 and has since been expanded several times to accommodate new airliners, including the 767, 777, and 787 programs. More than 5,000 widebody aircraft have been built at the Everett factory since it opened.[2]
History[edit]
Boeing opened its first facilities in Everett on October 13, 1943, at a former auto garage to produce sections for the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. The company had several small shops in the city, but their presence in the area was reduced by 1963.[37] The first 25 orders for the Boeing 747, to be the world's largest jetliner, were sold to Pan American World Airways for $525 million (equivalent to $4.9 billion in 2023) in March 1966. The program would require a larger factory than their Renton facility, which was instead planned to be used for the conceptual 2707 supersonic airliner.[38] Among the sites considered by Boeing for a new factory were Monroe, Washington; McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Washington;[39] Moses Lake, Washington; Cleveland, Ohio; and Walnut Creek, California.[37][40]
On June 17, 1966, the company announced that it had selected a site adjacent to Paine Field as the future home of its Boeing 747 assembly plant.[41] Boeing purchased 780 acres (320 ha) north of the airport, which had primarily been used by the U.S. military and small businesses;[37][42] a 75-year lease for use of Paine Field was also signed with the county government, which owned the airport.[43] The company had already spent several months acquiring properties around the airport in preparation of the announcement and cleared parts of the site by late May.[40][44]
The 158-million-cubic-foot (4,500,000 m3) factory, planned to become the world's largest building by volume, was built in sections beginning in late June.[45][46] The first section housed a mockup of the Boeing 747 that had been under assembly at the Renton factory.[47] A railroad spur connecting the site to the mainline tracks at Mukilteo was constructed through Japanese Gulch.[48] The first 113 workers at the Everett factory began work on January 3, 1967, and prepared for the assembly of the relocated Renton mockup.[49] The factory was officially opened on May 1, 1967, four months after the first workers had arrived to start construction of the 747.[37] Construction of the factory involved 4.5 million cubic yards (3,400,000 m3) of soil to be excavated.[50]
The main factory building was originally 43 acres (17 ha) and later expanded by 45 percent in 1979 as part of the Boeing 767 program and another 50 percent in 1990 for the Boeing 777.[51][52] The company acquired 68 acres (28 ha) of Paine Field property from the county government in 1989 to expand its flight line.[53]
To accommodate the Dreamlifter, a converted 747-400 which delivered 787 sections to the plant, a base was constructed on the western edge of Paine Field's runway. Opening in October 2013, the 17-acre (69,000 m2) base, called the Dreamlifter Operations Center, was funded by Snohomish County with $35 million in bonds; it is owned by the county via the airport, with Boeing originally leasing the site and servicing the bonds.[54] Following Boeing's decision to shutter the 787 production line in Everett and consolidate 787 production in South Carolina, the lease on the Dreamlifter Operations Center was transferred to FedEx for use as a cargo base.[55]
Several workers at the Everett facility tested positive for COVID-19 in early March 2020, prior to a full shutdown of operations.[56] The factory was shut down for three weeks until workers were able to return with mandatory face masks, social distancing, and staggered start times to reduce potential exposure.[57]
Tours[edit]
Following several months of unofficial visits, Boeing began offering factory tours with the first rollout of the 747 in 1968.[73][74] The first year of tours had over 39,000 visitors, which later grew to 55,000 annually by the 1980s; a dedicated tour building was constructed in 1984 and later replaced by the Future of Flight Aviation Center in 2005.[73][19] The new center has a theater, exhibits, a Boeing Store gift shop, and café. As of 2020 over 150,000 people come each year to visit the factory. The Boeing factory tour was suspended from 2020 to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[75]