Just read that a single Boeing 747 has over 6 million parts

I was looking up some old manuals online and found that fact in a footnote. It's wild to think about, especially when you're tracking down a specific washer. The book said about 3 million of those parts are just fasteners like rivets and screws. Makes you respect the paperwork and logs even more, because keeping track of all that is a huge job. What's the most parts you've had to deal with on one repair job?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_lucas1mo ago

Man, that's a crazy number! I had a job once where we had to replace a whole panel section on a 737. The parts list was pages long for just that one area. You have to check off every single rivet, spacer, and doubler. The trick is to lay everything out on a big table in the order you'll install it. If you mix up the bag of washers, you're in for a bad time trying to match them up later.

martin.paige1mo ago

Nah, laying everything out like that sounds like a huge waste of time lol. I just keep the parts in the bag and pull what I need, never had an issue.

the_charlie1mo ago

Never had an issue" just digging through the bag... man, I'd be sweating bullets. One time I saw a guy grab the wrong washer thickness from a mixed bag and it threw off the whole stack-up. Took hours to find it.