When Boeing first envisioned its 787 final assembly line, it sought to eliminate its reliance on overhead cranes to move large structural assemblies into join positions to promote the leanest possible manufacturing environment. For the first several aircraft the company assembled this was the case. Initially, the 787’s wings were slid along the floor of the 40-26 building into position for final body join, however according to its 787 action movie trailer “We Build The Dream“, overhead cranes are now being used to moved the 787’s wings from laydown to wing-to-body join.
The change, which factory sources say was implemented in the Spring of 2009 was initially denied by Boeing, which maintained that overhead cranes were not a part of the 787 assembly plan. The airframer’s own video paints a different picture, and is believed to rapidly accelerate the process of moving the wings into the wing-to-body join position.
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This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.