Boeing 787 Dreamliner - Mark Wagner [46]
Outside the site, which required 20,000 tons of structural steel and 1.76 million cubic feet of concrete, the main runway at Grottaglie was being almost doubled in length, to 9,800 feet, to handle the Dreamlifter. Work on this project was originally due for completion in December 2006, with the first landing of the Dreamlifter expected in the middle of that month, but progress was briefly held up over the uprooting of ancient olive groves at the end of the runway. The majority of the old trees were later replanted around the Taranto region.
Workers at Grottaglie complete the 33-foot-long center fuselage Section 46, which contains about four thousand pounds of carbon-fiber material. In March 2007 Alenia shipped the first complete fuselage center Sections 44 and 46 to Global Aeronautica. Note the longitudinal “top hat” stringers, which were comolded with the fuselage skins, and the frames, which were connected to the skins with mechanically fastened shear ties. Frames and shear ties were supplied from Alenia’s Pomigliano site, while some machined parts came from a plant at Nola. Mark Wagner
Building on skills developed for the 777, which involves the routine assembly of the 46-foot-long composite flap section at Alenia’s Foggia plant, the company produced a fully co-cured solid laminate monolithic part for the horizontal stabilizer some 33 feet long—the largest monolithic structure ever produced for a commercial aircraft. Initial preproduction units were completed in the third quarter of 2006, and assembly of the first production horizontal stabilizer followed by the start of December 2006, with initial deliveries set to start in early 2007.
Work was also well under way at Spirit Aerosystems, a former Boeing facility responsible for producing the Section 41 nose in an all-new facility in Wichita, Kansas. Describing the 113,000-square-foot site as “one of the most advanced in the world,” Spirit 787 Section 41 Facility Director Forrest Urban added in April 2007 that “there were a lot of skeptics in the world who didn’t believe this could be done.”
Ingersoll double-headed fiber placement machines applied composite plies over the Section 41 barrel mounted on a rotating mandrel made from interlocking segments. The 42-by-21-foot barrels were cured in a 70-by-30-foot autoclave built and installed by California-based Thermal Equipment. Following baking in the autoclave, sections were removed for nondestructive testing using an automated ultrasonic scanning system before passing to the next bay position for the cutting of door frames and windows, and the addition of frames for the support of cockpit windows, as well as the floor and nose gear.
Unlike previous Section 41s, all built at what was Boeing’s Wichita division until the commercial operations were sold to become Spirit in 2005, the 787 work involved a lot more completion in Kansas. As well as the nose undercarriage, Spirit also was responsible for the installation of the full flight deck, including controls, wiring, displays, and the avionics in the electronics bay—all items previously installed during final assembly either at Renton or Everett. John Pilla, Spirit’s 787 vice president and general manager, said, “we’ve been ‘stuffing’ planes for more than ten years, but this is a first for us.”
A Brotje automated frame riveter drilling machine at Spirit AeroSystems is guided by sensors to within plus or minus 0.002 inch for drilling holes for frames, sheer ties, and door and flight deck window surround structures. Each Section 41 is rotated twice using the blue fixture that holds the barrels in place. Mark Wagner
The pace was just as frantic at Charleston, South Carolina, where Vought and its joint venture with Alenia, Global Aeronautica, had set up shop for the 787 program. The site was first selected in September 2004, and clearing of the dense wetland area began in March 2005 with the removal of vegetation and its associated banana spiders, snakes, and alligators, said “Newt” Newton, the company’s vice president and deputy general