Boeing 787 celebration starts with hand delivery
The hand-delivery was a vivid demonstration of the airplane's lightweight structure, which promises 20 percent fuel savings for airlines, but also of the snail's pace of production following numerous delays.
"The 787 represents a fundamental revolution, a transformational change in airplane design, manufacturing and performance benefits," Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney told the assembled crowd of about 5,000 people huddled under umbrellas around the airplane.
"Embodied in this incredible machine are 95 years of Boeing aerospace know-how," he said.
Boeing shares rose as much as 4.2 percent on Monday and were still up 2.7 percent at $61.09 in afternoon trading. (Graphic on Dreamliner timeline: r.reuters.com/hyx83s )
"I cannot wait to see the day when the skies of the world are filled with 787s," said ANA President Shinichiro Ito.
Executives and workers repeatedly acknowledged the long, rocky road the Dreamliner has traveled.
The delivery ceremony was held at the planemaker's Everett wide-body production facility, which is packed with undelivered aircraft in a sign of an inventory build-up pegged at more than $16 billion, sitting on the Boeing balance sheet.
Dozens of aircraft were parked around the site in various stages of readiness, some with billowing plastic covers over their cockpits and engines or with weight-balancing yellow blocks hanging off the wings where the engines would be.
Investors are now waiting to see whether Boeing can pull a rabbit out a hat and meet its production goals after three years of delays and seven postponements.
"Now is the time for Boeing looking forwards and not backward, concentrate on the manufacturing process and satisfy the customer," said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at London brokerage BGC Partners. "Once they do that the rest will fall into place."
Hundreds of Boeing workers were taught on the eve of the ceremony how to bow in unison as a mark of respect for ANA's Ito whose company formally took control of the first of its 55 Dreamliners on Sunday.
ANA expressed confidence in Boeing's ability to build the rest of its fleet on time, including 12 airplanes due by end-March and eight in the following 12 months. But after seven delays, analysts say Boeing must work hard to prevent further slippage.
Boeing plans to lift production to 10 787 Dreamliners a month by the end of 2013, while also pushing up production of the 737 narrowbody, upgrading the same model and gearing up for production of a 767 aerial tanker for the U.S. Air Force.
"We share some apprehension with the market about the achievability of that plan, which will take us to a very high production rate for a wide-body aircraft," said aerospace analyst Carter Copeland at Barclays Capital in New York.
"Given the stops and starts and problems it is natural for investors to have some concerns about achievability but the company seems confident."
A Boeing official said production problems at a key Italian supplier were no longer seen as a "pacing item," or potential source of bottlenecks that define how quickly it can raise 787 production from the current rate of about two aircraft a month.
The company plans to make a decision on when to go to the next step "soon," he said, adding it could proceed in increments of one aircraft or even half an aircraft a month.
Boeing's Everett plant contains four 787s in one bay of its giant assembly hall, with other 787s parked in an area set aside for completion work. Each aircraft currently stays for 10 days at each point on the line, but this will have to be accelerated as production increases.
The main line is designed to rise to seven aircraft a month. A second temporary "surge" line is being readied to tackle three aircraft a month when necessary and a planned facility at North Charleston, South Carolina, will assemble three a month.
The surge line will partly allow Boeing to smooth out alterations of production flow between two models of aircraft currently on sale.
Source: reuters
