Boeing ready to restart assembly of 787 Dreamliners

Boeing Co. received the first completed section for its 23rd 787 Dreamliner and is ready to resume assembling the new composite planes, after halting deliveries more than a month ago to let suppliers get caught up.

The jet's aft body section was delivered on June 6 to Boeing's final assembly plant in Everett, Washington, from Charleston, South Carolina, said Mary Hanson, a spokeswoman for the Chicago-based company. The forward section could arrive from Wichita, Kansas, as early as today, and the mid-body section is due from Charleston later this week.

"The aft section was in the condition we agreed to," Hanson said today in a telephone interview. "We expect the others to be in the same condition when we receive them."

The 787 is running more than two years late because of problems with new carbon-fiber materials and the production process, which counts on vendors around the world to build completed sections that are then snapped together by Boeing workers in Everett.

The pieces will be loaded into position at the factory with the wings from Japan, which Boeing already had, and final assembly work will restart on June 14, Hanson said.

Boeing said April 27 it would defer deliveries for 24 workdays because suppliers had suffered from parts shortages and engineering changes.