In 1966, the Boeing Co. committed to make a jetliner to dwarf every other passenger plane in the sky — the 747. The company chose a wooded area north of Paine Field in Everett for a new factory and began manufacturing the big plane there in 1967. These images chronicle the 50 years since the plant opened. Read the story
Dozens of cars and a new building under construction at Paine Field, date unknown. Local officials pledged to do whatever was needed to land the factory, which Boeing expected would employ about 15,000 people. Today, roughly 40,000 people work at the sprawling plant and office buildings.
At the Boeing Co. Everett factory, workers assemble the main body pieces of the original 747 in May 1968. A month later, the company would begin testing the engine that Pratt & Whitney developed for the 747 on a B-52. (Photo Courtesy of The Boeing Co.)
The first Boeing 747 “Jumbo Jet” rolled out of the plant in Everett on Sept. 30, 1968. Twice the size of the 707, it was designed to carry passengers and cargo. To assemble the giant plane, Boeing built the largest building by volume (291 million cubic feet) at Paine Field. (Photo courtesy The Boeing Co.)
Joe Sutter stands by the first 747 in 1969. Sutter has been described as the “father of the 747.” (Photo courtesy The Boeing Co. )
Spectators watch from the airfield as the prototype Boeing 747 (RA001) lifts into the air on its maiden flight at Everett’s Paine Field on Feb. 9, 1969.
The “City of Everett,” the Boeing Company’s first 747, took its maiden flight from Everett’s Paine Field on Feb. 9, 1969. (Photo Courtesy The Boeing Co. )
Aug. 4, 1981, was a memorable day for Boeing. The company’s first new commercial transport in more than a dozen years, the Boeing 767, rolled out of the Everett plant in front of 15,000 onlookers. This widebody airplane was the first of a new generation of Boeing commercial transports designed for the fuel-conscious 1980s. Using the latest technology, the 767 promised to burn 30 percent less fuel than the generation of transports it was replacing. (Photo courtesy The Boeing Co.)
The ceremonial rollout of the first 777-200 was on April 9, 1994. Boeing unveiled the first 777 to approximately 100,000 employees and their guests, customers and suppliers. (Photo Courtesy The Boeing Co.)
A uniquely modified Boeing 747-200B replaced the 707-320B aircraft that was used for presidential travel for 30 years. (Photo Courtesy The Boeing Co.)
R2-D2 and C-3PO watch the unveiling of the R2-D2 themed 787 at Paine Field on Sept. 12, 2015. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Darin Mang (left), a sparekitting engineer, and his father, Calvin Mang, a retired Boeing engineer, pose in the 747 bay at the Everett plant in 2006. Calvin worked on the original Boeing 747. (Kevin Nortz / The Herald)
The first production model of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner airplane is unveiled to an audience of several thousand employees, airline executives and dignitaries during a ceremony on July 8, 2007, at Boeing’s assembly plant in Everett. The 787 is Boeing’s first all-new plane since airlines started flying the 777 in 1995. Boeing has already booked more than 600 orders for the plane, which is promised to burn less fuel, be cheaper to maintain and offer more passenger comforts than comparable planes flying today. (AP Photo / Ted S. Warren)
Workers cheer and wave as Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner takes off from Paine Field on Dec. 15, 2009. (Justin Best / The Herald
The Boeing assembly plant in Everett is adorned with murals that set a Guinness world record. A mural was applied to all six assembly bay doors, which are each 82 feet high and 300 to 350 feet wide — about the length of a National Football League field. (Photo Courtesy The Boeing Co.)
A Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental is being moved across Highway 526 from the assembly plant to the fuel dock on Feb. 13, 2011, in Everett. (Michael O’Leary / The Herald)
Paine Field in 2012 had become a hub of aerospace manufacturing. Major suppliers are located at and around the airport, and Boeing assembles all of its 747s, 767s and 777s, and most of its 787 Dreamliners at its plant adjacent to Paine Field. (Snohomish County Airport)
President Obama shares a moment with Boeing employee David Eddines during a preliminary tour in the 787 facility in Everett on Feb. 17, 2012. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
Dressed as Captain America, James White, a machinist with 17 years experience at Boeing, encourages members to vote no during the shift change in Everett on Nov. 11, 2013. (Mark Mulligan / The Herald)
Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner talks about the new Composite Wing Center, that will be built in Everett to construct the wings for the 777X, on Feb. 18, 2014, at Paine Field. (Mark Mulligan / The Herald)
Boeing president and CEO Ray Conner (second from right), Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Everett mayor Ray Stephanson (fourth from left) mark the ceremonial beginning of construction on the Composite Wing Center at Boeing on Oct. 21, 2014, in Everett. (Mark Mulligan / The Herald)
In front of the new autoclave, Ray Conner, vice chairman of The Boeing Company and president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, speaks to employees at a ceremony for the new Composite Wing Center building on May 20, 2016, in Everett. (Andy Bronson / The Herald)
