Columbus, Ohio. His job now is to examine inlets, sending them back for rework if they don’t fit properly. Building engines was interesting, but Thomas finds his quality role to be equally demanding. “Everything is important here,” he said. “Cars can pull over on the side of the road when they have a problem—you can’t do that when you’re 30,000 feet up in the air.” The 737 MAX inlet is Propulsion South Carolina’s first product line, but the team’s goal is to someday develop and build an entire nacelle for an airplane model. “Our focus is on design for manufacturability and cost … and we work closely with our propulsion suppliers to achieve the best total cost,” said Chuck Marano, 777X engineering manager. “That’s the vision.” • DANIEL.W.RALEY@BOEING.COM NOVEMBER 2016 | 19
Frontiers November 2016 Issue
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