OT: For you aviation buffs

[olyinaz]

The end of an era at the Boeing plant:

http://www.rbogash.com/Plant%202/Plant2.html

Cheers,
Oly

[J Miller]

That is sad.

But very interesting to see what the last three aircraft to roll out were.

Joe

[OJ]

That is understatement, if anything. Many have no idea about Boeing beyond their airplane products -

I had a cousin married to an employee there after the WW II - Boeing had youngsters working - some of whom had GI Bill but, many didn't My cousin-in law had his college tuition and expenses paid by Boeing while Boeing arranged his work schedule to avoid interfering with his college courses -

Not many places did anything like that.

[Joebanjocolo]

Truly an end of an era. I was an A&P mechanic for 20 years and spent some time training at Boeing back in the 90s - a huge amount of history in that place. BTW I also wrenched on 737's - great airplane.

[Warhawk]

22 year Boeing employee here, they hired me right out of the Air Force and except for a short layoff after 9/11 I've been working for them ever since. They do indeed pay tuition and books for employees to take college courses, the only stipulation being that you get a C or better grade. They even gave me a $10,000 bonus when I completed my degree, that they paid for!

Boeing is also one of the last companies to pay it's employees a pension, even us salaried employees, and we have the best medical insurance anywhere outside of the US congress.

Boeing has been a great company to work for, I have worked for the Commercial (airliners) division in the past but currently work for the Defense and Space side of the company. In my 22 years I've worked on everything from 737 airliners to the Space Shuttle, from Direct TV Satellites to Missile Defense Interceptors, and from the V-22 to Air Force One.

It's a sad thing to see Plant II closing in Seattle, Boeing will be moving more and more production operations to it's new "non union" plant in South Carolina where the 787 is going to be built.

[COSteve]

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