JetLite to get 3,000th 'next generation' B737

It's been a rough couple of months for workers at Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita. But Wednesday, they finally had something to celebrate. Spirit reached a milestone in their partnership with neighboring Boeing by delivering their 3,000th 737 fuselage. It's a feat accomplished just 11-and-a-half years after the plane first went into service.
The 3,000th 737 airplane it will go to Indian carrier Jet Lite later this year.
Employees at the Wichita plant started building 'Next Generation' 737's in the late 1990's. Even one of the engineers working on that first plane and now this 3,000th plane couldn't imagine reaching this milestone.
"It was worth walking out here to see this 3,000th just to say I saw it," said Darrel Bishop, a Spirit engineer. "It was not even in our dreams at the time we delivered the first one that we would build this many airplanes."
The first 737's, now called the classic, entered service in 1968, but with the Next Generation models came new technology and engineering methods. That gave the plane a new life. The Boeing 737 is considered the world's most popular and reliable commercial jet transport airplane.
Right now, more than 2,700 Spirit employees work on the 737 program, building 31 of these fuselages every month for Boeing.
02/07/09 Chris Frank/Kake.com, USA

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Jun 2009, JetLite Jul 2009