Holy cow - this is a new plane Boeing built for Southwest Airlines called the Florida 1.

 

In speeded-up video, you get a quick look at what makes America great - smart people building great products. I highly recommend the Boeing "Future of Flight" tour of their Everett Washington plant. You'll see amazing things. The inside tip is the 9am tour - weekends are quieter because most of the workers are not there except for critical jobs and overtime.

 

The process used to built the new 787 Dreamliner is even more stunning... and if seeing the birth of a new airplane doesn't wind your watch, wait till you check the MSRP! The Dreamliner 'base price' is only 202 Million USD! And it's not even the most-expensive plane - the 777 weighs in at a whopping 290 million samolians.

 

Honestly, I can't see how a real world airline can make money when the plane itself costs 200 million with a 20 year life span. That means, just to pay the airplane, 10 million a year in revenue for ONE plane (plus finance costs) and then we can add in flight crew, ground support, ticket agents, JET A fuel, yada yada yada. When you can fly anywhere for $99 (one way) it just boggles the mind.

 

I guess having visited the Boeing plant, I can now say "Boeing, as real as it gets!" and look at my beloved NGX with newfound admiration!

Nice video!

Thanks for the kind words. A buddy of mine sent it to me after learning I went to "The Mountain", Boeing Factory Tour (Everett, WA--AKA Mukilteo, WA - the address is: 8415 Paine Field Blvd, Mukilteo, WA 98275). 20+ hours of driving, worth every mile to see that place. Did you know that the paint on an airplane has weight? Seems logical... on the 787 they have to spray paint the control surfaces BEFORE assembly, so that after the final body-join step, the control surfaces will be calibrated properly based on the added weight of the PAINT! The darker colors carry 'extra' weight, so this Florida One plane, she's a heavy, Lucy

 

I am shopping for a new "FUTURE OWNER of the PMDG 787 Dreamliner" logo for my AVSIM signature bar!

Most of the time the airlines don't buy them at 'retail' values. The aircraft are highly discounted when the airlines buy more than one airframe or exercise options for more planes.

 

This is a great video of how orchestrated this whole moving line is. I remember when I as younger going through my dads brief case of notes from meetings before the moving line was implemented in Renton. In there I found the 'firing order' of the airframes which listed what day they were going to be completed and then which airline they were being delivered to. Then he showed me a powerpoint presentation he was working on for the implementation of the McDonald Douglas moving line ideas from Long Beach up to Renton. All events were planned out to the second! About a year or two later he brought home a VHS copy of a security camera that was positioned directly above the first moving line to be started and it was so cool to see it slowly creep closer to the end of the line with people running around like a colony of ants with wires and parts going into the fuselage.

I see your 737 video Robert and will one up you a 777 :Just Kidding:

 

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I wonder if Boeing charge extra for those custom paint schemes or do they paint those as an incentive to customers.

 

Air New Zealand now has a custom All Blacks Paint from Airbus A320, Boeing 777 and a Beech 1900d. The B-777 looks the best of course.

Most of the time the airlines don't buy them at 'retail' values. The aircraft are highly discounted when the airlines buy more than one airframe or exercise options for more planes.

 

This is a great video of how orchestrated this whole moving line is. I remember when I as younger going through my dads brief case of notes from meetings before the moving line was implemented in Renton. In there I found the 'firing order' of the airframes which listed what day they were going to be completed and then which airline they were being delivered to. Then he showed me a powerpoint presentation he was working on for the implementation of the McDonald Douglas moving line ideas from Long Beach up to Renton. All events were planned out to the second! About a year or two later he brought home a VHS copy of a security camera that was positioned directly above the first moving line to be started and it was so cool to see it slowly creep closer to the end of the line with people running around like a colony of ants with wires and parts going into the fuselage.

 

All I can say is "WOW" when I saw the plant - the plane - the composite material - the whole experience was dazzling! I had an opportunity to give some feedback on seating arrangements, and I struck a blow for big people everywhere when I said "needs more hip-room, shoulder-room and knee-room!" Of course, it won't happen. I also saw the BBJ (Boeing Business Jet) interiors. NOW WE'RE TALKING! Heard some movie star ordered a brand-new plane... they are churning 747's out at 33 a month, 787's at 2.5 airplanes a month at the Everett Washington plant. I hear that when the customers take final delivery they hand over the final 1/3 of the total airplane cost. Also the CUSTOMERS have their OWN QA engineers overseeing the construction of each of their airplanes. After Boeing Q/A signs off each phase, the CUSTOMER'S Q/A team reviews the work and must "OK" it.

 

I hear you can get a cool deal on the Boeing EXTENDED WARRANTY, Paint Sealant, and LoJack anti-theft system!

