Boeing Everett Factory Myths

After going to the Future of Flight Aviation Center and Boeing Tour I received a CD that had some interesting facts about the largest building in the world.

Here I present 10 of them:

Largest Building on Earth? True.
Guinness World Records list the Boeing Everett factory as the largest building in the world by volume at 472,000000 cubic feet (13.3 million cubic meters).

Boeing Factory employees 100,000 people at this facility? False.
There are approximately 30,000 people employed at the Everett facility. They work in three shifts 24-hours a day.

The city of Boeingsville? True.
The Everett factory is very similar to a small city, having its own 19 restaurants (which serve around 17,000 meals per day), day care center, office buildings, fire department, security force, medical clinic, electrical substations, and water treatment plant.

They have the largest mural in the world? True.
According to the Guinness World Records, the murals on the six factory doors are the largest digital graphics in the world.

The largest digital graphics mural in the world

There is no air conditioning? True.

Preparing Recommendations

Conventional cranes are used to move planes and components during assembly? False.
There are 26 overhead cranes that run on 39-miles of ceiling tracks. These ceiling cranes are used to lift and move airplane components and sections during the manufacturing process.

The Boeing factory is so big it that is rains in the factory? True.
This factory is so massive that when the factory was first built, clouds, the product of accumulated warm air and moisture, actually formed near the ceiling. However, the “weather” cleared when a state-of-the-art air circulation system was installed.

Is there a labyrinth of tunnels running below the factory True.
There are 2.33 miles or 3.7 kilometers of pedestrian tunnels running below the facility. The tunnels are also utilized for running buildings utilities. On my tour the guide had indicated that once we were half way down one of these halls that we had just traveled the length of the Titanic.

There are 1,000 bicycles in the facility to help employees get around? False.
There are 1,300 bicycles and tricycles (big boy tricycles) that are used by employees to around the factory.

They have their own choo-choo? True.
Boeing not only has a train tracks running to the factory but the rail spur running uphill to the factory from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) track is the steepest active standard railroad in the United States.