By Bob Bouyea
Executive Editor

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Vought Industries Inc.’s opening of their new facility, where they will assemble part of Boeing Inc.’s new 787 Dreamliner fuselage.

It was your typical ribbon-cutting event. There were the big scissors, the red ribbon, the cake and a line of politicians and company leaders thanking everyone and each other for a job well done before a room full of the area’s who’s who.

But the accomplishment that was being recognized was anything but typical. The massive 342,000-square-foot building, with 40-foot interior clear heights, took only one year and nine days to build. Much of the credit for this is heaped on Charles “Newt” Newton, who is now the vice president for Global Aeronautica, the joint venture between Vought and Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica, which is completing its building adjacent to Vought’s.

Newton was described as demanding yet fair and that is one of the reasons things got done on time or early. In the cavernous facility, Vought employees will fabricate and assemble aft fuselage sections of the Dreamliner, which will be made from composite material. This material will be lighter and stronger than aluminum, which is currently used to build aircraft today.

It was Gov. Mark Sanford who talked about why the facility was here at all. It was the dreams of building a lighter airplane that could shuttle people to their destinations at a reasonable cost because it will use less fuel to fly, he said.

But I would say the dream is bigger than that. I say Boeing had a dream of beating its competition, Airbus, and becoming the leader in aeronautics that it once was.

As both companies set off to build the next generation of airplanes, Airbus went big while Boeing went small.

And from early indicators, Boeing went the right way and Airbus has hit some turbulence, both in its design and its upper management.

Around the same time Boeing unveiled its Dreamliner, Airbus presented its A380 aircraft. It is a double-decker airplane, designed to be the world’s largest passenger jet with 555 seats.

But Airbus has announced production delays, with concerns about its wing structure. While it was already facing delays of up to six months, Airbus recently announced another delay due to the complexity of wiring the aircraft. These delays are costing the company $2.5 billion in operating profit between 2007 and 2010, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Once the aircraft is put into service it is likely to be governed by unprecedented operating restrictions on landings and takeoffs due to its size. The large aircraft causes more turbulence at takeoff and landing, therefore causing takeoff and landing delays for other planes in its wake. And this could cause additional marketing problems for the A380, which was said be able to integrate seamlessly into the existing air-traffic patterns.

Now, officials at Airbus and European Aeronautics Defense & Space Co., which owns 80% of Airbus, are being investigated for allegedly dumping stock. Customers haven’t ignored the A380; Airbus has sold about 150 of them to about 15 clients.

With all this is going on, Boeing continues to take on more orders for its 787 Dreamliner. On June 14, Boeing received an order for 20 Dreamliners from Singapore Airlines. It now has orders from some 30 customers for roughly 410 planes. It is sold out for its first two years of production and is quickly filling slots for 2011 production.

So what does this have to do with Charleston? While not wanting to take comfort in someone else’s misery, this all seems to be good news for Boeing and its contractors, like Vought and Alenia Aeronautica. Each order that comes in means job security for the Charleston-area workers who will be producing the fuselage.

In fact, Vought and Global Aeronautica will be running at capacity and plan to increase employment to roughly 800.

And the next phase would be Vought suppliers setting up shop as they witness the company’s growth. And before you know it, we’ll have an aeronautics cluster.

If Boeing’s dreams can come true, so can ours, right?

Bob Bouyea is executive editor for the Business Journal. E-mail him at bbouyea@charlestonbusiness.com.

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