What you see here is Boeing’s new 787 ‘Dreamliner’ undergoing an FIA wing stress test. The wings are made of a plastic composite, and engineers need to make sure they can flex to “150 percent of the most severe case ever expected to be seen in service,” said Lori Gunter, a company spokeswoman. The planes are designed to just barely pass the test. Very simply, they hold the plane down and bend the wings a huge amount — during this test the wings had a vertical deflection of 25 feet, without breaking. It took place at the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington, the home of production for the 747, 767, 777, and 787, and also the world’s largest building by interior volume — 472,370,319 cubic feet. Cool, right?

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