Boeing Has Factory In Philly Helicopter Plant Makes Parts For 777 Wing

When Boeing’s new 777 jets begin spanning the globe this summer, each of the twin-engine behemoths will contain parts made of fiberglass and glue with a distinctive number on them. The number is a code for “Made in Philadelphia.”

More precisely, the parts of the front edges of each 777 wing should be stamped: “Made in Ridley Township, Delaware County,” the home of a major Boeing division that has been best known since the 1950s for making military helicopters.

But with the defense budget shrinking or just holding steady these days, a growing part of the Ridley workforce is kept busy with work for its commercial aircraft group.

About 1,200 of the 6,800-plus Boeing employees in Ridley work on programs that produce the front or “fixed leading edges” of not only the 777’s wings but the wings of Boeing’s other big commercial jets, the 747, 767 and 757. The commercial jet work provides about a quarter of the helicopter division’s annual revenue.

The wing parts, made largely of composite materials that bond fiberglass with epoxy resins, are loaded into shipping containers and hauled by rail to Everett or Renton, Wash., two Seattle suburbs where Boeing does the final assembly of its large jets.

Without a steady supply of wing parts, the Everett and Renton plants can’t start building a new jet. The fixed leading edges of the wings are the first parts of each plane clamped into a device that holds the wing during its final assembly. All other parts of the wing are built around it.

Besides providing Pennsylvania jobs, the commercial contracts benefit the V-22 Osprey and Comanche programs, the two taxpayer-supported military helicopters that represent most of the rest of the Ridley plant’s work, Boeing officials said.