Building the big ones

TODAY was one of those special days where I got to do something that money just can’t buy.

I’m in Seattle with Qantas and Boeing, here to watch the Flying Kangaroo take possession of the 175^th narrow-body or single-aisle jet to join the fleet since the first 707 came to Australia in the 1970s, and this morning we had a guided tour around the famous aircraft manufacture’s iconic Everett factory.

Boeing builds the wide-body or double-aisle aircraft at Everett – 747s, 777s, 787s and a few special 767s for the military – and during my visit I got to wander across the factory floor and around planes that were in various stages of completion.

The Everett facility is the largest building in the world by volume – more than 32,000 staff work in a structure that occupies 40ha with 13 million cubic metres of space under the enormous roof – and every one of the doors on either side of the factory is as big as an America football field.

Just to put that size into perspective Disneyland could fit inside the building, so could 911 basketball courts.

Just think about the last time you caught a Virgin Blue flight, and walked across the tarmac to climb the back stairs to find you seat in the back half of the plane – remember how big the aircraft looked when you were walking beside the wing?

Now consider the fact that Virgin flies planes that are considerable smaller than those built at the Everett factory, and then think that there are dozens of aircraft in that building being prepared for flight.

That is one massive structure.

We started our walking tour by strolling across the section of factory where the brand new 747-800 Intercontinental is being built.

 

The 747-800 – the big brother of the Jumbos that Qantas on its international routes – is Boeing’s answer to the Airbus A380, and is longer to accommodate the extra passengers airlines need to make routes profitable.

The planes you see in the photographs are covered in a green film that protects the skin while the aircraft is in the factory, and it’s washed off before the plane rolls into the paint shop to have a particular airline’s corporate colours applied.

Next we walked through the bay where the 777s are put together.

Boeing staffers can produce this sleek aircraft in just 18 days and they start with the front and back sections sitting side-by-side, join the pieces in the back corner of the bay once the tail has been put in place and all the wiring threaded through the fuselage, and then move it towards the doors as it gets closer to being finished.

Our next vantage point was on an observation platform between the 777 and 787 bays where we could get an elevated view of the operation.

The 787 Dreamliner is the hottest thing in commercial aviation at the moment, so it was a treat to see this part of the factory.

Boeing is preparing to deliver its first 787 Dreamliner in just a few days – the first of this revolutionary aircraft will be delivered to Japanese airline ANA a week after our Seattle visit – and we watched as Boeing staff worked on the 43^rd, 44^th, 45^th and 46^th planes to roll through the factory.

The Dreamliner is going to change the way we travel, or at least the way we feel after a long-haul journey with a number of features included that will reduce the effect that extended flights have on the body, and it was fascinating to see this new aircraft coming to life in the Everett factory.

The plane that's sitting closest to the doors is almost finished, and a banner on the side of the fuselage told me it was going to join the China Southern fleet.

Qantas has an order for 100 Dreamliners, but a delay in production means we won’t get our first 787 for a couple more years and it will probably join the Jetstar fleet and only come across to the Flying Kangaroo once the last 767 is retired.

From this high spot I also got a better view of the 777 line and could see the two halves sitting together, the sling that holds the parts as they are joined, and the planes that were almost ready to fly.

Seafood in Seattle

I AM in the America city of Seattle for a few days, on a trip organised by Qantas and Boeing, and for the group’s first meal together we visited one of Washington State’s most famous restaurants.

The Crab Pot, which sits on one of the old piers along the city’s historic waterfront, is a Seattle icon where people congregate to feast of seafood.

But this isn’t a fancy fine-dining establishment with china plates, sterling-silver cutlery and linen serviettes.

The tables at The Crab Pot are covered with white paper rather than fabric tablecloths and when you take a seat you’re given an oversized bib to tie around your neck, a wooden chopping board and a mallet, a roll of paper towel, and a bucket to put on the floor beside you.

