Boeing hails its first S.C.-built jet

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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C., April 28 (UPI) -- Airplane maker Boeing rolled out its first South Carolina-built 787 Dreamliner to an assembled crowd of executives, dignitaries and workers, the company said.

Boeing announced it would assemble planes at the South Carolina site in 2009 and broke ground on a new facility there in November of that year.

The plant was completed in June 2011 and the company's first assembled jet was cheered by a crowd of employees and invited guests, The (Charleston) Post and Courier reported Saturday.

"This team has shown that we can build airplanes in South Carolina that meet the high Boeing quality standards, and do so with an exceptional workplace safety record," Jack Jones, Boeing's South Carolina vice president and general manager, said in a statement.

The event was attended by Boeing Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive Officer Jim Albaugh and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

"We got some more work to do here," Albaugh said.

"Three weeks from now we're going to fly that thing, and then sometime in June we're going to deliver it."

The company has set the goal of building three 787 Dreamliner planes in South Carolina each month, but Albaugh told the workers, "If we can build more, we can sell them."

"We build cars, we build tires and now we build dreams ­-- big mack-daddy 787 dreams," Haley said.