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 EVERETT, Wash. (AP) - When machinists start the final stages of assembling the first 787 Dreamliner, the din of pounding rivet guns won't echo through the factory as it does on production lines for Boeing Co.'s other jets.
Instead of hundreds of panels of aluminum, the 787's major components are being built mostly or entirely of carbon-fiber composite materials that are essentially baked in giant pressure cookers, flown in from faraway factories, then fastened together.
In the past, workers at Boeing plants have stuffed the electrical wiring, hydraulic systems and other innards into planes as they got assembled here, but with the 787, suppliers scattered all over the globe are doing that work.
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