Handover Of First South Carolina-Built 787 Dreamliner Expected In 2012

Boeing marked the opening of its new South Carolina Delivery Center at a ribbon cutting ceremony in North Charleston Friday. Elected officials and representatives from community and business groups, suppliers and subcontractors joined more than 500 Boeing employees to commemorate the occasion. In honor of Veterans Day, Boeing South Carolina paid tribute to veteran teammates by selecting men and women who served in the armed forces from various site operations to assist in cutting the ribbon on stage.

"Today, we celebrate the opening of the Boeing South Carolina Delivery Center and look forward to delivering our first South Carolina-built 787s in 2012," said Jack Jones, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina. "Customers will come from around the world to take delivery of their 787 and will see the great pride and talent of our Boeing South Carolina teammates."

Boeing's Site Services Group, CJMW Architecture and the KRB Building Group were recognized at the ceremony for bringing construction of the building to completion on schedule. In addition, the KBR Building Group worked more than 4.7 million labor-hours on the Boeing South Carolina site without a lost time incident.

"Thank you to CJMW, KBR/Turner JV and SSG for their hard work in getting this building open and ready for us to start delivering airplanes," said Marco Cavazzoni, vice president and general manager, Final Assembly & Delivery, Boeing South Carolina. "We would not be here today without their dedication. I'd also like to thank our state and local government and industry partners for also making today possible. Today's ribbon cutting represents the last major piece of construction on our new Boeing South Carolina campus."

The 58,000 square foot facility includes three floors of offices, conference rooms and food operations. On the second floor, two passenger boarding bridges provide airplane access to customers, the first passenger boarding bridges to be used at a Boeing Delivery Center.

More than 600 tons of steel, 2,800 cubic yards of concrete, 42,000 square feet of exterior metal panels and 14,000 square feet of glass were used in the building's construction. The flight line has approximately 115,000 cubic yards of concrete with seven flight stalls serving as the working offices for flight service technicians before the delivery of the 787.

The South Carolina Final Assembly and Delivery facility will ramp up to produce three 787 Dreamliners per month by the end of 2013.

FMI: www.boeing.com