Today I visited the 'Future of Flight' museum in Seattle along with a 90 minute tour of the Boeing assembly plant, which is the largest single space building in the world!
Cameras weren't allowed in the plant where we were given guided tours of the 747, 767, 777 and 787 Dreamliner assembly lines.
Some amazing facts:-
The 747 has over 8 million parts
The 787 has approx 1.5 million and is made mainly of carbon fibre composites which are stronger than steel and lighter than aluminium. This makes for more economical flights and less expensive maintenance procedures. Needless to say Boeing has a 900 strong 787 pipeline of orders and turn out around 10-12 completed aircraft per month at a snip at $2.5M each.
The pic is of the Dreamlifter- 4 of these bring 787 parts from over the world for assembly here.