Boeing Co. opens 787 delivery center

The Boeing Co. hosted its final major ribbon-cutting in North Charleston last week, opening the company’s last stop for Lowcountry-built Dreamliners — the delivery center — on Friday.

“This is the Taj Ma-Palmer behind me,” said state Rep. Chip Limehouse of Charleston, recognizing Dave Palmer, director of Boeing’s South Carolina Delivery Center. Palmer had a key role in the delivery center’s development.

Palmer said the building blends the history of Boeing Commercial Airplanes with a Lowcountry look and feel while also making the space functional.

“I had an idea what the customer liked about our facilities and things that would make them better,” he said.

The delivery center has three floors divided into flight support offices; conference rooms; food services; offices for customers and Boeing; and a viewing deck that overlooks the flightline and two passenger-boarding bridges.

Next to the delivery center, Boeing employees will fuel the plane, check the fuel transfers, put the plane into a stall, fire up the engine and send power from the engine to the plane for the first time, said Jack Jones, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina.

Boeing pilots will take it for a test flight; after that, it’s the customer’s turn, as its pilots take the plane for a spin.

“This is also going to be about the customer experience,” Jones said, before comparing the North Charleston delivery center — the company’s only delivery center outside of Puget Sound — to its facility in Washington state. Customers buying from North Charleston need to know that “they get the same quality airplane, the same experience,” he said.

The new facilities in North Charleston include the delivery center, the final assembly facility and the Interior Responsibilities Center, among others.

Boeing South Carolina can now begin focusing on building 787 Dreamliners and have accelerated to an eight-day metric for the mid-aft section, which means Boeing workers will be able to produce 2.5 planes a month.

“This is a shining example of government (and) private business working for the same cause,” Jones said. “Everybody should take a part of this success.”