Being a life-long airplane fancier, I'd love
to tour the Boeing plant in Washington. How
can I get permission? Or what must one do to
take a tour?

Cheers,

Gerry K

Sorry, I don't have the info, but I wanted to tell you that I know someone who took the tour a couple of years ago and said it was fascinating.

Be sure whatever information you receive is current. Since Boeing is relocating some offices (primarily coporate, I think), they may change some policies regarding this tour.

Boeing offers free public tours of the main 747-777 final assembly plant in Everett, 20 miles north of Seattle. The tours take about an hour, leave every half hour or so, and are pretty crowded in mid-summer. First come, first served, although a number of tour bus operators in Seattle offer packages from hotels with transportation, lunch, etc. First tour of the day starts at 7:30 or 8 AM as I recall. Kids under a certain age can't come (little kids).

The tour is very interesting, includes a bus ride down the flight line and walks through the assembly building, the largest (by volume) building in the world. There's a very elaborate souvenir shop selling Boeing chatchkas when your done.

http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/tours/

I mis-spoke on the times and frequency. Even more reason to get there early. And that's "when you're done;" apologies to my English teachers.

Great help, Folks.

Many thanks,

GK

We were in Seattle last week and took the Boeing tour. I got the phone number from some tourist info. at our hotel-the tours were about every hour starting at 9 AM. You could make phone reservations for a tour and pay $10 which you could charge to your credit card. If you just show up at the tour center, the cost is $5 per person and you take your chances of getting on the next tour. We arrived there about 8:15 AM and had no problem taking the 9:00 tour. You are shown a 10 minute movie about the history of Boeing in their theater at the ticket office building and then bussed to the assembly plant building. After touring it, the bus drives around various outdoor spots (painting hangars, planes ready for delivery, etc.) and then back to the ticket office. It was interesting and I would go on it again.

Gerry:

Don't know if this message is too late, but if you are here in the Seattle area, you should not miss the Flight Museum. Here's some info: http://www.museumofflight.org/index.html

The museum is located at Boeing Feild on the south side of Seattle. Its easy to find. If you like airplanes you will love the museum. The only better ond I've seen is the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH.

Gerry
Being an airplane nut myself, I enjoyed the tour (2 years ago) a lot!
The info above is good enough for you to make the arrangements.
Just one more thing, they don't let you in with any bags, cameras, video cameras, anything carried, that might fall, be dropped from the walking paths down into the assembly line. Inconvenient, but makes sense.
So you have to leave things in the car. Just be preapred.
Amik.