Boeing to buy out Vought’s portion of Dreamliner JV

Move comes amid unconfirmed reports of more Dreamliner delays

By Dave Hannon -- Purchasing, 3/28/2008 11:08:00 AM

Aerospace giant Boeing today announced it is buying out Vought Aircraft Industries’ portion of the South Carolina-based Global Aeronautica joint venture which joins and assembles pieces of the fuselage for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner project.

The buyout will make Global Aeronautica a two-way joint venture between Boeing and Italy's Alenia Aeronautica, which is owned by Finmeccanica. Along with joining the majority of the fuselage sections, the joint venture also installs and tests associated systems and applies primer on the sections.

In a statement on Boeing’s web site, it was confirmed that Vought will continue to manufacture the aft fuselage section for the 787 at its facility adjacent to Global Aeronautica in North Charleston, S.C. which was actually highlighted for its improved quality last week (see: Vought strives to put Dreamliner back on course). In the statement, Elmer Doty, president and CEO of  Vought, said “Selling our interest [in Global Aeronautica] has no impact on our adjacent facility, where the Vought 787 team remains focused on manufacturing composite fuselage sections for this incredible airplane.”

The move by Boeing to gain more control of the joint venture comes after several market sources and customers said that the Dreamliner’s commercial availability may be delayed yet again due to a design change in the wing box. At a JPMorgan conference last week, Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman of International Lease Finance Corp., the Dreamliner’s biggest customer, said that the state of the 787 program is “not pretty” and that he doesn't expect the first plane to be handed over until the third quarter of next year.  

At least one Dreamliner customer may have had enough of Boeing’s delays. Virgin Atlantic has reportedly begun talks with Boeing after hearing of possible new delays. “We're clearly concerned about reports about further delays and we've started talks with Boeing about levels of compensation and possible replacement aircraft,” said Virgin Atlantic spokesman Paul Charles in a Bloomberg report.

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