Inside The Factory: How a Boeing is Built

"I toured the Dreamliner assembly process at the Boeing facility in Charleston, South Carolina, and walking the factory floor filled me with wonder and awe — seeing these metal behemoths up close really drove home how amazing plane-making is. The plant is divided into rear body, midbody, and final assembly: the rear body makes the tail sections (Section 47, where passengers are, and Section 48, the very end where the fins attach) by spinning tacky composite carbon fiber tape around a shell, which made me realize that when you fly a 787 you’re basically flying something that started as a thread. I learned how global production is — parts come from Wichita, Kawasaki, Alenia in Italy, and wings from Japan, Oklahoma, and Australia and are flown in on the Dreamlifter — and watched the midbody process where electrical systems and ducts are added and fuselage sections are “snapped” together with fasteners. It was both exciting and unnerving to learn that just a handful of rivets (they even mentioned seven rivets that later snap the wing to the fuselage) hold enormous structures together. Photos weren’t allowed on the most interesting parts of the plant, which was a shame (they gave Sam Chui access to film it), but I still came away impressed by the coordinated, global operation and the fact that final assembly — where wings, engines, interiors, and systems are added and the aircraft is first powered on — takes about 83 days." - Matthew Kepnes