我想這對西雅圖來說是個好消息. 至少 Boeing 的商用客機將繼續在西雅圖存在著. 來西雅圖千萬不要忘了參觀重要的 Boeing Everett Plant Tour Center. • The factory is located in Everett, Washington, 30 miles north of Seattle. • The main factory area is the largest building, by volume, in the world. It encloses 472 million cubic feet of space, while the building covers 98.3 acres. • The Everett Site Wire Shop is the world’s largest wire fabrication plant and covers 330,000 square feet. • Twin administrative office buildings house approximately 7,000 employees and have 1.2 million square feet of floor space, more than Seattle’s tallest building, the 76-story Columbia Center. • The hangar doors at the front of each major assembly bay each are 87 feet high and 300 feet wide, nearly the dimensions of a football field. • The main cafeterias, and their 19 satellite food plazas, serve 17,000 meals per day. • There are 31,361 computing devices and 16,800 computer work stations. They are connected by approximately 12,000 miles of cable pairs. • There are four telephone prefixes dedicated to use by Boeing in the Everett area. They serve 19,000 individual telephones. • Boeing has ranked in the top 5 of the nation’s largest exporters during the past four years. The Everett plant was among the largest single export sites in the U.S. • The Boeing Everett plant is among Washington State’s most popular tourist attractions and provides free guided tours to an average of nearly 100,000 visitors annually. • Some of the factory’s most notable visitors include U.S. President Bill Clinton, U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Chinese President Jiang Zemin; President Zoeharto of Indonesia, Prime Minister Paul Keating of Australia, Prince Phillipe of Spain, King Hussein of Jordan, His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, The Duke of York, and others. • Construction on the site began in June 1966, and the buildings were activated less than a year later in May 1967. The first airplane rolled out Sept. 30, 1968, flew Feb. 9, 1969, and entered service June 21, 1970. • During the grading and leveling the site, more than 8.5 million cubic yards of earth was moved – more than 4 times the amount moved in constructing Grand Coulee Dam. • The flight-line fueling system can fuel three aircraft simultaneously at a rate of approximately 1,800 gallons per minute. • The 18 overhead cranes make an average of 250 lifts per day from a height nearly nine stories (90 feet) above the floor. For 777 final assembly, eight 40-ton cranes were added. • Computer-controlled automated riveting machines put 50,000 to 52,000 rivets into each 747/767 wing panel set, attaching chord-like stiffeners to strengthen inside surfaces. There are approximately 18,000 fasteners per wing panel (four panels per wing) for a total of 72,000 fasteners per airplane. Each of the 10 machines can drill, ream, countersink, insert, squeeze, and shave smooth one rivet every 10 seconds. The machine selects and places the correct rivet from among 30 different types. • On the 777 assembly line, six CD-ROM-controlled automated riveting machines can insert 7 fasteners per minute. In addition to rivets, these machines also install bolts. The 777 four-panel wing set requires 68,000 fasteners. 資料: Boeing