Boeing begins assembly work on stretched 787-9 jet
BY Staff and Wire Reports
Thursday, November 01, 2012
11/01/12 at 2:14 AM
Boeing Co. says work has begun on the new 787-9 jet, a stretched version of the 787-8 Dreamliner, as Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. began installing door frames in part of the fuselage.
Final assembly will be completed next year at Boeing's main wide-body jet plant in Everett, Wash., said Randy Tinseth, the planemaker's marketing chief, in a blog on the company website.
The first flight will be next year as well, and the plane will be delivered to the first customer in 2014, Tinseth wrote.
The 787-9 is 20 feet longer than the 787-8 and will carry 16 percent more passengers than the 250 carried by the 787-8, the first version of the plane.
The Dreamliner is the world's first composite-plastic airliner. Components are manufactured in Tulsa by Spirit AeroSystems Inc. and NORDAM.
