September 9, 2006
UNRIVALED:
420 Dreamliners are on the books: Airbus struggling as Boeing begins initial production (JAMES GUNSALUS, 9/08/06, BLOOMBERG NEWS)
The 787 program remains on schedule, and engine testing is ahead of schedule, Craig Saddler, the chief financial officer on the project, said Friday at a conference in New York. Boeing is continuing to invest to bring down the plane's weight, he said. [...]Posted by Orrin Judd at September 9, 2006 3:31 PM"We are sold out through 2011, and 2012 is getting taken up really fast," Saddler said at the conference. "This feels like any development program I've been on. We are working the schedule and we are working weight. We'd like weight to be better, so we're investing there." [...]
The 250-seat plane, which will be the first to be made of more than half composite materials, will be assembled in a record three days after all its parts are delivered from as far away as Italy and Japan.
Airbus, still without a plane to compete with the 787, said separately Friday that it won orders for 222 airliners in the first eight months of the year, less than half of the total of its U.S. rival.
Here's an article from the local paper (Everett [WA] Herald) about the Italian 787 supplier. And here's one about one of the Japanese suppliers too. 777 parts are made in Japan and Oz (among other places) already.
It's quite an operation to get the larger parts to the Everett factory. Ship to Tacoma -> barge to Everett -> train to the factory (up a spur with a grade of ~5%, can only pull a couple of cars in Fall when wet leaves are on the track!). Since most parts fill the (train) cars to within a couple of inches, they have a special unloading building to shut out the wind and rain. It's quite a logistics operation. I believe they plan on flying more parts directly on the 787 and have modified 4-747's for that purpose.
Posted by: TimF at September 11, 2006 1:25 AM