Boeing will conduct final assembly of the 787-10 exclusively in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Boeing currently builds 787-8s and 787-9s at both its facilities in Everett, Washington and South Carolina and will continue to do so. Final assembly of the first 787-10, which will be 18 ft. (5.5 m) longer than the 787-9, is scheduled for 2017 in North Charleston.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes VP and GM-787 program Larry Loftis said: “We looked at all our options and found the most efficient and effective solution is to build the 787-10 at Boeing South Carolina. This will allow us to balance 787 production across the North Charleston and Everett sites as we increase production rates.”
Boeing also added that the 787-10 “is too long to be transported efficiently from North Charleston, where systems integration work is performed, to the Everett facility for final assembly. In addition, introducing the 787-10 in North Charleston takes advantage of that facility’s capacity while allowing the Everett facility to continue improving productivity as it focuses on the 787-8 and 787-9.”
With two 787 production lines in Everett and one in North Charleston, Boeing is currently producing 10 787s per month. Boeing plans to boost the 787 production rate to 12 per month in 2016 and 14 per month by the end of the decade. North Charleston currently assembles three 787s monthly, expected to rise to five per month in 2016 and seven per month by 2020.
Boeing has logged 132 787-10 orders from six customers.