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I saw one up close and personal for the first time recently, and was caught off guard by just how genuinely huge it is. I kind of expect things like "famously h
by andrewflnr 4y ago
I saw one up close and personal for the first time recently, and was caught off guard by just how genuinely huge it is. I kind of expect things like "famously huge X" to be a disappointment in real life, but no, I was viscerally reminded that it's (at least!) a three-story building on wheels, and that's not even counting the extra story or so of space beneath it as it rolls. My younger airplane-obsessed self would have been pleased. Hopefully an air museum or three picks one up before they all go out of service.
- evo 4y agoI believe the Museum of Flight in Seattle has had the original production 747 for some time. https://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/boeing-747-121 https://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/boeing-747-121
- lph 4y agoIndeed they do, the "City of Everett". You can walk around inside. Boeing used it as a test bed for various experiments. The Museum of Flight is really a gem. Boeing used to offer tours of the 747 factory. It's immense. I wonder if they're spinning up a different manufacturing line in that building?
- briffle 4y agoSouth of Portland is the evergreen air and space museum. They have the spruce goose in there, it's huge. The water park next door has an old 747 mounted on the roof, and I'd the start of 6 water slides. https://www.wingsandwaveswaterpark.com/ https://www.wingsandwaveswaterpark.com/
- dclowd9901 4y agoThat place is cool! Such a weird spot to put such famous flying craft but damned if it isn’t worth the drive.
- pinot 4y agoEvergreen Air’s empire was/is based in McMinnville.
- travisgriggs 4y agoWhen I went through 20 years ago, it laid claim to “largest building in the world by volume.” Not sure if it’s retained that title, but the inside is just insanely vast.
- sitkack 4y agoI knew a couple of people that had old bicycles from that plant. I'd love to own a Boeing bike.
- buildsjets 4y agoThis antique store had one on the floor, at least a few weeks ago. https://second-chance-antiques-furniture.business.site https://second-chance-antiques-furniture.business.site
- gcanyon 4y agoStill is, according to wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_buildings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_buildings Amazing to me that a building over half a century old is still the largest in the world.
- dotancohen 4y agoIf I recall correctly, that building was so vast that they had trouble controlling the weather inside on a few occasions. Trouble as in, clouds were forming and rain was falling. May that's just myth, but I like that myth enough to not google it.
- jstimpfle 4y agoThey claimed this when I visited in 2019 as well.
- rob74 4y agoAccording to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Everett_Factory#Current_production_aircraft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Everett_Factory#Current...), they are left with just the 767 (currently only available as a cargo or military tanker plane) and 777. 787 production was moved completely to the (non-unionized and reputedly lower-quality) South Carolina plant in 2021.
- devoutsalsa 4y agoI went in that tour about 5 years ago. It was fun. Would recommend.
- labster 4y agoIf you’re impressed by genuinely large flying things, I can’t recommend the Kennedy Space Center enough. Just standing beneath one of the rockets is truly impressive. Just one of the stars painted on the side of vehicle assembly building is as tall as three Kerbals on top of each other wearing a trench coat and pretending to be one tall guy. Like wow!
- emtel 4y agoThat stuff is cool, but nothing has ever blown my mind like seeing the spruce goose. It’s at the evergreen aviation museum outside of portland, and it’s impossible to believe how big it is.
- pixiemagic 4y agoGoing to museums like that is honestly one of the main reasons I'd like to visit the US. Unfortunately though, even just the biggest ones seem to be way too spread out to attempt in one trip, coming from Europe.
- dsr_ 4y agoRecommended summertime itinerary: Fly into New York City. Visit museums there for several days. See a Broadway show. See the Intrepid. Take the train down to Washington DC. Several days at the Smithsonian there, including a trip out to the Udvar-Hazy Center. Take a day trip by train to Baltimore to see the National Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center. Rent a car, drive to a beach town in Virginia for a weekend; drive back and take the train back to NYC. Or, drive up to a Delaware beach instead and return the car in NYC. See the other museums in NYC that you missed the first time. Fly home.
- acapybara 4y agoNote, there are several Smithsonian museums. E.g. Natural History, Air & Space, etc. Growing up in the DC area has spoiled me for museums. They're high quality and generally free admission.
- akiselev 4y agoWait until you see the Airbus Beluga [1] or Boeing Dreamlifter [2]! I recommend going to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Boneyard in Tucson, AZ [3] and the nearby Pima Air & Space Museum [4] to see all the other big baddies. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Beluga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Beluga [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Dreamlifter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Dreamlifter [3] https://www.airplaneboneyards.com/davis-monthan-afb-amarg-airplane-boneyard.htm https://www.airplaneboneyards.com/davis-monthan-afb-amarg-ai... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pima_Air_%26_Space_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pima_Air_%26_Space_Museum
- Quequau 4y agoI look forward to seeing the replacement for the Antonov An-225, Mriya.
- Anarch157a 4y agoI saw the Mriya landing in my city once. I was right bellow her when she was on the final approach, less than 50ft above my head. The experience was... humbling, to say the least.
- kridsdale1 4y agoApparently the airframe for the second plane is undamaged. So it may happen.
- kkylin 4y agoSadly it seems the Boneyard tours are no longer: https://pimaair.org/plan-your-visit/available-tours/ https://pimaair.org/plan-your-visit/available-tours/ (They stopped at the onset of the pandemic and AFAIK never resumed.) The museum is still well worth visiting, and driving around you can see some of the planes parked in the Boneyard. Davis-Monthan also puts on a pretty good airshow every couple years.
- prottog 4y ago> (They stopped at the onset of the pandemic and AFAIK never resumed.) From what I can tell, the pandemic gave many government functions and bureaus carte-blanche to stop working while collecting the same paychecks.
- jabl 4y agoI think the effect is partially due to all modern (well, jet age) airliners looking more or less the same at a glance. You can tell the 747 is larger than a, say, A320, because it has four engines and the second floor. But just how much larger the 747 is you see when they are parked beside each other.
- turtledragonfly 4y agoFun statistic: the Wright Bros' first flight was shorter than a 747 is from tip to tail. (their 4th flight was a bit longer, though)
- function_seven 4y agoMy dad’s favorite line about it: If you put all the blueprints produced during the design of the 747, in the 747, it wouldn’t be able to take off. The whole thing was designed on paper, with hordes of draftsmen drawing every single section, detail, etc. I’m always impressed at how complex things could be with no CAD
- actionfromafar 4y agoAnd that it was economically feasible to do so.
- kamaal 4y agoThat's what engineering management is all about, taming and controlling complexity in such mega engineering projects.
- turtledragonfly 4y agoYour comment reminded me of an article about another massive manual-engineering feat: the F1 engines powering the Saturn V rocket. Just the amount of hand-welding alone is phenomenal. https://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the-monstrous-f-1-moon-rocket-back-to-life/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the...
- bongoman37 4y agoThis is true for many airplanes. The first time I saw the SR-71 I was shocked at how large it was. The photographs simply don't do them justice and often the pics that are used are those of the planes flying which have no items to set a scale with.
- Anarch157a 4y agoFor those wondwring, the Blackbird is the same lenght as a 737-600. So, the next time you board a 737, try to picture something that size going mach 3+...
- vishnugupta 4y agoI was used to seeing mostly smallish domestic flight planes up close and to me they seemed big but not imposing. Once I saw one of them parked next to 747, and boy was I blown away. The small plane's fuselage was sort of same size as the 747's engine; and 747 had four of those engines! That's when I realised how humongous 747 is. I still marvel at human agency; not only can they build structures as big as 747 it can also fly across continent, reliably and safely carry hundreds of passengers in total comfort.
- moloch-hai 4y agoA 747 once carried more than 1000 people. No seats.
- teh_klev 4y agoFor anyone else wondering, this happened during Operation Solomon in 1991: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Solomon#World_record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Solomon#World_record
- Aperocky 4y ago> in total comfort. That depends..
- eCa 4y agoIt certainly does. Not a knock on Boeing[1], but my least comfortable flight ever was on a Virgin 747 from London to New York. At 194 cm (6”4) I’m tall, but not insanely so. I got a middle seat in the middle section where it was physically impossible to fit my legs. Thankfully, before even taxiing out I was able to move to a bulkhead seat in the family row. Since then I insist on picking the seats (emergency exit row ftw) when travelling with someone. [1] Though I believe that aircraft manufacturers should require some minimal level of comfort on planes they make.
- pixiemagic 4y agoUltimately they're making planes for the airlines to buy though. If the airlines say they'd rather fit in 300 people by making most of the rows cramped together than 250 people with more legroom, the aircraft manufacturers will make sure they account for that in their design.
- caf 4y agoI think there's quite a few in air museums - Qantas alone donated two of theirs to museums (the Qantas Founder's Museum and the HARS Aviation Museum).
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y agoHrm. Imagine living near to the flight path of an airport. Say something like 1.5km to the side of it, at which point they are about 400m high, going between 280 to 320kph, depending on the wind, and model. One late evening, shortly before 23:00, where airport is closing for the night because of local noise restriction laws, except for emergencies, otherwise heavy fines, something wasn't on that glidepath. Immersing me in it's landing lights from beneath, and somewhere in the middle from each wing. Flew erratically. Curve to the left and coming down really low, then UP, then going back right towards the normal path. Coming directly over me. While doing that the wingtips vibrated by at least half a meter, making the position lights a blurred vertical line. Wasn't even that loud, just BIG! If it wouldn't have done the reclimb and curving back towards the path, it would have crashed into the highrises next to me. What was it? A 747 from UPS, clearly visible because the golden letters against the brown tail were illuminated. Sat there at my desk, thinking WTF?! Are you doing VFR, or what?
- nick4780167 4y agoUPS always damages my packages or marks then delivered days ahead of the actual dropoff.
- jcadam 4y agoOnce lived very close to an Air Force Base that got quite a bit of C-17 traffic. Not the quietest place to live.
- dzhiurgis 4y agoI was so confused for a minute, thinking I’m reading about caterpillar smartphone
- omnibrain 4y agoIf you are in Europe the Technik Museum Speyer has one: https://speyer.technik-museum.de/de/ https://speyer.technik-museum.de/de/ And if you are in the general area, their sister museum in Sinsheim has a Concorde and its Russian counterpart.
- ThinkingGuy 4y agoThe Delta Flight Museum at the Atlanta Airport has one on display that you can go on board and walk around inside. They've removed the the interior paneling in places so you can see the wiring and flight control cables. https://www.deltamuseum.org/ https://www.deltamuseum.org/
- cpursley 4y agoDidn't realize this existed. Will have to check it out!
- HorizonXP 4y agoYesterday, I took my 4-year-old son to la Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace in Paris so he could see and walk through a 747 in real-life. This was after flying to Frankfurt on a 787, and seeing a 747 and A380 on the tarmac there. He said, "I want to go on those ones." Managed to fulfill the 747. La Musée had an A380 on the tarmac too, but not open to walk through. Honestly, for aviation geeks, it's a worthwhile visit for the 747 and Concordes alone.
- julienfr112 4y agoExactly. Inside the 747 luggage bay, there is a brand new Renault Twingo 1 from the mid 90's. The plane is so huge the car looks like a toy (it's small, but still a car...).
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]