 

I see your 737 video Robert and will one up you a 777 :Just Kidding:

 

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I wonder if Boeing charge extra for those custom paint schemes or do they paint those as an incentive to customers.

 

Air New Zealand now has a custom All Blacks Paint from Airbus A320, Boeing 777 and a Beech 1900d. The B-777 looks the best of course.

 

I call! I got a pair of 737's and 3 airplane tugs - a "full house"!

 

Amazing stuff, thanks for posting.

I wonder if Boeing charge extra for those custom paint schemes or do they paint those as an incentive to customers.

Why would they? Even if the airline has a very simple livery such as Emirates or Qantas, they still have to paint the whole airplane white because the airplane comes in a unfinished color.

Why would they? Even if the airline has a very simple livery such as Emirates or Qantas, they still have to paint the whole airplane white because the airplane comes in a unfinished color.

 

 

Standard livery would have a standard paint used everytime bought in high volume at a discount, They would cut a batch of all the standard masking templates required in volume and the painters are more efficient from the repetitive production job lowering the production cycle times.

 

A custom one off requires the art department to design it, Custom paint would have to be ordered and mixed at full price, custom masking templates would need to be cut for one job and takes time and labour costs. total time to paint the plane would take much longer using up the spraybooth for a longer period of time (expensive equipment).

 

Rule of thumb with any production....a one off is expensive, a batch of 100 will lower costs exponentially. I bet the cost to do a custom order is more then double the standard cost to paint an aircraft.

Standard livery would have a standard paint used everytime bought in high volume at a discount, They would cut a batch of all the standard masking templates required in volume and the painters are more efficient from the repetitive production job lowering the production cycle times.

 

A custom one off requires the art department to design it, Custom paint would have to be ordered and mixed at full price, custom masking templates would need to be cut for one job and takes time and labour costs. total time to paint the plane would take much longer using up the spraybooth for a longer period of time (expensive equipment).

 

Rule of thumb with any production....a one off is expensive, a batch of 100 will lower costs exponentially. I bet the cost to do a custom order is more then double the standard cost to paint an aircraft.

 

You're quite right. Take the music business... guitar amplifiers have volume knobs that range from 0 to 10. SPINAL TAP had to pay a ton of extra money for their amplifiers that could go all the way to "11" - and that's 1 Louder Now, isn't it? :LMAO:

You're quite right. Take the music business... guitar amplifiers have volume knobs that range from 0 to 10. SPINAL TAP had to pay a ton of extra money for their amplifiers that could go all the way to "11" - and that's 1 Louder Now, isn't it? :LMAO:

 

Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?

Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

 

Spinal Tap Rocks :LMAO:

Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?

Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

 

Spinal Tap Rocks :LMAO:

 

The greatest mockumentary I ever saw. I have a Spinal Tap poster on my end table in my living room! Yeah, they ROCK! Even after they wound up "headlining" at the Holiday Inn... having been in that business, it was all too close to home! George Harrison said he wouldn't wish being a Beatle on anyone, and they were SUCCESSFUL! For every band like The Beatles, there were a million "Spinal Taps" and for every Spinal Tap there were Garage Bands who never went anywhere...

The design and engineering of such things boggles the mind.

 

Their paint booth is really something.

 

I hope the all black one has double the air conditioning capacity... in fact I wonder how that effects skin stressing with the added heat cycling.

 

 

I hope the all black one has double the air conditioning capacity... in fact I wonder how that effects skin stressing with the added heat cycling.

 

When I was a ramper there was an all black Lear 35 that would come in. Because of the black paint they would either have to wait to top off at the last minute or leave room for 60 gallons because of the thermal expansion at Jet A. I made an :Hypnotized: face and asked did he mean 60 pounds? He said it was 60 gallons!

WOW! I can only imagine what a GIANT black plane must be like. I did notice that the wings of the boeing were left "natural" though. That's really interesting about the Lear. If I was the pilot, I'd be checking the rivet heads from time to time.

I hope the all black one has double the air conditioning capacity... in fact I wonder how that effects skin stressing with the added heat cycling.

 

The biggest concern at first was safety for the ground crews, this is why the doors, cargo doors and other access panels are painted with white rims around them so the ground crews can see them easily. This has proven to be not a problem after all.

 

The black paint hasn't been an issue with heat, their are many airforce aircraft painted black so this isn't really a first for aircraft, just unusual for a commercial airliner.

 

They are a thing of pride in New Zealand after we won the Rugby World Cup so I bet the three of them will be around for years to come...We are the best in the world at Rugby so this is are way of showing the world.

 

Cheers