Originally Posted by
kap'n krunch
I toured the Everett plant in October which was fascinating. The docent stated that Boeing was gearing up to begin production of the 737 in that plant. Speaking to the differing cultures between the WB (Everett) and NB (Renton) facilities, how do you forsee the outcome?
Honestly, I have no idea... I've been wondering about that ever since they made the announcement that they'd add a 737 line to Everett (makes sense BTW - the 747 is OOP, and the 787 line was shutdown during COVID and is unlikely to be reopened, so all the have left in that huge building is 777 and 767 (with the 767 only planning ~2/month for the foreseeable future) so lots of unused space). There was talk at one time of Boeing moving all the 737 production to Everett when Renton kept playing hardball with Boeing (I worked in Renton for a while early in the 777 program before they finished the new 40-87/40-88 office buildings - aka "The Taj Mullally
), then again back around 2010 before they moved us back to Everett. Even then it seemed like the city of Renton tolerated Boeing rather than embracing their presence of all those jobs
. Wonder if that might again be part of the long-term game.
They'll still be dependent on Spirit for the 737 fuselages (interesting article on the Seattle Times regarding Boeing looking at re-acquiring Spirit
Boeing seeks to buy Spirit Aero, 19 years after selling Wichita plant | The Seattle Times ), and the engineering probably won't move, so I wouldn't expect huge differences or changes.
But time will tell...