According to Alenia Aeronautica, it is meeting its commitments as a supplier for the Boeing 787 and has not contributed to the delays the program is suffering. The Italian company delivers complete composite fuselage sections to Global Aeronautica, its joint venture with Vought in Charleston, South Carolina, which subsequently adds components to the structures before shipping them to Boeing’s final assembly line in Everett, Washington. Boeing has identified the Charleston operation as part of the problem with its complex 787 supply chain.
Alenia has told AIN 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. Last month, it reported that progress with production sets five through nine is well advanced, and that work has just started on the 18th set. As for the 787 stabilizer, manufactured at Alenia’s Foggia plant, following the delivery of the first two preproduction sets, two more sets were recently delivered and the third was due to be dispatched early this month, along with the fifth fuselage set. Stabilizer sets four through six are now in the assembly phase and work has just started on set number nine.
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