For the Dreamliner, Boeing took another idea Toyota had
perfected with its cars – outsourcing much of the plane, and
having larger chunks come in pre-built. Jeff Klemann, Boeing’s
vice president of final assembly, explains: “If you look at other
planes, we make a lot more of them in the factory – we assemble
the skin sections to make a barrel; we make a lot of the wing. With
the Dreamliner, the major parts come in pre-made – we get a
service-ready, pressure-tested wing fromMitsubishi in Japan; we
get a whole nose section from Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita that’s
‘stuffed’, which means that the wiring, hydraulics and pneumatics
are already installed. It makes our job easier – we’re really just
attaching pieces.”
While a million holes are drilled into a Boeing 747, the
Dreamliner requires fewer than 10,000 holes – and the result is
less time in the factory. By the end of this year, they’ll be able to
finish a Dreamliner in five days at Everett, a remarkable feat given
that the next quickest production line – for Boeing’s 737, produced
at the Renton factory on the other side of Seattle – is 11 days. The
747 jumbo requires four months at Everett. One day, the 787 will be
in and out of the factory in three days.
And once it’s ready to fly, it’s packed with more technology
than any previous passenger plane. Production test manager
Shane Decker, who manages a team of 21 that tests things like the
toilets, seats, inflight entertainment, says: “The plane can order its
own parts; in the air, if it’s in distress, it can self-correct, or combat
turbulence. It’s the smartest plane we’ve ever seen.”
This summer, Norwegian’s Dreamliner will be flying routes from
Oslo to London, Barcelona, Nice, Malaga and Alicante, switching to
long-haul in mid-August . Look for the 787 symbol at norwegian.com
“By the end of the year,
they’ll be able to finish a
Dreamliner in five days”
Top
⁄
The Dreamliner is
unique in that its fuselage
comes in pre-built parts,
whereas many aeroplanes
are built from aluminium
sheets. The 787 has fewer
than 10,000 holes drilled
into it during production
(the 747 jumbo jet has
more than 1 million)
Above
⁄
Working on the
Dreamliner’s wing
The man
with the
manual
Steve Jahns is a
maintenance engineer
at the 787 operations
centre, where a small
team oversees every
Dreamliner on the
planet. On a big screen
at the front of the room,
you can see where every
Dreamliner is, while
other screens show
real-time technical
information on the
planes. Jahns says:
“My main job is the
maintenance manuals for
the planes, which can be
incredibly complicated.
As problems happen,
airlines call me and I
can verify procedures
and talk them through
what needs to be done.
It’s often as simple as
finding part numbers
for clips round plane
windows. When you have
thousands of parts, it’s
important you get
it right.”
Find more online
norwegian.com
boeing.com
newairplane.com
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