Building the first 747 was Herculean feat

EVERETT – You could call it a hobby. Or a habit that’s hard to break.

But Des Evans doesn’t seem to know how to quit the Boeing Co.

Sporting a Boeing baseball cap and a tie, Evans seems empty-handed without his binder. Inside, you’ll find the answers to just about anything you ever wanted to know about Boeing.

Up front, Evans keeps a running list of every plane made by Boeing. Every time a new jet rolls out the Everett factory doors, Evans updates the log.

In one form or another, Evans has put in about 50 years at Boeing, most recently serving as a guide on the Everett factory tour.

In some ways, Evans’ devotion to Boeing isn’t surprising. After all, he is one of the Incredibles – the name given to a group of 50,000 Boeing workers who helped build the first 747. The working conditions probably wouldn’t be up to code these days: an only partially built factory meant workers wore hard hats and had no heat. And demanding time constraints meant long hours and few days off.

Even Evans admits that building the first 747 took a crazy amount of devotion not likely found in the work force 40 years later. Something about the time, the place and the plane created a loyal group of Boeing employees who are still proud of their work four decades later.

“Maybe it was being told this was the biggest plane in the world,” Evans said.

“You do become mesmerized with it.”

Boeing challenged the Incredibles with a steep task: build the world’s biggest jet while the world’s biggest factory is being built around you.

It was the sort of challenge that Malcolm Stamper had requested from supervisor Bill Allen.

Stamper served as the first general manager of Boeing’s Everett site.

For the 50,000 men and women under his charge, Stamper’s work ethic set the standard, one that included sleeping on engineering tables at night, literally helping out in the muddy trenches and taking only a single day off while the plane later christened the “City of Everett” was being built.

Of course, in the 1960s, work conditions – at Boeing and elsewhere – were different than those four decades later.

Women wore skirts no matter how muddy the parking lot or how much snow piled up. Smokers weren’t banished outdoors. And safety wasn’t exactly the top priority when workers would use flammable cleaning solvent on the airplane, all while smoking a cigarette.

Twelve-hour days, seven days a week wasn’t uncommon during those early years for Larry Bruns, who worked as a mechanic on the original 747.

When Boeing opened its Everett plant, the company saved Bruns a commute to Renton every day in a station wagon packed with nine people.

When Bruns started working for Boeing, he made about $2.36 an hour. By the time he transferred to Everett, Bruns was bringing in $3.17 an hour. He bought his first house in the area for $18,000.

“When I got hired on I thought, ‘I have the best job in the world,’” he said.

Forty years later, Bruns still thinks so.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

Black Press Media operates Sound Publishing, the largest community news organization in Washington State with dailies and community news outlets in Alaska.
Black Press Media concludes transition of ownership

Black Press Media, which operates Sound Publishing, completed its sale Monday (March 25), following the formerly announced corporate restructuring.

Maygen Hetherington, executive director of the Historic Downtown Snohomish Association, laughs during an interview in her office on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Snohomish, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Maygen Hetherington: tireless advocate for the city of Snohomish

Historic Downtown Snohomish Association receives the Opportunity Lives Here award from Economic Alliance.

FILE - Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs poses in front of photos of the 15 people who previously held the office on Nov. 22, 2021, after he was sworn in at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Hobbs faces several challengers as he runs for election to the office he was appointed to last fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: ‘I wanted to serve my country’

Hobbs, a former Lake Stevens senator, is the recipient of the Henry M. Jackson Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Mark Duffy poses for a photo in his office at the Mountain Pacific Bank headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mark Duffy: Building a hometown bank; giving kids an opportunity

Mountain Pacific Bank’s founder is the recipient of the Fluke Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Barb Tolbert poses for a photo at Silver Scoop Ice Cream on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Barb Tolbert: Former mayor piloted Arlington out of economic brink

Tolbert won the Elson S. Floyd Award, honoring a leader who has “created lasting opportunities” for the underserved.

Photo provided by 
Economic Alliance
Economic Alliance presented one of the Washington Rising Stem Awards to Katie Larios, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace High School senior wins state STEM award

Katie Larios was honored at an Economic Alliance gathering: “A champion for other young women of color in STEM.”

The Westwood Rainier is one of the seven ships in the Westwood line. The ships serve ports in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast Asia. (Photo provided by Swire Shipping)
Westwood Shipping Lines, an Everett mainstay, has new name

The four green-hulled Westwood vessels will keep their names, but the ships will display the Swire Shipping flag.

A Keyport ship docked at Lake Union in Seattle in June 2018. The ship spends most of the year in Alaska harvesting Golden King crab in the Bering Sea. During the summer it ties up for maintenance and repairs at Lake Union. (Keyport LLC)
In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a processing plant in Alaska closed, Edmonds-based business Keyport stepped up to solve a “no-win situation.”

Angela Harris, Executive Director of the Port of Edmonds, stands at the port’s marina on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Leadership, love for the Port of Edmonds got exec the job

Shoring up an aging seawall is the first order of business for Angela Harris, the first woman to lead the Edmonds port.

The Cascade Warbirds fly over Naval Station Everett. (Sue Misao / The Herald file)
Bothell High School senior awarded $2,500 to keep on flying

Cascade Warbirds scholarship helps students 16-21 continue flight training and earn a private pilot’s certificate.

Rachel Gardner, the owner of Musicology Co., a new music boutique record store on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Edmonds, Washington. Musicology Co. will open in February, selling used and new vinyl, CDs and other music-related merchandise. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Edmonds record shop intends to be a ‘destination for every musician’

Rachel Gardner opened Musicology Co. this month, filling a record store gap in Edmonds.

MyMyToyStore.com owner Tom Harrison at his brick and mortar storefront on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Burst pipe permanently closes downtown Everett toy store

After a pipe flooded the store, MyMyToystore in downtown Everett closed. Owner Tom Harrison is already on to his next venture.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.