Boeing conducts inaugural flight of 1st 787 built in North Charleston

Boeing marked another 787 milestone as the first Dreamliner built in North Charleston completed its first flight. Piloted by Tim Berg and Randy Neville, the airplane successfully conducted a five-hour test flight. More than 5,000 Boeing South Carolina employees watched a live broadcast of the airplane as it took off from Charleston International Airport.

"This is a proud moment for our Boeing South Carolina team and for Boeing," said Jack Jones, vice president/general manager, Boeing South Carolina. "In April, we gathered on the flightline to watch this airplane roll out of final assembly. Today, we watched as this airplane successfully completed its first production flight - one step closer to delivering our first South Carolina-built 787 Dreamliner to our customer."

Today's production flight test profile tested the airplane's controls and systems in a series of scenarios designed to verify the airplane operates as designed. The tests occurred in all stages of flight beginning prior to taxi, through final landing and taxi.


View Flight path of the maiden voyage of the 1st North Charleston-made Boeing 787 in a larger map

During the flight, the crew checked the functionality of onboard systems at high and medium altitudes. They also checked backup and critical safety elements including cabin pressurization, avionics, and navigation and communications systems. In addition, they shut down and re-started each engine during flight.

"First flight of this South Carolina-built airplane is a significant achievement and our teammates did a great job working together to make this happen," said Berg. "The airplane performed exactly as we expected."

The airplane will be flown to Ft. Worth, Texas to be painted with Air India's livery before returning to Boeing South Carolina for a mid-2012 delivery.

Boeing opens Interiors Fabrication Facility in North Charleston

Interiors Facility under construction, taken in March 2011

Facility will supply Boeing South Carolina with 787 interior components.

Last week, Boeing celebrated the opening of its new Interiors Fabrication facility in North Charleston.

The Interiors Responsibility Center South Carolina team will manufacture 787 interior parts including stowbins, closets, partitions, class dividers, floor-mounted stowbins used by flight attendants, overhead rests for flight-crews and flight attendants, video control stations and attendant modules for Boeing South Carolina.

Elected officials and representatives from community and business groups and local construction companies joined hundreds of Boeing employees to commemorate the opening.

"As part of today's celebration we acknowledge and thank you all for welcoming us into the community, and showing us your support as we bring our facility on line," said Lane Ballard, Boeing Interiors Responsibility Center South Carolina director. "We look forward to delivering our first set of interior components to Boeing South Carolina in 2012."

Boeing's Site Services Group, BRPH and Pattillo Construction were recognized at the ceremony for completing the facility on schedule. Pattillo's crew worked more than 500,000 labor-hours without a lost-time accident. 

The 300,000 square foot (27,871 square meters) facility includes state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, and employees will use the latest Lean processes and tools to efficiently produce interior components to match 787 production rates at Boeing South Carolina.

North Charleston High School students tour Boeing facility

On Friday, November 11, 2011 North Charleston High School Logistics Students earned the privilege of being the FIRST school group to tour the new Boeing facility.

Boeing has partnered with the Charleston County School District to create a new major in Logistics. North Charleston High School has one of only two Logistics programs in the state of South Carolina. After an introduction to the company and a welcome from Boeing Senior Managers, students were taken on a tour of the campus. They were able to view the production line and see first-hand the logistics involved in building an entire airplane.

The highlight of the tour took them through the 787 Final Assembly building, which is the size of 12 football fields. Inside, the first 787 is to be entirely assembled in the North Charleston facility was being finished. The tour ended at the new visitor’s center where the students were given Boeing 787 t-shirts for participating in the Logistics program at NCHS.

Logistics is a class that will prepare students for a successful career in Materials Handling.  Other local businesses such as Piggly Wiggly, CGI, Pearlstine, and Trident Technical Institute have partnered with this program to ensure its success.  All of these businesses hire high school graduates in this area and are committed to hiring NCHS students that successfully complete the Logistics Major.

The Logistics Class is designed to provide students with the fundamentals of Warehousing and Distribution.  It is an introductory course in Material Handling within a warehouse environment. Students will learn the concepts of warehousing and material logistics, as well as, how materials are handled, moved, stored, controlled and protected within a warehouse.