FORT WORTH -- The first of what Boeing expects will be hundreds of its new 787 Dreamliner planes will soon be delivered to its buyer with a glowing Fort Worth paint job.
In just over a week, Leading Edge Completions painted the first 787 built in North Charleston, S.C., in the gleaming white, red and gold of Air India.A beaming Mike Manclark, CEO of California-based Leading Edge, proudly showed off the aircraft Friday at its Meacham Airport hangar as workers applied the finishing touches."This paint job is a little different than most," said Manclark, whose company paints airliners at several locations in the U.S., including Amarillo. "Air India has a pretty special paint job."Working day and night, the company's 65 employees applied multiple coats of special mica paint to the 186-foot fuselage and the distinctive upswept wings, which measure 197 feet from tip to tip. The work is all done by hand.The paint specified by Air India for all its planes gives them a metalliclike finish that glitters in direct light.The Air India name is painted in red in Hindi script on the left side of the fuselage and in English on the right.The airline's colorful sunburst emblem gleams on the tail and is also painted on the outer walls of the nacelles that cover the jet engines. A perfectly spaced red temple design outlines each passenger window.Leading Edge is preparing to paint at least three 787s a month, production that the Boeing plant in North Charleston expects to hit by 2014.Some of its Fort Worth employees were sent for training at other company facilities.Adding workersAs Boeing increases production of the jets, Leading Edge will add workers to paint them, Manclark said. "We'll paint however many they send us."Boeing has taken orders for 854 787s, and only recently began deliveries to airlines.The 787 is the first commercial airliner whose major structural components are manufactured largely with lightweight, corrosion-resistant carbon-fiber composite material. Fort Worth-based American Airlines has ordered 42 787s.Bob Cox, 817-390-7723Twitter: @bobcoxictHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
