SEATTLE — Boeing’s 747 put Everett on the map in the aviation world. Now that it’s gone, there is a huge space left to be filled in the factory. The factory was built specifically for the 747 and has become the largest of its kind in the world.
Employees gathered in the cold Tuesday night for the historic moment. “Proud. Proudness to be a part of it,” said Rafael Siso Nadal, who is a Boeing engineer, as the 747-8 freighter rolled out of the Everett Production Factory for the last time.
“This huge facility, which by volume is the largest in the world, is way underutilized. It’s going to be at least a decade before Boeing builds another airplane, so what is Boeing going to do in the meantime?” said Aviation Expert for Leeham & Co., Scott Hamilton.
In a statement, a Boeing spokesperson said, "We continue to invest in the Everett site and across the Puget Sound region to create a long-term future for our teammates and industry. Our widebodies produced in Everett, the 767, 777 and 777X (including passenger and a new freighter model) are very successful in the marketplace with orders supporting production for years to come."
But Hamilton says there are still questions.
“The (787) is now predominately down in South Carolina, the (767) is just across a three airplane a month production rate, and the 777 is down to two a month versus eight a month, and the (747) is gone,” he said.
As far as the employees like Siso Nadal who spent years, working on the queen of the skies, “I work on different programs, I work after the 747, 787, 777X, the next thing. So we’re always busy here.”
Boeing said in a statement that there will be no employee reductions as a result of the 747 closeout.
With one era ends, it leaves room for another, new plane to take its place. This is what Boeing CEO and President, David Calhoun had to say at the November 2022 investors conference: “There will be a moment in time where we pull a rabbit out of the hat and introduce a new airplane in the middle of the next decade, there will be a moment in time where we do that.”
As far as what that new plane could look like, Calhoun said it will likely have autonomous capabilities. But of course, he also said it wouldn’t happen until the mid-2030s. At this point, there’s no word on where production for a new plane would be.