787 Line 2 in Charleston: Aviation Week

Aviation Week reports that Boeing has selected North Charleston, SC, as the site for Line 2 for the 787, planning to build the 787-9 there. It’s all speculative if informed reporting. Update: Boeing called to say no decision has been made.

5 Comments on “787 Line 2 in Charleston: Aviation Week

  1. Well, I found this bit telling:

    “The North Charleston scenario sees initial production dedicated to the stretch 787-9 that is expected to receive its firm design configuration in October. That would indicate the start of major assembly work in the fourth quarter of 2010.”

    That particularly vapid statement, apparantly bereft of knowledge of what it takes to build airplanes reveals that the writers while possibly accurate about a move, are merely guessing.

    There is absolutly no way production on anything will happen in Charleston by Q-4 2010. Such an effort would have to replicate the capabilities of Everett in everything from materials handling, to flight test and delivery. A total scratch effort from breaking ground to the hiring, training, and certification of employees. Everybody, the works, from assemblers to painters, facilities and flight test personnel, locally based engineering, management, admin and logistics.

    An 90% of them with little to no aerospace background. The aerospace cycle has bottomed, and Boing will have to compete with LMT and NOC for skilled employees if indeed they want them. Which means the low wage panacea won’t be for long.

    Boeing will be fortunate if Global can keep up with 7/mo, and the japanese are already balking at more, and BA is probably going to have to pay them of to get an extra 3 units a month.

    Of course, the AW inference of 2010 production in S.C. is a bit imprecise, perhaps intentionally, but it would appear that’s what they mean to say.

    Only complete idiots would surmise a Q-4 2010 production launch in S.C.

    To be sure, there are many in the ranks of Boeing executives, and they might wish it, but it will never happen, and I’d bet my increasingly shrinking BA holdings on it.

    Moreover, engineering resources are probably being diverted from -9 to fix -8, so look for definition of -9 to come much later than october.

    Seriously, this is some of the worst reporting from AW I have seen in a long, long time. It’s pure specualtion and hype, and lacks totally in any sort of research or insight.

    IF Boeing chooses to wreck itself financially with a move (and why not since it’s been common practice in the past few years), I would estimate an actual aircraft rollout around 2014 or so. And that’s the best case scenario, if you want to play polyanna.

    Boeing execs look south and east, and see green pastures. In the end it will be their dustbowl. They will simply ahve expended massive monies, and much precious time and will probably end up with less than they have, just to spite the I.A.M , who will probably have the factories unionized within the first year. Right to work state or not, and yes, they will be able to use thier leverage effectively.

  2. @Onemancrew

    Cool down man. Let them play their games.
    I guess the Boeing management is realist enough to understand it being extremely difficult to gather the loans to build a 2nd 787 line somewhere in the outskirts of Charleston, SC. North Charleston is a crime stricken area with only 80’000 mostly undereducated inhabitants.
    The whole squabble is premature. Until now, I still didn’t see one single 787 in flight.
    Without a successful maiden flight, Boeing will not get one red cent from the banks.
    Anyway, for the foreseeable future our Boeing management must be glad if they can profitably run one single 787 production line, as long as the 787 backlog keeps shrinking the same fast pace as it did since start of this year.

  3. Makes you wonder became of Boeing’s three-day flow time objective for the Everett final assembly line. Even the interim objective of a six-day flow-time @ LN100 would have sufficed to crank out more than 10 aircraft per month from a single line. Does Boeing no longer consider this achievable?

  4. I guess perhaps I should get a resume out to Morgan Stanley, who is a little behind my predicitve curve:

    Prediction: First delivery of Boeing 787 will push until 2011
    “First delivery of the 787 could be as late as 2011, Morgan Stanley analyst Heidi Wood said in her most recent research note to investors.”

    http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/archives/172429.asp

  5. Boeing wins B-52 Bomber Upgrade Contract

    Wichita — The Boeing Co. has announced it won a $750 million, 10-year contract from the U.S. Air Force for engineering support on the B-52 bomber.

    The company said Tuesday the contract sustains about 150 jobs at Boeing plants in Wichita and Oklahoma City and at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La.

    Boeing engineers will support software, communication, avionics and other work. The contract provides for in-flight emergency support that allows pilots to contact Boeing engineers from the cockpit.

    http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/jul/01/boeing-wins-contract-build-b-52-bombers/

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