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EuroWire – November 2009
27
Transat lant ic Cable
A spokeswoman for Boeing told the
Times
that the company
had not disclosed the problem when it arose because it was
not expected to affect the production schedule or the cost
of the Dreamliner programme overall. She said the company
had created an external patch to be applied to the skin of the
mid-fuselage section of each of the first 23 Dreamliners sold.
A permanent fix to the wrinkle problem was to be found for
aircraft produced later. The stop-production order was delivered
on the same day in June when Boeing announced its most
recent postponement of the first flight of the 787, attributed to
a structural flaw where the wings join the fuselage. Technical
sources consulted by FlightBlogger said that the two problems
and their fixes appear to be entirely separate issues.
Alenia Aeronautica, a subsidiary of the Italian conglomerate
❈
❈
Finmeccanica, had been building fuselages for the Dream-
liner at a specially built factory in Grottaglie, Italy. From
there, the fuselages were shipped to a Boeing plant in
Charleston, South Carolina, aboard a modified 747. The
first repairs to a 787, involving the addition of new layers of
carbon composite material, were to be done in Charleston.
The 22 other planes to be patched will be treated there and
at factories in Italy and in Everett, Washington.
The Charleston plant, bought by Boeing in July for
❈
❈
$580 million plus about $420 million in debt forgiveness,
is under consideration for expansion to accommodate a
second assembly line for the Dreamliner.
Acquisition of the plant, which also makes fuselage sections
for the big plane, presumably offers Boeing a way to exert
greater control over the production process and to resolve
supplier problems.
The prospect of the new line was welcome news in
South Carolina, but the senators representing the state
of Washington – home to Boeing production since 1916
– made plain that they will not willingly surrender any
Boeing operation. “Our commitment to keeping Boeing
in Washington has never wavered and never will,” reads
a joint statement by the two senators. “The second line
belongs in Washington State.”
Wherever the new assembly line is sited, it will be in opera-
tion by 2012, a Boeing spokesman said in August. A decision
on the location is expected by the end of 2009.
Dorothy Fabian – USA Editor
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