EVERETT – From a distance, they look like run-of-the-mill aluminum airplane wings.
That would make the wings for the Boeing Co.’s first 787 like those of any other jet. But the Dreamliner components that arrived at Boeing’s Everett factory early Tuesday are hardly ordinary.
Few elements of the 787 jet resemble previous planes built by Boeing, including the way different parts of the aircraft arrive in Everett, where the company will roll out its first completed Dreamliner on July 8.
A swollen 747 freighter, called the Dreamlifter, landed at Paine Field at 4:10 a.m. Tuesday with the two 98-foot-long wings standing upright inside its body – leaving just 6 inches between the ceiling of the 747 and the top edge of the wings.
The Dreamlifter carried the wings from Japan, where Mitsubishi Heavy Industries manufactured them from carbon fiber composite material, a sophisticated plastic. This is the first time that Boeing has allowed a supplier not only to build, but also to help design the wings of one of its planes.
“A composite wing of this size has never been built before,” Scott Strode, Boeing’s vice president of 787 airplane definition and production, said in a statement.
The wings delivered Tuesday still have to be painted, which partially explains why they look like aluminum. In the future, the wings will arrive already painted and stuffed with wiring. The initial deliveries from Japan will require a little more help from workers in Everett than what will be necessary later on, said Yvonne Leach, Boeing spokeswoman.
Boeing officials say their 787 Dreamliner remains on schedule for its maiden flight in late summer and first delivery to Japan’s All Nippon Airways in May 2008. The company bolstered staffing in Everett to finish any incomplete components arriving from one of Boeing’s global suppliers, such as Mitsubishi.
Of the jet’s major segments, only the center fuselage sections, made in Italy and Japan, have yet to be delivered to Everett. The final major pieces are expected to arrive on a Dreamlifter this week.
Everett workers will attach items including the wingtips and Australian-manufactured moveable edges to the wings.
Boeing has received the Korean-made wingtips but still awaits the moveable edges, said Mary Hanson, Boeing spokeswoman. Mitsubishi already has installed the wings’ fixed trailing and leading edges – built in Japan by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and in the United States by Spirit Aerospace, respectively. When finished, the 787’s wings span 197 feet.
Comprised of about 50 percent composite material, Boeing’s Dreamliner is expected to be lighter and more fuel-efficient than comparable planes. Boeing has received firm orders for 567 of its 787s from 44 customers.
Track the progress of the 787 with the Herald’s interactive graphic at www.heraldnet.com/ boeing.
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