Boeing says it has identified 15 locations, including its production home base of Washington, as potential sites to build the next generation 777. According to the Seattle Times, the contenders have until Dec. 15 to submit proposals. It’s been widely speculated that Long Beach, Calif., the historic home of Douglas Aircraft and now the site of the soon-to-be-mothballed C-17 factory, has the inside track but analysts also think the site search is a ploy to put pressure on the International Association of Machinists to give up significant concessions to keep the work in Washington. Last week, the IAM voted more than two-thirds to reject a Boeing offer to guarantee the building of the 777X in Washington if the union agreed to have pensions frozen and a new wage structure for new hires that would have slowed the pace of wage increases for those workers.
Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said the company has “no plans to re-engage in contract talks with the Machinists union” but he also didn’t rule out trying to cut a deal with the union. We arent going to discuss how these two (the site search and the union stalemate) may factor in as we go into this next phase, Alder said. The 777X will seat up to 400 passengers and have an aluminum fuselage and carbon fiber wings. It’s designed for long-haul flights at high altitudes so the wings are so long (233-foot span) the outer 10 feet will fold up so it will fit standard airport gates. Alder said Boeing is inviting proposals that could include manufacturing the fuselage, wings or both along with final assembly. Among the other potential locations are Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Huntsville and Wichita, all places with existing aviation manufacturing. With the 787, Boeing established a factory in North Charleston, S.C., which did not have any other aerospace manufacturing, and it caused supply chain problems early in the program.
