Boeing Factory Visit

My long standing aspiration after I moved to the Northwest, was to visit the Boeing factory. Boeing has an assembly unit in Everett, WA, about 30 miles north of Seattle. A tour is conducted every hour from the new Future of Flight museum to the actual manufacturing area and back. The tour is 15 bucks per adult and lasts roughly an hour. The Boeing factory is located adjacent to the Snohomish county/Paine field airport, whose runway is leased to Boeing.

Be half hour early to the tour so that you can take a look around the future of flight building. The building has illustrations about the history of Boeing, composition changes in materials used to construct flights over the years and an insight into the future (Boeing 7E7/787). The building houses a Pratt and Whitney engine that can deliver 75k hp of power to a Boeing 777. The engine is about 10 ft in diameter. Other attractions are the tail fin of a 747 jumbo and a presentation showing its assembly process.

The tour starts with a 7 minute video that shows the assembly of a Boeing 777 aircraft from scratch. The tour guide then directs people to board a bus that takes us into the main assembly unit. Some highlights and facts from the tour:

1. The Everett establishment manufactures only wide bodied Boeing aircrafts (747,767,777 and 787 in future)
2. Each assembly shed/hangar has a tunnel for utility supplies. Special reinforcement is provided for all concrete structure so that it can bear the weight of the aircrafts.
3. It takes around 7 months for a Boeing 777 aircraft delivery once an order is placed.
4. The downpayment for a Boeing 777 is 1/3rd its value (a whooping 200 million USD is the cost)
5. The temperature inside the assembly sheds is around 62-70 F even in the coldest winter because of the lights and machinery on the shop floor.
6. At a given time 7 aircrafts of the same type can be assembled.
7. The assembly sheds are around 3-4 miles in perimeter. They give you some facts about it in the tour.
8. Factory floor workers work in 3 shifts round the clock and are paid on an hourly basis.

Co-ordinating such a huge factory floor would be a painful task and lot of credit should go to the Boeing shop floor management for maintaining sanity and ensuring six sigma quality. After the assembly sheds, the aircraft is taken to a paint hanger on the opposite side of the freeway for painting via a bridge. The aircraft is shipped across the freeway in the night so that it doesn't disrupt traffic. The bridge is reinforced to bear the weight of the aircraft. They also show some of the aircraft testing areas on the tour. After all this, the customer comes by, pays the entire amount and picks up their brand new aircraft that is ready for operation. The guide is quite affable and answers all the questions you have. The sad part is that no photography is allowed. I'm not sure if it is for security reasons or that the lights may distract the employees on the floor. However, I did find a photograph on the web.

In short, A must-go-once tour.

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Men Of the Year Trivia

Time magazine announces the Person/idea of the year, every year to pay tribute to the most influential (good or bad) person/idea in the preceding year. As I was perusing this stuff, I got to know certain interesting things/people that/who have featured in this over the years. I've got a small question set based on these facts. Before starting off the quiz, wanted to let you know that this concept was started by Time magazine in 1927 and has continued ever since. The list features an entire gamut of people from Pope John Paul II to Adolf Hitler. Multiple people have won this honor multiple number of times (Like Joseph Stalin, President Lyndon Johnson etc.). Groups of people (like The American Woman, US Scientists, Hungarian Freedom Fighters etc.) and objects (like The endangered earth) are not new to this honor.

Here are the questions,

1. Who was the 1st person to win this honor in 1927? This person featured at a significantly young age of 25.
2. Who is the only Indian to have featured as Time's Man of the year so far?
3. Which was the first object that featured as Time's Man of the year (or should it be Thing of the year)? (Hint: Won in the year 1982)
4. In 1999, A founder and president of a popular technology firm won the Time Man of the year. Who is he?
5. A tangential question, Who is Time's Person of the century?

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MMV - 'The Year of Dabs'

Thought of posting all the things that happened to me in this eventful year :-). First of all, this year went past in a blink and was a very interesting one to say the least. There were many ups and downs. I got to learn a lot of new stuff and also face many challenges. Overall, I could call this an 'Year of Dabs'. Just to make the reader aware, this is going to be a long post, hopefully not boring.

The year started off with my dab at vedic astrology. I had some interest in astrology before, especially chart reading and got to pursue it further. The pursuit was catalyzed by the fact that I found a book in the library written by a western author (Andrew Bloomfield) on how to read charts. Some new things I learnt were the influences of planets in the opposite house, the significant influence of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter on your chart and some basic stuff about Khuja Dosha and Kalasarpa yoga.

March was when I decided to start blogging and this dab of mine turned out to be more than just a dab. I am happy that I blog on a regular basis and that this habit has gotten into a few of my friends too. As many people have felt, most of my blogs are not opiniated enough and I look forward in improving on this aspect in the years to come.

Study zone volunteering is one thing I continued to do from last year. This involves tutoring kids and providing homework help to them at a designated place in the public library. It was great fun and challenging too, to teach kids stuff in English grammar and American History (Ahem! How much of it do I know?) other than the usual Math and Science. But unfortunately, I was not able to keep up the commitment for the 05-06 school year (starting Sep'05), because of pressures on the workfront.

Late summer was when the intern I was mentoring introduced me to Irish music and gifted me with a tin whistle. As I had some experience playing the flute as a kid, it was easy to play a few notes/songs I knew. But to take it to the next level needs some work and I wish to take it up some day. I also borrowed a DVD of a Corrs show from my intern and the tracks from it were instant hits amongst my friends and me. The agility and speed with which this family band plays music is simply amazing! Staying with music, "Raghuvamsha Sudha" happens to be the song of the year as I've tried collecting and listening to various versions of the song. Also, I happened to get the full version of the Sanskrit song "Vande Vandyam", which I used to like as a kid (Thanks to a friend of mine).

Philosophical discussions during Racquet ball game breaks :-) inspired me to come up with a poem. The poem reflects the desire of an individual to break free and have goals outside the mundane responsibilities he/she is bound to do. My latest dab in the year was pencil sketching. Invested 6 bucks in getting the required pencils and a clean eraser. I want to keep improving on this and if time permits take a course or two in pencil sketching.

Travel is something I didn't do much this year. The most significant trips were a trip to the Silicon Valley (San Jose, CA) and a trip to Crater Lake in Oregon. There were trips to the Olympic National forest, but nothing to go ga-ga about. Food-wise, I got to try Korean and Mongolian cuisine for the first time and discovered my favorite chocolate drink (Chantico) this year.

Some significant events this year were that I changed jobs and roles within the same company (learnt new stuff like OLAP), only to become more busy (no regrets though). The year began with a change of residence and apartment mates (Previous one got married :-)). Mid-year saw my current apartment mate getting engaged too, only to be teased by friends that people should be moving in with me if they've got to get hooked up ;-). We had a small reunion of my undergrad friends in July. I got to mentor an intern this summer and it was great fun and good experience. Old friendships grew stronger, friends grew closer and there were plenty of new friends and acquaintances too.

Some disappointments this year were health at home, my failure to concentrate and complete books that I start reading and my failure to bring closure to a 5-year vision statement that I promised to envision by mid-year. Keeping these in mind, I wish to make some resolutions for the coming year. It would be to start completing books/tasks I take up and also bring a closure on the vision statement. Passion levels at work would also need to be increased in the coming year.

Phew! It has been a long posting about the dreadful and immodest 'ME'. In the end, hoping to have an exciting and healthy year to come and wishing the same to all the folks out there.

Until Next time....

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