If all of the 737 fuselages built in Wichita for the Boeing Co. were all lined up end to end, they would stretch from the Air Capital some 200 miles — far enough to reach from Spirit AeroSystems Inc. where they are made to Kansas City.
Those are some of the staggering numbers Spirit (NYSE: SPR) celebrated on Friday in recognizing the company’s milestone delivery of the 10,000 737 fuselage.
“This is an incredibly proud day for Spirit,” said CEO Tom Gentile. “It has truly been generations of workers that have been involved.”
And it was because of those workers that Gentile said the milestone was possible at all.
Production on the 737 began in 1966 in Wichita when the current Spirit site was still part of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Spirit AeroSystems celebrated its 10,000 737 delivery to Boeing. Here are some facts about the 737 and Spirit's role in its production.
In addition to the company executives, including former CEO Jeff Turner, along with current workers, legislators and local officials all on hand for the event, there were eight Wichita employees and one watching from the company’s plant in Oklahoma who worked on both the first 737 and the 10,000th.
The event also included a video highlighting some of the families — some of them now in their fourth generation — that have helped make Wichita the hub of production of the best-selling aircraft in commercial aviation history.
“It’s a remarkable legacy you have created,” Gentile said.
Today, Spirit’s work on the 737 — which is now in its third iteration with the program's new MAX variants — includes the fuselage, engine pylons, nacelles and thrust reversers built in Wichita, as well as wing components built in Oklahoma.
In all, Spirit builds around 70-percent of every 737 Boeing (NYSE: BA) delivers, with the entirety of its work on a single aircraft combined into what the company calls shipsets.
And celebrating 10,000 makes Wichita and those generations of workers largely responsible for an aircraft that today makes up around 25 percent of the entire global fleet of airliners.
“This milestone showcases our ability to deliver a world-class, high-quality product our customers and millions of aviation travelers can depend on,” Gentile said. “We are proud of our relationship with Boeing, and we look forward to continuing our relentless focus on meeting the demands of the industry and helping connect the world through air travel.”
And that demand is increasing, as the 737 is part of a growing portfolio of work that led Spirit last year to announce $1 billion in local investment and 1,000 new Wichita jobs as part of a growth initiative in the next five years.
Spirit is now in the process of stepping up to Boeing’s latest 737 production increase of 52 aircraft per month, up from the previous rate of 47.
Portions of the line are already at the 52 level, with the full program expected to reach the new number in the coming weeks.
Beyond that comes an already announced increase by Boeing to 57 per month in 2019.
While it took 52 years to get to the first 10,000 deliveries, Gentile said that just with the already announced increases that the company will reach 20,000 in just 15 more years.
And in speaking for many of the workers who made the first 10,000 possible, Tim Johnson, business representative of the local District Lodge 70 of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said that the workforce is up to the task.
“We are ready for another 10,000,” he said.
Watch the adjoining video for more facts about the 737 and its history in Wichita.