every day around the world thousands of commercial airplanes take off carrying millions of passengers the paying customers may never have noticed that most of those planes have one thing in common if you've flown in the last 40 years here in the United States or abroad there's a good chance it was on one of their planes and assembled on this factory floor join me as we go behind closed doors with the largest producer of commercial aircraft Boeing to see where the biggest planes in their inventory come from I'll go inside the biggest building in the world where thousands of people assemble the most advanced commercial airliner flying today Boeing 777 it's amazing what we actually build and how it actually flies especially my son hey Dad did you build that airplane yeah I've got some of that airplane it's sometimes called the triple seven and it's actually a family of airplanes Boeing builds several models that come in different lengths but one word describes them all big how big here's a 737 that might hold a hundred and fifty people it's a familiar jet in the skies of any city a triple seven is so big you can park a full-size 737 on each wing what's it take to buy one a big wallet airlines can spend more than 230 million dollars on each plane I've been told that the 777 is pretty much the most technologically advanced plane would you say that's true it has the most technology and it has the most valuable technology which means that it really provides a benefit to the airlines on the outside what looks like any big wing is really a super wing designed to make the 777 very fuel-efficient that's something the airlines like what the pilots like is inside a high-tech cockpit with colorful flat panel displays are you sometimes still just amazed at the technological advancements you just say Wow everyday everytime I come out to this airplane and walk around it you get that same feeling as wow it's Kerbal how well it works the triple seven was the first commercial Boeing jet that was full fly-by-wire that means when the pilot moves the controls rather than his actions going directly to the wings the computer interprets the commands and decides how best to fly the plane it's a state-of-the-art system that not only flies the plane but will land it to today the pilot has to taxi the airplane out and he has to take off and they can put the autopilot on and burn the computers from then on it'll land itself roll out to the end of the runway and stop it's the best flying plan we've ever made the weight Boeing designed the triple seven was revolutionary engineers used three-dimensional computer technology to electronically simulate every part all three million of them then you make sure the pieces fit they did a virtual assembly of the entire plane it's the most amazing thing when you see something on a on a piece of paper or on a computer screen and then all sudden you see it in reality on the airplane does that still kind of muscle your mind boggles my mind it boggles my mind every time I see one take off June 12th 1994 just five years after design work began the first 777 was on the runway for the very first flight the greatest thing anybody that's involved in our industry can experience his first flight after you've put all this effort in terms of design and then factoring and you finally see that airplane roll out and then you see it sitting down at the end of the runway and it comes down the runway and then it takes off it's the most exciting frequency Boeing says the 777 underwent the most extensive flight test program ever conducted on a commercial jetliner nine airplanes endured everything from tail dragging takeoffs - an aborted takeoff this test make sure the heaviest triple7 going more than 100 miles per hour can stop if a take-off is refused the test turned the brakes are red-hot 3,000 degrees it purposely destroyed 750 thousand dollars worth of tires and brakes but the aircraft passed with flying colors the first 777 entered service with United Airlines in 1995 today the more than 400 triple sevens in the air have made nearly a million and a half flights the birthplace for Boeing's favorite twin-engine baby is here in Everett Washington 30 miles north of Seattle building jumbo jets takes a jumbo Factory this is by volume the largest building in the world in fact it's hangar doors alone are as tall as an eight story building behind them is more than four million square feet of floor space enough to hold 75 football fields ray Conner the head of the triple 7 program took me inside the massive plant we do the seven six seven seven seven seven and the seven four seven big guys this is white buddy country up here yeah in this airplane right here this one this is actually about ten and a half feet longer than a 747 this is the longest airplane we made they told me it was immense but it was still hard to fathom how colossal the Everett factory really is there's enough floor space to build a city of more than 2,000 average-sized homes and here once you drive to work you still need to commute indoors triple7 business analyst Angie Johnson showed me how they get around breeders amazed the first time you came in here I was in fact I couldn't find my way around to save my life well you need these carts just to get around and so far in addition to the carts there's a lot of bikes notice that people on bicycles right a lot quicker to get on a bike than to walk because it would take a long time to get from point A to point B and even Paresh drag around there lots of cars there's actual street signs oh my gosh we are turning on the mainstream the mainstream we just turned off and the street about 2,000 employees work on three shifts around-the-clock in a single month they can assemble seven triple sevens once you see the size of these planes close up that's truly remarkable next find out how tones of airplane parts are put together with delicate precision thickness a vacuum in here and I'll step out for a wing walk as you're watching this all around the globe people are boarding thousands of airplanes those aircraft are amazing complex vehicles that