How a plane is born.

That was cool. I visited Boeing's facility in WA. If ever the chance arises, visit one of the aircraft manufacturing plants. They usually offer public tours. It's amazing on many levels.
 
Pitar said:
That was cool. I visited Boeing's facility in WA. If ever the chance arises, visit one of the aircraft manufacturing plants. They usually offer public tours. It's amazing on many levels.
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I used to make deliveries to the Boeing plant here in Long Beach in the early 90's when I delivered freon reclamation machines. Pretty rad stuff.

Since my wife works for Hyundai we are hoping to tour the factory in Alabama in a couple of years with the kids.
 
Worthwhile trip. It will certainly impress upon the kids what people can do as a team. I was dumb-struck when I saw how big Boeing's facility was. I was 23 at the time and an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force. I went there to apply for work as my hitch was just about over. Crazy big place.
 
Very cool!

I visited the McDonnell Douglas assembly hanger when I was in aviation A&P school (Spartan) in Tulsa. The hanger was huge!
They once built B-24's and later F-4 Phantoms there.
afp-3.jpg

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xF-4+PDM+Apr-31-81.jpg
 
Tig said:
Very cool!

I visited the McDonnell Douglas assembly hanger when I was in aviation A&P school (Spartan) in Tulsa. The hanger was huge!
They once built B-24's and later F-4 Phantoms there.
afp-3.jpg

1530.jpg

Click to expand...


Yep. The bottom pic is of Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers in the background for the U.S. Army Air Corps and Douglas SBD (Scout, Bomber, Douglas) dive bombers in the fore ground. The latter plane is the type that sank 4 Japanese aircraft carriers (that lead the attack on Pearl Harbor) at the Battle of Midway.

In that war period various manufacturers were employed by Uncle Sam to produce war materiel. General Motors made torpedo planes (TBM-1 Avengers) and fighter planes (FM-2 Wildcat) for the navy, Goodyear made fighter planes (FG-1D Corsairs) for the navy, etc. Wherever there was a mass production facility already in place it was commandeered during the war.

@Tig, did you get the A&P from Spartan? That was a reputable school. Still is. It's one of the oldest such schools in the States. I went to another old school in Illinois (Lewis, est. 1938 )

 
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B Valley said:
This is interesting, a time lapse of all the flights every day in the US.

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Well, interesting, but there's actually more activity than that. I know Illinois alone has about double the traffic shown on that moving timetable. I think the map leaves out second and third tier air carriers (passenger travel) and all non-commercial general aviation flights (puddle jumpers).
 
Pitar said:
Well, interesting, but there's actually more activity than that. I know Illinois alone has about double the traffic shown on that moving timetable. I think the map leaves out second and third tier air carriers (passenger travel) and all non-commercial general aviation flights (puddle jumpers).
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I believe you're right. This is from an article about the big airlines and how tiny things add up to millions in a year.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features...rding-the-plane-ticket-prices-might-be-lower/
 
Pitar said:
@Tig, did you get the A&P from Spartan? That was a reputable school. Still is. It's one of the oldest such schools in the States. I went to another old school in Illinois (Lewis, est. 1938 )
Click to expand...

I left after the airframe portion of school since the aviation job market in '83 was dismal. I started electronics and computers instead and stayed in that world, except for a departure in EMS/fire department for a few years.
 
Damn, it sure can handle a steep climb! I have a flight sim that has a 787 and it Is surprisingly agile.
 
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