The plane with plastic wings ...
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. delivered the first wings for Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner, the new jet scheduled to enter service in a year. The wings were shipped from Central Japan International Airport near Nagoya to a Boeing assembly plant outside Seattle, Hideo Ikuno, a spokesman for Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Heavy, said yesterday by telephone. Mitsubishi Heavy is the first outside company Chicago-based Boeing has hired to design and produce wings. About 35 percent of the new aircraft is being made by Mitsubishi Heavy and two other Japanese manufacturers, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., under the largest subcontracting project in Boeing's history. The 787 aircraft uses carbon-fiber reinforced plastics instead of aluminum to be lighter and to be 20 percent more fuel efficient.
