Boeing's North Charleston, South Carolina 787 final assembly line has received its first set of wings for the first Boeing commercial aircraft assembled outside of the US Pacific Northwest.
The wings were delivered on 6 July to the final assembly line by a 747 Dreamlifter from Nagoya, Japan, where they were built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
The wings are for the 46th 787 built, an aircraft for Air India, which will be the first aircraft built at North Charleston's 88-30 building, the company designation for the new final assembly line.
The facility will eventually build three 787s per month by the end of 2013, along with an additional seven per month from Boeing's Everett, Washington 787 facility.
Company sources said the first five 787s built in Charleston will all go to the Indian flag carrier.
The 88-30 building received its initial Certificate of Occupancy from the city of North Charleston on 16 May, beginning the population of Boeing staff in the new facility.
The Alenia Aeronautica-built horizontal stabiliser was recently delivered as well, and only the aircraft's Spirit Aerosystems-built forward fuselage is left to be delivered by Dreamlifter before final assembly begins.
The centre fuselage integration and aft fuselage fabrication take place at the nearby 88-20 and 88-19 facilities respectively, and will be rolled to final assembly.
The first South Carolina-built 787 is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2012.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
