[female narrator] The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has had the most successful

new aircraft launch in commercial aviation history--and for good reason.

It's a super-efficient airplane that applies the most advanced technologies in aerospace.

[♪♪]

[male speaker] Innovation happens at different levels.

It can be individual parts on the airplane,

[Tom Cogan - Director, Airplane Product Development]

and it can be the whole airplane itself, the 787 being a good example.

[narrator] Over the decades, Boeing has built thousands of jetliners.

But for the new 787, the company literally reinvented its manufacturing process,

especially in the use of composites.

Composites are high-strength fibers embedded in resin.

A piece of composite is so strong, in fact, that a half an inch square

could bear the weight of about 15 cars without breaking.

[Cogan] We've been building with graphite composites for over 30 years.

It's lightweight, it's strong, has great fatigue characteristics, it doesn't corrode.

From an airframe standpoint,

we knew that it would be a good material system to build with.

[narrator] Virtually all new jetliners use composites to some degree.

With the 787, Boeing has taken their use to a whole new level.

Half of the aircraft is made of composites.

[Cogan] The difficult thing with composites was the fact that when you build out of composites

there's a lot of hand labor involved, and that can be very expensive.

[narrator] When making the fuselage, new specially-developed taping machines

are used to apply carbon fiber in complex, geometric patterns

to an enormous, spinning cylindrical barrel.

What ultimately gives the fuselage great strength

is that the tape is put down in many directions at once.

[Cogan] The tricky part was being able to lay the composite fiber down on compound curves.

[narrator] As the barrel spins, the taping machine applies layer after layer

of carbon fiber tape, and a section of the 787's advanced fuselage takes shape.

Once completed, the whole section is put into a giant oven and heated under pressure.

When it comes out, it's very hard, strong, and durable,

and it's 20% to 30% lighter than aluminum.

[Cogan] We really took a lot of new technologies in the areas of materials,

airplane systems, aerodynamics, and we brought them all together

and we really pushed the envelope very hard.

And that's why it's a game-changing airplane.

That's why it's able to have fuel efficiency that's up to 20% better

than the airplanes that it's replacing.

[♪♪]

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