Boeing Tour
I did not realize the public tour was not free. Perhaps it used to be. I thought I heard of it being free to those who can present an airline ID.
I was fortunate enough to do a VIP tour of the Everett factory in 2005. I was with a group of interns, one of which contacted a B-787 engineer she met through her boss. This engineer took us on a thorough and comprehensive tour of the entire premises, including walking all around the factory floor and inside the airplanes that were at various stages of construction.
Walking around the corner and seeing a 767-200 up on jacks is really something. Lots of 777s and 747Fs and passenger 747-400s in the green metal stage of production and others almost complete.
One observation I remember was that there appeared to be more craftsmanship involved in constructing these jets than I imagined. You tour various manufacturing plants over time and they are all alike in that there are conveyor belts everywhere and things are moving on assembly lines. The Boeing plant is an assembly line but did not resemble one. Instead the planes just sit there and dozens of people are all over it at once, building it from the ground up.
At the end of the day we walked up to Vietnam Airlines B-777-200 VN-A149
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Vietnam-Airlines/Boeing-777-2Q8-ER/1267249/L/
They had a bunch of little cloth foot covers that everyone had to put over their shoes before going up the stairs inside the airplane. This one was very obviously in the last stages of production compared with the planes we'd walked through earlier that day. The engine cowls were being closed. Power was on and technicians were in the cockpit running through what appeared to be quite a comprehensive, longer than usual checklist on a clipboard. Workers in the cabin were removing plastic covers from every seat, armrest, seat TV, you name it. The covers were coming off and this thing smelled so nice inside I cannot even describe it. The guy at the door as we walked out of it said it was rolling out of the building that evening and was now ready for the paint shop. It was literally in the final hours of production.
ZUKO - you will enjoy the tour immensely and I think you will share the same feeling everyone has when they leave: a new appreciation for Boeing airplanes.