Boeing Co will base design and development work for its proposed new 7E7 jetliner at its massive Everett manufacturing complex, but Japanese suppliers will build more than a third of the aircraft, including major wing components, the company said Thursday.
Boeing confirmed earlier reports that three Japanese companies will play a significantly larger role in manufacturing the fuel-efficient jet than in earlier Boeing models and will handle the complicated wing production, previously done almost entirely in-house.
The Japanese companies will provide about 35 percent of the 7E7. Currently, Boeing's Japanese partners build about 21 percent of the Boeing 777 airframe, and 15 percent of the 767.
PHOTO: AP
Chicago-based Boeing has said the new midsize fuel-efficient airplane will be assembled in the US, but has not announced where. Boeing currently builds three widebody jet models at its Everett factory.
The 7E7 program headquarters and development and design-integration center will be in Everett, Boeing said.
Boeing, through its divisions in Frederickson, Washington; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Wichita, Kansas; and other locations, also will manufacture about 35 percent of the aircraft, including the vertical fin, flight deck and forward fuselage.
Two other suppliers, Alenia Aeronautica of Italy and Vought Aircraft Industries of Dallas, will build 26 percent of the plane's body.
Boeing is conducting a nationwide search to determine where to assemble the 7E7 and is expected to announce the winning site by the end of the year.
The plant would employ about 800 to 1,200 people.
A number of states, including Washington, have been trying to lure the site with tax packages and other incentives.
Boeing said it would build the plane's vertical tail fin in Frederickson, near Tacoma and about 80km south of the Everett plant. The fixed and movable leading edges of the wing will be built at its Tulsa plant, the flight deck and part of the forward fuselage section at Wichita, the movable trailing edges at its Australian plant and the wing-to-body fairing at its Winnipeg, Canada, factory.
Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will be responsible for the wing box.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries will provide the remaining part of the forward fuselage, the main landing-gear wheel well and the main wing fixed trailing edge. Fuji Heavy Industries will make the center wing box.
Vought and Alenia will build the horizontal stabilizer and the center and aft fuselage, about 26 percent of the 7E7 structure.
Boeing said about 4 percent of the structure work remains to be awarded to subcontractors.
A decision on who will supply the engines for the aircraft is expected by the middle of next year, Boeing said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique