EARNING ITS WINGS

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner has a number of superlatives attached to its development. It's the first jetliner with a carbon-fibre composite (read: plastic) frame, which is far lighter than aluminum. This means the Dreamliner is 20% more fuel-efficient than other similar-sized aircraft, important in the era of $100-a-barrel oil. It had the most successful launch of any airplane: 56 airlines have ordered 857 planes, contracts worth $144 billion (U.S.) to Boeing (Air Canada has ordered 37 Dreamliners with an option for 23 more). It is also the most international jetliner ever built: 70% of the plane's components will be manufactured outside of Boeing facilities, by contractors in the U.S. and around the world. The wings and part of the fuselage, for instance, will be built in Nagoya, Japan; the cargo doors will come from Sweden; the passenger doors, from France. Here in Canada, Messier-Dowty built part of the landing gear in Montreal, and Boeing Canada's Winnipeg operation built three components: the landing-gear doors and the wing-to-body and vertical fin fairings.

These suppliers have been given unprecedented control over the parts they've been charged with building. In the past, Boeing handed over engineering bills detailing the technical requirements of parts, and the contractors simply built them to spec. With the Dreamliner, suppliers have been contracted both to make the parts and also to develop, design, test and manufacture them.

Each of the Dreamliner's six major components will be flown to Boeing's facility in Everett, Washington, for assembly. The first flight is scheduled for the second quarter of 2008, with delivery to the new owners set for early 2009--barring any more setbacks, like the screw-and-bolt shortage that delayed the program by six months late last year.

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The windows are 65% larger than on standard aircraft and have electrochromic "smart" glass that darkens at the touch of a button.

U.S.

Tail fin

aft fuSelage

engine nacelles

fixed and movable landing gear

forward fuselage

CANADA

wing-to-body fairings

landing-gear doors

landing gear

U.K.

landing gear (Not Shown)

FRANCE

passenger entry doors

ITALY

horizontal stabilizer

centre fuselage

SWEDEN

Cargo doors

CHINA

Rudder

SOUTH KOREA

wing tips

tail cone

JAPAN

fixed trailing edge

wing

main landing gear

wheel well (not shown)

centre wing box (not shown)

forward fuselage

AUSTRALIA

movable trailing edge

Three days

How long it will take to assemble one Dreamliner Once Boeing ramps up production

210 to 330

Number of passengers the three Dreamliner models will accommodate (the Airbus A350 starts at 270 passengers, which is why Robert Milton deemed the A350 too big for Air Canada's needs)

30%

Reduction in fuel costs and maintenance compared with Air Canada's current fleet of leased 767s

$120 million (U.S.)

cost to buy one dreamliner

135

Number of sites around the world where Dreamliner components will be manufactured

$181.55

minimum Amount Air Canada pilots will be paid per hour to fly the Dreamliner 787 (AC pilots generally fly 80 hours a month)

Mach 0.85

The Dreamliner's top speed (roughly 1,000 km/h)

CRAZY TAXI

A fleet of four modified 747-400s, dubbed Dreamlifters and built partly in Sherbrooke, Quebec, will criss-cross the globe on a daily basis, picking up the Dreamliner's components. In order to transport each of the wings and fuselage sections, the Dreamlifter must make several trips.

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To build composite pieces like the fuselage, a computerized machine lays the material on a mould, or mandrel, in a clean room to prevent contamination. The mandrel is then wrapped and moved to a huge oven, called an autoclave, where it's cured for 10 hours or more. Then it's inspected for flaws by sonic waves, trimmed and drilled with any holes needed for assembly.

There are only six major pieces in final assembly--the forward, centre and aft fuselage sections, the wings, the horizontal stabilizer and the vertical fin--which means fewer people on the line.

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Thanks to the wider fuselage, 787s have wider seats (an extra four centimetres) and aisles (six centimetres), plus bigger lavatories and overhead bins.