March 2015 17 Working Dream Boeing South Carolina employees are excited about the future and take pride in their role in the Boeing family by james wallace Chuck Deutsch remembers what it was like in those early days, not long after what had been the site of old phosphate mines, abandoned for decades, was partially cleared, excavated and filled for the construction of two huge factory buildings to support production of a new kind of Boeing commercial jetliner—one with advanced technology and carbon-fiber skin. He and those other first employees drove to and from work each day down a dirt road lined with trees, underbrush, and scattered wetlands on either side—not to mention a few snakes and alligators, which are not uncommon in the South Carolina Lowcountry. “It was pretty tough back then to get much done,” recalled Deutsch, who started as a contract worker for Global Aeronautica in 2007, shortly after Global, a joint venture between Vought Aircraft Industries and Italian partner Alenia Aeronautica, began production at the site near Charleston, S.C., of the first composite midfuselage barrel for the 787 Dreamliner. Next to the Global Aeronautica plant was a second plant for aft-body fuselage fabrication and assembly, operated by Vought. Upon completion, the fuselage sections manufactured and assembled at the two plants were transported in a modified 747 to Boeing’s Everett, Wash., factory for final assembly of new Dreamliners. “The operation and people were so new. There were few processes in place,” Deutsch explained of the painfully slow pace of producing those first fuselage barrels. “It was a momentous occasion when we could Photo: In South Carolina, 787 Final Assembly has progressed to a rate of three airplanes per month— almost three years to the day since final assembly began at the site. Bob Ferguson | Boeing
Frontiers March 2015 Issue
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