Recently, I was lucky enough to partake in a tour of The Boeing Company’s Everett Factory near Seattle, and pick the brains of its Aerospace engineers and tour guides. But this is a golf website, why should you care, right?

Well, for its new XR 16 and XR 16 Pro drivers, Callaway Golf teamed up with engineers from Boeing to develop a more aerodynamically sound driver. Read more about the technology here.

Why Boeing? With a mutual interest in how things fly — whether it’s airplanes or golf balls — it “was a great opportunity for collaboration” between the companies, according to Evan Gibbs, head of metal woods at Callaway Golf.

Also, at Boeing, there exists a group of young engineers collectively named O.N.E. (Opportunities for New Engineers), who use their intelligence and passion for problem solving for projects outside their everyday work of making airplane wings more efficient. So when Callaway asked Boeing to help make its new drivers faster and more efficient for golfers, Boeing had just the group of engineers for the job.

So a group of about a half-dozen O.N.E. engineers were given 3-4 months — a significantly shorter period of time than aerospace engineers are typically provided — to design an “add-on” to the crown of Callaway’s new drivers.

As Boeing Aerodynamics Engineer Adam Clark explained, there are many differences and similarities between the aerodynamic puzzles of airplanes and drivers.

I paraphrase:

Both have to do with laminar and turbulent flow. An airplane wing needs to be streamlined to reduce friction, as does the relatively rotund body of a golf driver head. The solution is very similar.

Here’s what the Boeing engineers came up with:

Below, I relay some ridiculously interesting facts, photos and information I learned about Boeing, its Everett facility, its airplanes and its engineering processes. I hope the photos below do Boeing’s airplane assembly factory justice, because the visuals were nothing short of breath-taking.

So we begin, Revealing Photos: The Aero Edition.

Welcome to Boeing

It’s difficult to explain just how big the Boeing Factory really is. You can see how small the plane in the parking lot looks in comparison to the building, but maybe these facts will give it better perspective.

“Two hangar doors… approximately the size of an American football field.”

That means the Seattle Seahawks could play a football game on two of the hangar doors on the outside of the building (although it would probably be safer to put the doors flat on the ground first).

And in case you ever doubted the passion of Seahawks fans, it’s rare to be at Boeing’s Seattle factory without seeing a flag with the number 12 (12th man) somewhere in your line of site.

So welcome to Boeing’s Seattle Facility, home of Seahawks’ 12th men and women. Lets go inside, shall we?

An “aerial” look

Rows of Boeing’s 737s, 747s, 767s and 777s — some of which are made from over 1 million parts — are built by troops of men and women. Contrary to popular belief, the number of the plane refers to when it was designed, not its size. The bigger the number, the newer the design.

For example, the 777 took its first flight in 1994, while the 737 took its first flight in 1967. Boeing’s first active plane was the 707, which was airborne in 1957.

If you look closely at the photo above, you can see there are other rooms filled with multiple planes, as well.

And above is the process the planes undertake while inside the factory.

Here’s a look at a plane that’s nearing the end of the “assembly line.” Now, there’s a few interesting things of note in the photo above, so let’s zoom in and look.

A system of rails that come down from ceiling helps to transport plane parts across the factory, and they’re quite strong. Equipment No. M-3, for instance, has a capacity of 40 tons, or 80,000 pounds.

Hungry? There are 40,000+ employees at Boeing in its Seattle location, and they have the eat somewhere. One of the options is called the “Dreamliner Diner,” which is one of six different eateries inside the facility.

There’s also a dry-cleaner, movie rental shops, clothing stores, massage parlors and convenient stores littered throughout the factory. So employees never really need to leave.

The Dreamliner Diner is named after Boeing’s 787 “Dreamliner,” the most fuel-efficient airliner that Boeing produces, according to the company. Surely, it’s the most food-efficient diner at the Boeing Factory.

A final look before a plane flies out the door.

Going down

Now, let’s head to the first floor.

From the ground level

You don’t feel truly small at the Boeing Factory until you’re looking up at one of the 747s (Boeing’s biggest models), or really any of the planes during production.

The wheels were almost taller than me. Below is a short gallery of miscellaneous photos taken of planes while on the ground floor of the factory.

And yes, it’s really weird to see a plane inside of a building.

How do 40,000 people get around a 100-acre building?

Tractors, cars, vans, golf carts…

Or one of these weird 3-wheeled trolleys, which were commonly seen as a mode of transportation.

This guy was showing off how to casually stroll the factory with plane parts that stand nearly twice his height.

Off to the Dreamliner Gallery

This is where I learned how much goes into the design of the interior of airplanes. Unfortunately, I’ll never be able to take a flight again without noticing…

The type of carpeting in the cabin.

The material on the seats.

The seat styles.

Or the TV models. I will know, however…

What sitting in a cockpit feels like.

And where the flight attendees sleep on long flights.

No wonder the flight attendants are always in such good spirits; they get all this leg room while us normal folks are scrunched and miserable in coach. That made the flight back from Seattle even worse, since I knew what I was missing.

Unfortunately, that concludes my tour of Boeing’s Everett Factory.

In the end, how did the final product between Boeing and Callaway stack up against the best drivers currently on the market? Check out our 2016 Gear Trials: Best Drivers Club Test for a full analysis.

Spoiler alert.

Callaway’s XR 16 and XR 16 Pro were awarded with 6 total medals (1 Gold Medal, 2 Silver Medals and 3 Bronze Medals), which stacked up nicely against its competitors.