Title:
Development of the Boeing 787: Customers, Composites, and Collaboraton
Development of the Boeing 787: Customers, Composites, and Collaboraton
No Thumbnail Available
Author(s)
Jenks, Mark D.
Advisor(s)
Editor(s)
Collections
Supplementary to
Permanent Link
Abstract
Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner represents not only a breakthrough
in aerospace structures technology with its firstever
composite fuselage and wing, it also represents a
major advance in large- scale global collaboration. The
development process began with the Sonic Cruiser, a
radically new concept for increasing the speed of large
commercial jet transports. Early on, it was recognized that
the same basic suite of technologies that enabled higher
speed at acceptable cost, could also provide vastly superior
operating economics (through lighter weight and lower
maintenance costs) with today’s Mach .85 performance.
After an exhaustive process working with the world’s major
airlines, Boeing selected efficiency over speed and the 7E7
(later renamed the 787 Dreamliner) was born.
The formal development process began with the
program launch in 2003 and recently has moved into
initial production with the fabrication of the first major
structures for airplane #1 at seven major production sites
around the world (Alenia, Kawasaki, Fuji, Mitsubishi, Spirit,
Vought and Boeing) and the start of major assembly of the
wing at FHI’s Handa plant outside of Nagoya, Japan. The
initial full-scale structural tests of the wing have been
completed, the first fuselage sections are in production at
four major sites around the world, and the first massive
composite wing skins have been produced by MHI in their
new facility in Nagoya.
The other breakthrough developed during this period
was the creation of a whole new business model for global
collaboration. Along with an advanced suite of design and
collaboration tools developed with Daussault Systems,
Boeing assembled a network of the world’s leading
aerospace firms to participate in the early configuration
development process and take primary responsibility for
the detail design and manufacture of large integrated
volumes of the airplane. This diverse base of highly integrated
partnerships has lead to vastly improved efficiencies
through technology sharing as well as leveraging the
differences in company and national cultures and their
varied approaches to problem solving.
In the end, the true competitive advantage stems not
from any individual technology, but rather from the
combined ability to integrate intimate customer knowledge,
to identify and develop the highest leverage technologies
from around the world and to effectively marshal the
diverse strengths of the global aerospace industry.
Sponsor
Date Issued
2006-12-06
Extent
84:31 minutes
Resource Type
Moving Image
Resource Subtype
Lecture