Major assembly of sub-components for the first Boeing 757-300 will begin at Boeing's Renton, Washington, assembly site in November. Manufacturing has already begun at the plant with the loading of the front left-wing spar into an automated spar-assembly tool.

"This is breaking new ground for the aircraft," says Jack Gucker, vice-president 737/757 derivative programmes. "It is the first time an automated spare assembly tool [ASAT] has been used for the 757."

At 54.4m, the 757-300 will be 6.2m longer than the 707-300, previously the largest aircraft to be built at Renton. Apart from the installation of the ASAT, other changes include extensions to several machines and tools to handle the extra length of stringers, skin panels and fuselage sections.

The walls of the seal and paint shop and anti-corrosion spray booths have been knocked down and moved out by nearly 5m to accommodate the longer aircraft.

The ASAT will be used for the automatic drilling and installation of more than 2,600 fasteners into the wing, reducing manufacturing time and cost, as well as improving quality. This has been made possible by "digitising" the wing design as part of the preparations for the -300 programme, as well as using technology introduced for the Next Generation 737.

Although the -300 wing is identical in shape and size to that of the -200, parts of the spars, stringers, webs and skins have been strengthened to take the higher loads of the longer aircraft. The ASAT will accommodate both -200 and -300 wing sets.

The first fuselage panels will be delivered to Renton from Wichita, Kansas, in November. Final assembly is set to start in March 1998, with roll-out scheduled for May and first delivery in 1999.

Source: Flight International