Spirit’s composite savvy could benefit new Boeing plane

Boeing offered new details on its potential middle of the market plane at the Paris Air Show – and they could be promising for Wichita’s Spirit AeroSystems.

Mike Delaney, Boeing vice president of airplane development, said in a presentation at the show on Tuesday that the new plane’s fuselage design may break from the traditional circular structure to one that is shaped closer to an ellipse.

Such a design would allow for the plane to be a wide body with two aisles versus a single aisle found in the out-of-production 757, Boeing’s last middle-market airplane.

But the design wouldn’t allow for as much cargo space in the bottom of the plane compared with contemporary Boeing fuselages.

Boeing hasn’t yet committed to building such an airplane, but talk of it has been robust in the past six months and “was a persistent topic of conversation” on Day 2 of the show, Vertical Research Partners analyst Robert Stallard wrote in an e-mail Tuesday afternoon.

“There is already an expectation that Boeing will try and get this plane into service and to full rate faster than has traditionally been seen in the industry,” Stallard wrote.

The one detail from Delaney’s briefing that is relevant to Spirit is how Boeing plans to construct its fuselage. Boeing will use composites to fashion the new plane’s fuselage, Delaney said, and that’s an area where Spirit – already a supplier of structures on every Boeing airplane model – has a great deal of expertise.

Spirit manufactures the composite forward fuselage section of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner at its South Oliver plant. It also uses composites in the manufacture of other parts for Boeing and Airbus planes, such as the 777’s nacelles and the center fuselage of the A350 XWB.

Spirit’s Wichita plant is one of three locations that make parts of the Dreamliner’s composite fuselage. The others are in North Charleston, S.C., and Nagoya, Japan.

Spirit officials on Tuesday would not confirm whether the company and Boeing have discussed work on the middle-market plane.

“We are always in close communication with Boeing, but have nothing to announce at this time related to any potential new programs,” the company said in an e-mailed statement to The Eagle.

This story was originally published June 21, 2017 at 9:43 AM with the headline "Spirit’s composite savvy could benefit new Boeing plane."