Boeing 787 Dreamliner - Mark Wagner [85]
Following delivery of the parts to Everett by road, rail, or Dreamlifter, all the sub-assemblies were gathered in Building 40-36 on the northern side of the complex. The largest subassemblies were delivered on a specially designed cargo loader vehicle (see chapter 7), which trundled slowly around from the ramp area, while smaller parts arrived by truck and forklift. On arrival, the largest parts were picked up by a massive mobile gantry crane, nicknamed “the Boat Loader” because of its resemblance to the large mobile cranes seen at docksides.
Normally the biggest crane on the dock side, this specially modified 45-foot-tall ISL70 crane is easily absorbed into Boeing’s 472-million-cubic-foot Everett site. Dubbed “the Boat Loader” and supplied by Wisconsin-based Shuttlelift, the mobile gantry crane lifts sections from the cargo loader and delivers them from the preintegration area for induction onto the final assembly line. To work indoors, the crane’s General Motors 8.1L gas engine was converted to propane, thus eliminating harmful exhaust emissions. The crane’s four hoist drums, on the lower side beams, also were modified to move independently to handle irregular components such as the wing sections. The crane also is radio-controlled, providing steering for the four-wheel-drive/four-wheel-steering modes. Mark Wagner
When it was full, Building 40-36 resembled a model aircraft kit box, with big pieces of aircraft ready to be “glued” together. The parts were prepped for induction into the final assembly line in a process called preintegration. The same building also housed the horizontal stabilizer assembly area, as well as outboard wing integration, fin and rudder assembly, and installation of floors and the tail cone. Once parts were prepared for the line they were picked up by the boat loader and carried through to the adjacent Building 40-26 for loading into the final assembly line.
Building 40-26 housed four positions and was designed with the flexibility to operate at a fast “pulse” rate, or gradually ramp up into a continuous moving line if necessary. “We have the ability to move it like the 737 and 777 if we want to,” said Westby, who added that the plan was initially to use the first three positions, with the fourth reserved for future expansion. Assembly time for the early “flow” aircraft was expected to be about seven weeks, while the “six-day flow” was envisaged by line number 100. The much-anticipated three-day flow was targeted for the ten-per-month rate in about 2010.
The assembly of the aircraft began in position 1, where final body join and systems installation and connection got under way. Symbolically dubbed “the Big Bang,” the work at position 1 included wing body and fin join, along with the assembly of the finished Section 48 empennage unit. Wings also were brought to the position on large mobile cradles, which doubled as tools for fitting the raked wingtips and the engine pylons. Other cradles also brought Section 41 and other fuselage parts into place for body joining.
Dwarfing all other tooling in Building 40-26 was a huge mobile structure called the MOATT, or “mother of all tooling towers.” Consisting of twin towers supporting cantilevered booms, the MOATT “acts like a clamshell and surrounds the aft part of the aircraft,” said Westby. Supporting the join between the aft sections 47 and 48, the MOATT picked up the horizontal stabilizer, fin, and “basically acts as a stand to build the whole aft end of the aircraft,” he added.
Forward of the tower were a pair of circumferential join tools, located fore and aft of the wing. The front tool joined the forward Section 41 to the midfuselage assembly, while the rear tool joined the aft 47/48 sections to the rest of the fuselage. “There are very few manually drilled holes,” says Westby.