Megafabricated - Boeing 747

Video from the channel Mayday 7770 about Boeing 747, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 45:01. Language: Italian. Video type: Documentary.

Episode of the Megafactories series, in a version dubbed into Italian, devoted to the manufacturing of the Boeing 747-8 at the Everett plant, in Washington State, north of Seattle. It follows the assembly of the wings, the joining of the fuselage sections, the installation of the engines, the electrical power-up, painting and test flights. It intersperses the history of the original 747 and testimonies from workers, engineers and test pilots.

For almost forty years, the 747 was the largest passenger aircraft, until in 2007 the Airbus A380 surpassed it in size and capacity. Rather than designing a new aircraft from scratch, Boeing transformed the existing model, drawing on technologies from the 787 Dreamliner, such as the wing design, fuel-efficient engines and cabin elements.

The documentary recalls the program's origins. In the mid-1960s, Pan Am's president, Juan Trippe, asked for an aircraft much larger than existing ones and ordered 25 units. Boeing had to build the Everett factory while the first aircraft was being constructed. The team led by chief engineer Joe Sutter, nicknamed "the Incredibles," completed the first 747 in 28 months, and the aircraft rolled out of the factory on 30 September 1968. The raised cockpit and the distinctive hump originated from the idea of turning the aircraft into a freighter with a nose door, since Boeing believed at the time that the future of passenger transport would be supersonic.

According to the video, the 747-8 brings together more than six million parts sourced from suppliers around the world and assembled by hand. Each wing can carry up to 58 tonnes of fuel. During test flights, slight wing vibration (flutter) was detected and corrected by software in the flight control system. The General Electric engines, worth about 20 million dollars each, save around 180 kg per unit thanks to composite-material blades. A two-month strike in 2008 and structural problems with the wing delayed deliveries by two years.

The aircraft is 76 metres long with a 68-metre wingspan. Before delivery it passed tests for aborted takeoff, minimum takeoff speed with the tail scraping the runway, flutter and stall entry. The price cited is 333 million dollars.