Big Ol' Jet Airliner

April 26, 2010 9:52 AM

Time-lapse assembly video of Southwest Airlines' newest specialty jet, Florida One.
posted by mattdidthat (35 comments total)

[obvious]

That is a very, very large spraybooth.

[/obvious]
posted by CynicalKnight at 9:58 AM on April 26, 2010

And time-lapse video of a fat person getting kicked off this plane in 3...2...1...
posted by yiftach at 10:00 AM on April 26, 2010 [2 favorites]

Aw, I liked the paint job and final livery. Very cool stuff!
posted by jquinby at 10:04 AM on April 26, 2010

That's just plane awesome.
posted by nitsuj at 10:07 AM on April 26, 2010

Great, until the painters puked all over it.

It's either a side effect of the time lapse (and/or how little people move from their desks every day) or that's quite a clip (comparatively) that the planes are moving down that production line. That's a hell of a big piece of kit to keep constantly moving like that (especially when there are at least 3 of them). I didn't think that moving line method would be the best for something that size, but it seems Boeing is sold on it.
posted by Brockles at 10:09 AM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Reporter: What kind of plane is it?

Johnny: Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big Tylenol.
posted by weezy at 10:10 AM on April 26, 2010 [4 favorites]

They did not show the seat installation at all, that I could see.

"Let's see how many seats we can cram in here. . ."
posted by Danf at 10:10 AM on April 26, 2010

That's just plane awesome.

Is there a *Groan* flag? I can't seem to find it...
posted by Brockles at 10:10 AM on April 26, 2010

Yeah, but it does it transform into robot? No? Whatever.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:11 AM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

A hospital! What is it?
-It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now.
posted by nitsuj at 10:11 AM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

The plane they build (a 737-800) isn't the same model that they paint (a 737-700). Check the emergency exits in the video. Southwest doesn't have any 800 series planes.

Still a sweet video.
posted by sdrawkcab at 10:23 AM on April 26, 2010 [4 favorites]

CynicalKnight: "[obvious]

That is a very, very large spraybooth.

[/obvious]"

You should see the stress-relief booths for railroad tank cars. Three at a time in each oven, two ovens to a room.

But yeah - Cool!
posted by notsnot at 10:27 AM on April 26, 2010

There's something a little unnerving about watching a plane built at the speed of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

With that said, I will only tire of timelapse videos when I get the superpower to speed through time at 10x.
posted by gwint at 10:28 AM on April 26, 2010

I think the plane's paint job should have featured a missing child and an angry old person shaking a cane at something.
posted by Mister_A at 10:31 AM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

Brockles, I'm with you. I would have thought it'd be easier to bring the parts to the giant airliner, instead of the airliner to the parts... especially when they mount those engines, and they have to keep them moving at the same speed as the body...
posted by Hoenikker at 10:35 AM on April 26, 2010

The plane they build (a 737-800) isn't the same model that they paint (a 737-700). Check the emergency exits in the video. Southwest doesn't have any 800 series planes.

Wow. That's totally true! This video is a lie! Watch it again. The plane they build has two big chunky doors right above the wing. (They're very conspicuous.) The plane they paint only has one big chunky above-the-wing door. (It's very conspicuous after the paint has gone on.) Also, the plane they paint is conspicuously shorter. As well it should be, since it's a different plane.

Not to get all wake-up-sheeple here, but this kind of bugs me. This isn't a time-lapse video of the assembly of Southwest's new cool plane. It's stock factory-floor footage of some random plane mashed together with video of another plane's paint-job.

DOWN WITH PETTY ACTS OF PR DECEIT!
posted by bicyclefish at 10:46 AM on April 26, 2010 [6 favorites]

Yeah, the moving assembly line thing is pretty impressive. Apparently it moves at two inches per minute, or around 13 hours per plane-length.
posted by Serf at 10:51 AM on April 26, 2010

In fairness, the opening scene with the train shows two airplane fuselages, one of which seems to only have one over-wing exit door, while the other fuselage clearly has two. During the assembly sequence, at least three separate fuselages are shown, one of which has only one over-wing door. So, the video was pretty much a composite from the beginning.
posted by Dimpy at 10:59 AM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

At first I was wondering why the people in the overlooking had their desks facing away from the windows, because damn, that would be awesome to watch... then I realized I'd never get any work done if I didn't point my desk away from those windows.
posted by Evilspork at 11:17 AM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

The interior shots remind me of putting a double-wide together.
posted by backseatpilot at 11:21 AM on April 26, 2010

It makes me uncomfortable to see all those people building the plane wearing t-shirts and jeans. I feel like they should be wearing fancy one-piece mechanics' suits like F1 pit crews.
posted by mullacc at 11:23 AM on April 26, 2010

Taking apart a 767 and reassembling it. (from this post).
posted by djb at 11:51 AM on April 26, 2010 [1 favorite]

It makes me uncomfortable to see all those people building the plane wearing t-shirts and jeans.

