When Boeing first unveiled its 787 final assembly line, the blue and yellow Mother of All Tooling Towers stood as a hulking symbol of a radical lean production philosophy required for the composite jetliner.
Now, as Boeing seeks to balance its own role amidst an historic global production rate increase, the MOATT is likely to become both a symbol of the company’s production missteps and of a more recent push to conventionalize as Boeing struggles to complete a long-awaited recovery.
Productions sources say the MOATT will be retired and replaced by old-fashioned cranes as the company continues to balance the 787’s revolutionary potential with practicalities of production.
Today, Boeing’s 787 final assembly line is stocked with the 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th production aircraft for early customers ANA, Air India, Air India and JAL, respectively. The line shows both its maturity and immaturity, with Airplane 26’s fuselage sections fully painted in white primer, yet the aircraft also lacks its horizontal stabilizer, the victim of workmanship issues by Alenia Aeronautica.
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.