ATW Daily News

787 final assembly begins, July 8 rollout targeted

Tuesday May 22, 2007

Final assembly of the first 787 began yesterday in Everett, Boeing announced, with rollout scheduled for July 8. Eventually, the company intends to assemble one aircraft every three days. "The 787 production system is the culmination of the lessons we've learned building previous airplanes," 787 VP-Manufacturing and Quality Steve Westby said. "Using composites on the 787 airframe has a number of manufacturing advantages. We are able to build huge structure in just one piece, which means we essentially have six major end items coming together in final assembly--the forward, center and aft fuselage section, the wings, the horizontal stabilizer and the vertical fin."

Components have been arriving in Everett in recent days (ATWOnline, May 18). Boeing said that no overhead cranes are necessary to move components and that portable tools are used to move the assemblies into place. The program now has 568 firm orders from 44 airlines.

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