Boeing begins 1,000th 767

EVERETT — The Boeing Co. celebrated the start of the 1,000th 767 at its Everett plant today, saying it hoped a successful bid for a new U.S. Air Force tanker would mean it would produce many more of the aircraft.

Calling the 1,000th a career milestone for the aircraft, Kim Pastega, a Boeing vice president and 767 general manager, pushed a button to ready the wing spar for the jet.

Placing the left spar, which holds up the wing, is the beginning of all of the planes. “The spar build is where it all happens,” she said. “We’re looking to the future with the potential tanker contract and 20 additional years of production,”

Pastega noted that the company has 55 orders now for the 767. If it gets the $35 billion contract for the tanker, it would make 179 of those in the initial order and possibly more later.

Boeing estimates that a successful tanker bid would create 50,000 jobs in the United States and 9,000 in Washington state alone.

Pastega said its an exciting time for the 767.

In addition to it’s possible use as the Air Force’s new tanker, it also is getting a new production line inside the Everett plant that Pastega said should be ready by the end of this year.

“It’s a huge opportunity for us to focus on being more efficient,” she said.

The new line would have a smaller footprint inside the world’s largest building by volume, so it would use less factory space. It would also add some efficiences that would allow it to build 767’s faster than it has in the past, Pastega said.

She said the company is in the middle of producing 1.5 767s a month and plans to go to two a month next summer. All Nippon Airways, the launch customer for the 787, will get the 1,000th 767, Pastega said.

She said the 767 is important because it has carved out many routes and was the first to fly an extended twin engine.

“It’s legacy is really big in terms of what it has done in aviation history,” she said. “We would compare this (the 1,000th aircraft) to one of those milestones that happens in life.”