Alenia Aeronautica has said it is meeting its commitments as a supplier for the Boeing 787 and not contributing to delays, after Boeing announced further delays to the Dreamliner programme as a result of its various suppliers around the world being unable to meet their delivery targets.
The Italian company delivers complete composite fuselage sections to Global Aeronautica, its joint venture with Vought in the US, which subsequently adds components to the structures before shipping them to Boeing’s final assembly line in AirBridgeCargo plans to use Yemelyanovo hub to fly to North America and Asia. Everett, Washington.
Boeing has identified the Charleston operation as part of the problem with its complex 787 supply chain. Alenia has said that its Grottaglie factory in southern Italy is on schedule to deliver the first two preproduction sets of fuselage sections (numbers 44 and 46), as well as the first four production sets, according to a report in Aviation International News.
Last month, it reported that progress with production sets fi ve through nine is well advanced, and that work has just started on the 18th set. Alenia is also constructing the 787 horizontal stabiliser for Boeing.
The 787’s fuselage sections are being built using “one-piece barrel” technology to maximize the amount of composite materials and to avoid the use of thousands of rivets typical of aluminum fuselages, saving between 15 and 20 per cent in weight. The process involves a computer-controlled robot applying layers of carbon fibre on a huge mould to create a single-piece section. The section has to be baked in a large autoclave because the 787 fuselage measures about 19 feet in diameter and the larger sections made by Alenia Aeronautica are more than 49 feet long.
For the 787 program, Alenia formed a new subsidiary called Alenia Composite at the purpose-built Grottaglie site, where it erected a 682,000-sq-ft building. The runway of the nearby airport was extended from 5,500 feet to 11,500 feet to allow operations of the transport aircraft that carry Dreamliner subassemblies. Overall, Alenia is investing about US$1.3 billion in the 787.