More aircraft manufacturing news today.
I was glancing at the newspaper stand the other day and noticed a headline for the new Boeing Everett delivery center. Apparently they broke ground for construction on Monday and should be ready to open in 2013. There is a video rendering of the new center if you click on the first link, but unfortunately it’s not available for sharing on other sites.
Previously most airplanes were delivered to their owners in small low-key events out of view or in big ceremonies at the Future of Flight tour center, also in Everett. For some reason the Seattle PI doesn’t mention anything happening at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in south Seattle, which seems like another logical exposition center.
The purpose of the new building is to provide a consistent location for wealthy individuals, governments, and corporations to collect the keys to their new planes, just as you would for a new car. However, since planes cost several million dollars and there are all the added security issues, a specialized event space/airport is necessary.
Some of you already know that my fiancée is an architect, but what you probably didn’t know is that she’s been working on this project for the last year. It’s a tiring job, outlining every beam, wall, and window, not to mention that all those curves make the job twice as hard. In addition, Boeing apparently has its own propriety version of AutoCAD they call BoeingCAD that it uses to design all its buildings. You can just imagine how much fun that is to work with, learning a completely new application with all its special quirks…
I’ll probably get in trouble if I tell you anything more than that, but I am trying to arrange a tour of the building either during or after construction. Her last two projects were a school and a prison (the design requirements are surprisingly similar), and she was offered tours of the finished versions of each. Perhaps Boeing will relax some of its stringent security standards for just one day?
Images are courtesy of Boeing Media Relations.
