New jet, new philosophy

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Everything’s new about the 7E7 Dreamliner.

The Boeing Co.’s new jet will utilize new materials and technology and will be built in a whole new way.

It will fly farther than any other jet its size and carry passengers in a more comfortable environment. And it will come with an array of new systems, including Connexion, Boeing’s aerial Internet service.

Boeing is even considering plans to offer its customers maintenance agreements, similar to the service plans automakers sell with new cars.

The 7E7 will be the first commercial jet made primarily from composites, rather than aluminum.

Composites are sheets of woven industrial-strength fibers covered in resin. When baked dry, they form a solid. Fiberglass is a common type.

Boeing now uses advanced composites – bulletproof Kevlar soaked in advanced polymers – for some exterior parts, such as 777 tails.

Boeing says composites are lighter than aluminum. They don’t corrode or suffer metal fatigue. The problem always has been their high price – up to four times that of aluminum.

However, recent advances in composites manufacturing are bringing those costs down dramatically. Given all the pluses, “It was real obvious to us that it was the right direction to be moving,” said Mike Bair, the senior vice president in charge of the 7E7 program.

Using composites will make flying more comfortable, Bair said.

There’s a lot of talk about the quality of the air inside passenger jet cabins. The air is HEPA-filter scrubbed, yet people still leave jets feeling sick after a long flight.

There are two main problems, Boeing engineers say. The air inside a jet cabin is dry, and while the cabins are pressurized, they’re not pressurized to the same pressure as ground level. The result is an environment that’s livable, but not comfortable.

Bair said Boeing can design systems that increase humidity, but that also would increase condensation inside the plane, and thus corrosion in aluminum. Boeing could design planes with higher cabin air pressure, but that would mean adding heavy reinforcement.

Using composites eliminates both restrictions, Bair said.

Composites also will greatly change the way Boeing builds the 7E7.

At Boeing’s massive Everett factory, workers use 30-ton cranes to lift airplane pieces into four-story steel “jigs” that hold them in place. Mechanics hand-drill holes in the aluminum sheets to bolt together millions of panels and stringers, and subassemblies and fasteners. Other mechanics string, by hand, miles of wires and cables. When Boeing is at full production, it takes about three weeks.

Using composites changes that. Boeing and its partners will fabricate “monolithic” 7E7 parts delivered to the factory largely intact.

So instead of putting together up to 3 million parts, Dreamliner mechanics will deal with fewer than 10,000. And instead of the 5,000 or more people who build the 747, Boeing will need as few as 800 for the 7E7.

Bair created a buzz this summer when he told the Snohomish County Economic Development Council that Boeing’s goal will be to assemble the new plane in three days.

Boeing’s suppliers will play a bigger role in this plane than any other.

Boeing will build about 37 percent of the plane in-house, with the rest – including, for the first time, the wings – coming from outside suppliers.

Those suppliers will do the detailed design work on their own – another first with the 7E7.

And those companies will invest their own money in the program as “risk-sharing” partners, in return for a share of the profits on each jet sold.

Along with new airframe parts, there will be new electronics.

Boeing plans to use an array of new cockpit systems aboard the 7E7. The new systems will draw less power from the engines.

But passengers will be more likely to notice Connexion by Boeing, the aerial Internet service that will be installed on the planes and will allow passengers to send and receive e-mail and surf the Web while airborne.

Boeing also has tried to reconfigure the passenger cabins to make them more comfortable – larger windows to look out, and bigger bins for storing luggage. New materials and arches will make the ceilings seem taller.

Designers have even come up with “Dream Lavs” for the Dreamliner – fancy new restrooms that include diaper changing stations and windows of their own.