July 7, 2009 (FinancialWire) — Boeing (NYSE: BA) said it has agreed to acquire the business and operations conducted by Vought Aircraft Industries at its South Carolina facility, where Vought builds a key structure for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner airplane.

The Vought facility, located in North Charleston, performs fabrication and assembly of structures and systems installation of 787 aft fuselage sections, which are made primarily of composite materials.

After the transaction, Vought will continue its work on various Boeing programs, including other components of the 787, as well as structures and components on the 737, 747, 767, 777, C-17 and V-22 through operations located elsewhere.

Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit, said that “Integrating this facility and its talented employees into Boeing will strengthen the 787 program by enabling us to accelerate productivity and efficiency improvements as we move toward production ramp-up.”

He said the move would “bolster our capability to develop and produce large composite structures that will contribute to the advancement of this critical technology.”

The Dreamliner was originally slated to enter service in May 2008, but the Chicago-based airframer has had to delay the 787 program a number of times, most recently for concerns over the structural strength of the aircraft’s fuselage. Boeing chose to make extensive use of composites in the manufacture of the aircraft’s major structures, departing from its traditional practice of using riveted aluminum construction for the fuselage, wings and empennage sections. 

Boeing also chose to dole out the manufacture of major assemblies to a variety of suppliers — including Vought, Mitsubishi, Alenia Aeronautica and others — spread over a vast geographic area that includes manufacturing sites in Italy, Japan, Australia, Canada and several sites in the U.S.

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