are the product of years of design and months of construction to get a first-hand look at how the triple7 is put together I went behind closed doors of Boeing's gigantic Everett Washington plant the airline port is the airplane a long time before we start to build it and around nine months is the time that we give them to finally say this is where I want my seats this is where I want my galley this is how many seats I want and so it's actually really set out nine months away it takes about 900 different suppliers to manufacture the millions of parts that make up a triple 7 the work starts on several different continents wing flaps come from Spain and Italy the rudder comes from Australia and sections of the body are made in Japan in container ships rail cars and big rig trucks they all come together here actually the thing that's most amazing is the way all the parts are orchestrated some of them are very small detail parts to come in you put them in with one or two rivets some of them are complete assemblies and when they come in they're very complex what people say it's almost like three or four million parts all flying and close formation together once the parts start coming together rollout is little more than a month away the time it takes to build this airplane in this Factory this big building here 40 days then effectively this is the the birth to be like when those doors open and the airplane goes out but everything needs to be geared up to that that birth of the airplane the plant is a garden can't show an assembly line the planes first takes shape in three main parts the forward body section including the nose the aft body section and the center wing section this is where the pieces for the wing come in the wings start in long strips that are riveted together to make the upper and lower panels that's the Jem core machine does 90% of the riveting on the upper and lower wing panels so it's like a giant rosie the riveter machine exactly noisier some areas of the plant seem almost louder than standing next to one of their planes ready for takeoff here the upper and lower panels are joined to make the complete wing this part is done by hand at the same time big aluminum sections of the fuselage are being put together to complete the round fuselage sections that can weigh up to 20,000 pounds each are lifted into this huge blue device they call the rotating tool here the sections are spun around so the last piece can be secured the pieces of fuselage are at this point just hollow tubes this is what the cockpit looks like before the instruments and controls are put in and back where first-class passengers will sit is completely empty workers still have to add miles of wire insulation and the structure to secure the luggage bins all the inner cabin workings that are invisible when you are a passenger next the wings are attached to the center section of the fuselage each step of the way more pieces are put on some are small and intricate other parts are hefty like this strut that will support a wing flap you just don't come out here and start putting parts on there's a lot of schooling that we've gone through and if you were to start in here you would have someone help you and train you up to speed at this point the triple7 still in sections will fly for the first time inside this huge plant cranes that can carry 40 tons wind the parts up for what is called the final body join precision is key they're positioned and aligned to within less than three thousand seven-inch it's in the thickness of a hair human hair installed in the tail of the so called black box which is really orange to make it easier to find after a crash the Box can take punishment the plane can't survive but then why not build airplanes the same as the indestructible black box because the planes would be so heavy they'd never get off the ground watching this plane become complete right before your eyes is an amazing sight time-lapse photography makes it look so easy an industrial ballet on an immense scale it's all choreographed from one to the next the next and they all know exactly what to do when to drill when to fasten so it's amazing that that all comes together you still are wowed by this aren't you I've been here for 20 years and I'm still amazed at the way things come together and it's true the sum is greater than the parts fully loaded a triple 7 can weigh up to 330 tonnes engineers had to develop this innovative landing gear to keep the aircraft from crushing existing runways and take a look at these how tell me about these well these are about the largest landing gear they're on a commercial airplane right now the tires have played about 200 psi and on each landing gear there are one two three four five six of these six tires on the nose gear we have two tires but there's a lot of ability to stop the airplanes in these things and there are pieces of art in their own right in my mind for a perspective on the 777 that I could never get in flight production team manager Alan Crowder and I geared up with safety harnesses yeah this was it actually seems when the last thing that we put in because it's easier to work without the seats installer so let's put into boot socks the boot socks protect the new airplane while crews of 25 mechanics at a time put the finishing touches on the interior that's actually the way it feels the need for a safety harness became clear when we stepped out onto the wing boy you really get a sense of the immensity of this it's about four or five stories high but Yale would be like a ten story building it's pretty close it's about a seven or eight story building at the height of the tail the maximum height it's a very big building at 242 feet this plane is the longest in the family of triple sevens the wingspan is just an inch short of an even 200 feet and inside the wing is all a fuel that's correct the wings are the fuel the wings are the fuel tank that's fuel from here all the way out to just about that yellow circle each wing holds more than 15,000 gallons of fuel at in the center fuselage tank and the plane holds more than 45,000 