Boeing’s Ray Conner has issued a “sorry for all the dust” apology to the mayor of Everett, Washington, while the company are building the new composites wing facility for the 777X.
During the construction of the new 1.2 million-square-foot wing plant, Boeing will be dispatching around six dump trucks per minute, around the clock for four straight months. The job site will sit on a 60 acre plot and will be surrounded by two miles of fencing.
Ray Conner, Boeing’s CEO of Commercial Airplanes said;
We are investing billions of dollars in the future of the company in the region, as we design and develop the 777X and modify the factory to make room for assembly of the 777X wing. With a span of 235 feet, it’s the biggest wing we’ve ever produced in our history, and its composite!.
Everett has been the location where all of Boeing’s wide body jets have been built, and is the worlds largest building by volume. Plans for the factory were first announced in 1966 for it to be the site of the construction of the 747 after Boeing was awarded a $525 million contract from Pan American World Airways to build 25 747s. It purchased 780 acres north of the then little-used Paine Field, which was operated by the US Army in World War II. Boeing had an Everett presence since 1943 In 1968 it began offering factory tours with the first roll out of the 747. With the new composites wing facility for the new 777X the campus is expected to grow to be a further 1.2 million square feet.
Source: Puget Sound Business Journal