How Boeing Builds a 737 in Just Nine Days

This is the most productive

aeroplane factory in the world

Boeing's Renton Plant outside Seattle builds the 737

in all its configurations for customers globally.

To build 42 planes a month, you need

a pretty sophisticated, pretty huge production line.

It takes nine days for a plane

to do this loop and be assembled.

Let's break that down.

Boeing's built more than 9,000 737s since launching

the single aisle jet in the mid 1960s,

and each one started life something like this,

a hollow fuselage built in Wichita, Kansas,

and hauled by train to Renton.

Once that shell enters the factory,

days one through three are really all about the internals.

It's like building a house.

First, engineers install the plumbing

and electrics and the insulation.

On the fourth day, the tube becomes a plane.

The wings go on, along with the vertical fin, or tail.

Workers align them with laser guidance.

This is when they fit the landing gear too.

Day five is for the horizontal stabilizer install

and the start of functional tests.

Engineers are putting wiring in now for flight control

and finishing the internal floorboards.

They start building the interiors up,

the galleys and the bathrooms.

Then, on day six, the plane comes alive.

That flashing red light means their power to the aeroplane.

Large scale test are now possible,

like does the landing gear retract properly?

It had better; the next time it's folded away

will be when this plane takes off for the first time.

Day seven and the plane's weight is set on its own wheels

and the engines are fixed to the wings,

along with their own network of wires, cables and tubes.

All through the build, systems are checked and rechecked,

and day eight is a critical test

of the flight control surfaces, the flaps

and the flight deck itself, the cockpit.

All these parts have been checked in isolation.

Now, it's crucial they work together.

The plane is nearing the end of the moving production line.

On day nine, the customer gets

to do a walkthrough inspection

before its towed out of the factory,

born, in a way, into the big wide world.

The next stop is Renton Field for ground tests

of the engines and other systems, and then first flight.