gallons enough to fill the tank of your SUV for the next 60 years next from pavement blasting jet engines to a really big paint job what's under the skin of a triple seven if the scene repeated daily 21-page passengers rushing to get to their planes and flight crews methodically checking the aircraft they will fly this Boeing triple7 sits on the ground at O'Hare International in Chicago ready to depart for Tokyo the captain takes the controls on a hi-tech flight deck that was designed with input from more than 600 pilots instead of the standard paper checklist he will rely on electronic checklist but the flight computer puts on screen not long ago this flight of 6,200 miles over water was a trip that only a four-engine jet could make but powered by just two engines this American Airlines 777 will land at Narita in about 13 hours the most expensive components on the 777 are the engines the new ones can list for up to 20 million dollars and they are enormous the latest engine built by GE puts out more than a hundred and fifteen thousand pounds of thrust it was flight tested on a 747 where it outsized the plane's normal engines when it was fired up the jet blast blew around chunks of loose concrete on the triple7 the engines have enough power for the jet to accelerate like a sports car going from zero to 60 in less than six seconds in the air it cruises at more than 550 miles per hour in his last hours at final assembly the interior of the plane comes together the familiar looking wall panels and storage bins are installed here's something you never see the finishing touches going on downstairs in the cargo hold the biggest triple7 can hold more than 7,000 cubic feet of cargo that's enough room to stash 165 average-sized refrigerators finally the 777 gets a full systems test it's a workout that exercises all the control surfaces this helps to bleed any air out of the hydraulic systems during the night shift the fully assembled plane is towed to one of three paint hangers each paint hanger as well big enough to hold a jumbo jet in order to bake on three coats of paint these hangers can be heated to 120 degrees Fahrenheit what do you think first like you start the tail they started to no actually there's eight people painting all the one so we've got four people on each side of the airplane it will take three to four days to paint a triple seven but time-lapse photography gets it done in a flash what's the most challenging logo right now five British Airways pretty Airways that's because the British Airways tail sections support a variety of complicated designs some parts must be painted before they're put on the plane for instance the rudder which has to be carefully balanced when installed today I'll join the paint crew to lay down the first coat on a rudder as simple as it may sound painting this piece is a carefully controlled process that starts with protective clothing the smaller parts can be sprayed in this room called a paint box the hood made me feel a little claustrophobic so getting the air supply hooked up was a relief air that's nice if I mess up on the rudder bud we'll have to do it all over again this looks so even you have a kid each time we start up and overlap where you just pain in half overlap overlap like want to keep dancing okay - it up top there you go 1 2 3 1 2 3 you're an aircraft painter the overall paint scheme is after the airline that will fly it the same goes for the interior and the possibilities are endless the designs that we create for each customer are going to be different depending on their cultural requirements the mission of the aircraft the route structure there's just a lot of things that come into play so if they can choose any color in the rainbow why do they always seem to pick blue one of the things that really appeals to people about the blue is it's comfortable it's it presents a cool and soothing environment from the operation side of the color it's fabulous for maintenance it doesn't show anything each airline features their own special seating in the first and business class sections now we're in first class right yes the woodwork in between the seats is absolutely beautiful now that's not going to be that way on every 777 this is this particular customer specific for Air Emirates and what they had ordered often the different interiors are strictly to suit cultural needs which can vary greatly from country to country some customers want everything from extra bathrooms to prayer rooms yeah everyone's on some of the Muslim country airplanes they have prayer rooms on them believe it or not out on the tarmac a Singapore Airlines jet is waiting to be delivered but there's one more detail before one ticketed passenger boards this plane it will undergo a series of trials designed to simulate every possible airborne scenario it is the ultimate test drive so far a small tug is towed this huge plane from the final assembly to the paint hangar and onto this stall near the runway now for the first time this triple 7 moves under its own power at the controls chief test pilot Frank Santoni nervous at all no so you don't consider it dangerous to take something airborne that's never gone under before I've never considered dangerous in all my years here going and never at the far end of the runway the multi-million dollar engines roar to life the huge tires rolled at all three million parts working in concert liftoff for the first time we take it to its fastest speed possible than Indy sense we do engine relights what do you mean that engine realize do you mean that the engines go off and then you turn it back on yes we shot one engine down at a time and then see that it relights in flight but you don't shut them both down same time no that's a good thing that's a good thing more than 400 triple sevens are flying worldwide having met the Boeing workers that build them I'm convinced the airlines that placed orders only think they own them there's a lot of pride in the product that we build and the mechanics have and the inequality of the work they do so when the airplane leaves here it's always our airplane
