Boeing is set to deliver the first Dreamliner 787 made in South Carolina, a jet equipped with an engine model that recently experienced failures and has drawn federal scrutiny.
The North Charleston-built jet, for Air India, is "ticketed" and certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, which means it is ready for delivery, a Boeing official says. Its General Electric GEnx engines also have undergone special inspection, the official says, after the failures raised concerns.
Delivery from the second Boeing plant to make Dreamliners marks an important milestone for a jet that has been beset by assembly problems that caused huge cost overruns and delays.
Carbon composites that replaced aluminum on the jet reduced its weight and cut fuel consumption 20% compared with other planes its size on similar routes - savings prized by airline customers eager to tame soaring fuel bills. But the delays have damaged Boeing's credibility with customers, making the first delivery from the second line all the more meaningful. The engine problems could have caused further delays.
The special engine inspections comes after recent incidents in two Boeing 787s in which the fan midshaft on General Electric GEnx-1B engines fractured or showed cracks. The National Transportation Safety Board recommended immediate safety inspections.
One of the incidents took place in July at Charleston International Airport when debris from the engine of a Boeing 787 sparked a grass fire near the runway where it was taxiing.
The FAA tells Reuters it would stop short of issuing an emergency directive on the engines, sticking instead to more routine safety notices.
"We have done the checks on all our GE engines," says Jack Jones, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina, at an international trade conference near Charleston.
"We're clear and we're good," he tells Reuters. "GE has done a great job of figuring out quickly what we have to do to ensure the integrity of the engine. We know that and we've implemented it."
Jones says the engine issue had not affected its schedule of delivering planes. "It obviously didn't stop deliveries. That is absolutely critical."
"Trust me, with GE, FAA, regulatory, Boeing, we would never have let that engine go on an airplane if we even slightly suspected it. So we know it's safe." He says the plane maker "is in probably one of the most highly regulated industries in the U.S."
The plane was finished and the planned delivery is timed to suit the customer, Jones says.
Two 787s built at Boeing's Everett, Washington, plant have already been delivered to Air India.
Boeing South Carolina, which is currently building a 787 widebody jet every 18 days at its North Charleston final assembly plant, has 6,100 employees including about 200 on the flight line, Jones says.
The production rate will rise to three-and-a-half airplanes "later," Jones says. The plant also builds 787 aft fuselages for Boeing's Puget Sound final assembly plant.
"Not just here in South Carolina but in Puget Sound, we're all really focused on production rate because the production rates in several of our plants are going up to unprecedented levels," he says.