When that person came in to work on the cockpit wearing a flesh(ish)-colored shirt I was thinking "huh, some dude gets to work with his shirt off? It really is like building a house."
posted by maxwelton at 11:52 AM on April 26, 2010

I too am surprised they use an actual Henry Ford assembly line. I'd hate to have to keep moving while my spinny bit refuses to be ratcheted onto a doodad. Plus at 0:42 it bangs right into an unsuspecting tool cart.
posted by rlk at 11:58 AM on April 26, 2010

It makes me uncomfortable to see all those people building the plane wearing t-shirts and jeans. I feel like they should be wearing fancy one-piece mechanics' suits like F1 pit crews.

I felt the same thing. It makes it look like it's just a hobby or something. In the old days, they'd all have matching uniforms. Of course, logically that doesn't make any sense, but I'd rather fly on a plane built by someone who looks like a mcdonalds employee than a homeless person.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:20 PM on April 26, 2010

Something I've always wondered regarding planes: how much does all that paint weigh? Probably an insignificant amount; just curious.

Also, something I'd love to see: now that the Mythbusters have tested altering the aerodynamics of a car by putting golf-ball divots on it, when're they gonna do the same with a plane?
posted by pyrex at 1:20 PM on April 26, 2010

Taking apart a 767 and reassembling it.

Why read about it, when you can watch it. {Hulu}
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:35 PM on April 26, 2010

how much does all that paint weigh? Probably an insignificant amount

179 pounds on a 737.

But raw polished aluminum requires more maintenance.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:38 PM on April 26, 2010

When I took the 747 plant tour at boeing they claimed that dark paint added a few hundred pounds compared to a lighter paint color.
posted by TheJoven at 2:14 PM on April 26, 2010

It makes me uncomfortable to see all those people building the plane wearing t-shirts and jeans.

Well, not me. But then again, I design airplanes and I wear t-shirts and jeans along with flip-flops at work. Sure, assembling an aircraft requires highly skilled workers, but it's also a bit crafty. Each airplanes are mostly hand assembled, so at the end of the assembly line, each aircrafts are a bit different from one another.
posted by racingjs at 5:15 PM on April 26, 2010

Also, Airbus workers wear uniforms if it makes you more comfortable.
posted by racingjs at 5:25 PM on April 26, 2010

The number of 737s they crank out amazes me. I think of jet airliners as relatively rare pieces of equipment but Boeing has, on average over the past 42 years, built (and sold!) one 737 every other day. According to wikipedia, another 2000 are on order.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 5:39 PM on April 26, 2010

Thanks for linking the Airbus video, racingjs, it's very cool but I'm a bit disappointed that it didn't show any inside shots.

Also, do they have to do that precarious caravan winding through narrow streets every time they get new body parts? Siting factories in Europe in and around centuries of urban building must be an interesting challenge.
posted by clerestory at 2:49 AM on April 27, 2010

I didn't know airliners were made (partly) on assembly lines. I'm surprised they make them fast enough to justify such a thing.

At about 40 seconds in, one of the support/gantry/staircase things under the moving plane crashes into a utility cart someone had left in the way. But they left that in. That surprises me too.
posted by Western Infidels at 2:05 PM on April 27, 2010

That is a very, very large spraybooth.

They also have autoclaves, that a small two story house could fit into, to dry the paint or primer on large parts faster.

It makes me uncomfortable to see all those people building the plane wearing t-shirts and jeans.

Well it's not uncomfortable for them and that's what they care about. If you're worried about Foreign Object Debris, don't. FOD is a big deal and the planes are constantly cleaned and checked as they're built. Then they get rechecked before thoroughly being inspected and sealed. If the seal is broken then they have to do the whole cleaning, checking, and inspecting process over again. That part wasn't shown though probably because it doesn't make for snappy timelapse.
posted by P.o.B. at 2:01 AM on April 28, 2010