Our waitress told us the best option was to order a "Seafeasts" – we chose The Alaskan combo – with enough food for each of the people in our oversized group instead of everyone finding something on the menu to suit their tastebuds.

When the food was ready it came to our table in a bucket, was tipped onto the paper right along the centre of the table, and everyone was told to dig in and use their fingers to peel the crab, prawns and scallops that were piled high between us.

Turns out The Alaska featured king, dungeness and snow crab, shrimp still in the shells, steamed clams, pacific muscles, corn on the cob and baked potatoes and it didn’t take long before everyone was using their mallets and fingers to get a stomach full of this fresh seafood feast.

Trying to keep clean went out the window and we were all elbow-deep in seafood, throwing the shells into the buckets between us, until we had our fill and could find a bathroom to clean up.

To wash it all down I ordered fresh lemonade which was served in a one-litre carafe that was served with a pile of fresh strawberries in the bottom of the oversized glass. 

Flying Kangaroo's first

I HAD my first ride on an Airbus A380 today, and it was a delightful journey.

Alright, I admit that the trip from Sydney to Los Angeles – a "daytime" journey that takes around 14 hours – was done in a spacious business class seat, but the fact I was travelling in an aircraft that’s been designed to lessen the impact of long-haul travel also had something to do with it.

The most obvious benefit was the noise level and, unlike a 747 which assaults the ears with the constant white-noise hum of engines and air-conditioners, the A380 is so quiet.

I sat next to a senior Qantas staffer who told me the company had to retrain the A380 cabin crews after the aircraft first joined the Flying Kangaroo fleet because established routines suddenly made a lot of noise on this quiet aircraft.

The crews reduced the number of times they walked through a cabin after the lights were turned off and everyone settled down to sleep, because the sound of feet on the cabin floor were suddenly very loud and distracting.

Flight attendants had to lower their voices when talking in the galley, not use the main stairs during the flight because it distracted the passengers sitting in the first-class cabin at the front of the plane’s lower level, and even be careful about how they place cutlery on a tray during the meal service.

To give you an idea just how quiet the cabin was, I didn’t think to use my noise-cancelling headphones to listen to my iPod.

The Qantas staffer who told me about the crew retraining also said the airline has discovered that regular flyers, particularly businesspeople that make regular long-haul journeys, make travel arrangements to guarantee they fly on the double-decker A380 rather than the older 747s.

I can see why, and now will be doing the same thing myself, if for no other reason than to relieve my eardrums during a long international hop.

Trip #12

My second trip to New Zealand in two years is now behind me, and here are the stats...

Flights – Four flights in six days

Kilometres flown – 5776km... from Melbourne to Auckland, Auckland to Taupo and back, then home to Melbourne from Auckland

Total Kilometres flown in 2011 – 134,573km

Hotels – Suncourt Hotel (Taupo), Huka Falls Resort (Taupo), Chateau Tongariro (Tongariro National Park)

Total number of hotels in 2011 –35

New stamps in my passport – None, they don't stamp Australian passports in New Zealand

New countries – None, still on 49...and set to stay there for a while

Next up it's a very special trip to the USA with Qantas and Boeing...stay tuned for details.

Volcanic territory

WITH only a couple of days left to explore Lake Taupo, I jumped in my hire car this morning and drove the couple of hours south to visit Tongariro National Park and the three active volcanoes that sit within the boundary of this UNESCO World Heritage site.

Tongariro was New Zealand’s first national park, and only the fourth in the world, so it's a special place.

Mt Ruapehu is one of the volcanic peaks inside the park – the local hotel manager told me that while it hasn’t erupted since 1993, it did have ``a wee burp’’ a couple of years back – and the settlements that sit below the summit are constantly on alert in case a shudder causes a mud slide.

The Whakapapa and Turoa ski fields sit on the sides of Mt Ruapehu, making it New Zealand’s largest ski area, and it was very cool to walk on the side of an active volcano as I explored the village.