NAGOYA, Japan – In many ways, the building of the Dreamliner starts here.
At new factories scattered around this old port city, three Japanese aerospace companies will build key portions of the Boeing Co.’s 787.
Workers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build the major wing framework not far from where their grandfathers built the famed Zero-sen fighters of World War II.
At Fuji Heavy Industries, workers have already built the first center wing box – the key piece linking the wings to the fuselage.
And at Kawasaki Heavy Industries, testing has started on the equipment to build parts of the wing and body of the new jet.
“This is a big and memorial event in KHI,” said Hirokazu Komaki, the company’s 787 program manager.
In all, more than a third of Boeing’s newest jet will be built in Japan, the various pieces coming out of gleaming new autoclaves.
The companies plan to use abrasive water jets to trim the pieces to shape and to drill holes. They also plan to use sound waves – bounced through tanks of water in some cases – to ensure there are no gaps between layers of the finished pieces.
Once complete, the parts will be barged to “Centrair,” the new Central Japan Airport built on a manmade island in the middle of Ise Bay. From there, modified 747 large cargo freighters will carry some pieces to Italy, some to South Carolina and a few directly to Boeing in Everett.
The 787 will “drastically change our conventional common sense about aircraft manufacturing,” Komaki said.
Composites know-how
The 787 is not the first composite people mover for Fuji, parent company of automaker Subaru.
Years ago, the company experimented with snowboards from the fiber-and-resin materials, said Hideyuki Sano, Fuji’s general manager for Boeing projects.
It didn’t work, Sano said, noting the boards weren’t flexible and riders often crashed. Fuji learned from that, Sano added.
Boeing Co. executives say the new 787 will benefit from the experience of their Japanese partners.
“These partners are long-term partners for Boeing,” said Scott Strode, Boeing’s vice president for 787 production. “They’ve been very good over a long time.”
This time, however, the partners are doing more than ever.
The decision to outsource the wing box to Mitsubishi created a stir within Boeing. The company had long prided itself on building wings, which are complicated structures. Not only do they provide the lift for the jets, they also hold the main fuel tanks.
Sending the wings to a supplier, critics said, was a sign that Boeing had given up building the important parts of its own airplanes, opening the door for competitors.
Advocates counter with the argument that the move allows Boeing to concentrate on something only it can do – design and sell jets and manage global supply networks. The debate continues.
For now, the decision to outsource so much of the 787 is looking really smart, said Teal Group aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia.
The partners contributed up-front cash while limiting potential losses should the 787 fizzle, he said. “You’re getting cost off your books and you’re getting risk off your books,” he added.
In contrast, Airbus kept a far greater portion of its A380 work in-house – and as a result, now that the program is stuttering, it’s liable to be the biggest loser, Aboulafia said.
Mitsubishi built composite wings for the Japanese F-2 fighter, said Takashi Fujimoto, the company’s 787 program manager.
But at 30 meters long by 6 meters wide (roughly 99 feet by 20 feet), the 787 wing box goes beyond what the company has done before, he said.
“It has a very complicated shape and complicated structures,” Fujimoto said. “It’s a big challenge.”
Boeing and Mitsubishi have been working together for 35 years, said Sinichi Yoshia, the company’s deputy general manager. “In this 787 program, we will succeed in building the world’s first carbon-fiber wing.”
Worldwide commuters
For some Japanese engineers, the 787’s global assembly line has meant a global commute to work.
Keiksuke Hirose is the 787 manufacturing and engineering leader at Mitsubishi. “Manufacturing juggler is more like it,” he quipped.
He recently returned to Japan after four years working with Boeing in Everett. He’s glad to be home. Seattle is “a very good scenery place, but I’m sorry, there’s no beer,” he joked. “I am all Japanese. I like Japanese attractions more.”
Dama Hamada is the lead designer for the stringers that will reinforce the forward fuselage Kawasaki is building for the new jet. He’s rotated back to Japan, while his Canadian-born wife stays in Renton.
It’s only a temporary move, he explained, and besides, he wouldn’t have seen her much if she’d come with him, Hamada said. “I’ve been working 14 hours a day.”
Hamada, who is Japanese, spent five years working for Kawasaki in Renton and Everett, and he sports a 787 sticker from the Boeing Store on his Kawasaki hard hat.
Aerospace engineers are all alike, Hamada said.
“Obviously, there are cultural differences and stuff,” he said. But “as far as designing, it’s pretty much the same.”
The way Boeing and its partners are building the Dreamliner is different, Hamada said. Instead of dictating the details, Boeing let Kawasaki figure them out.
“We were there even before the concept was fixed,” he said. “That’s what’s exciting for us. They’re letting us do more. It’s our design.”
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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