Boeing 787 Dreamliner The recession hi t bottom maybe a month ago, if the financial press can agree on that. The recovery should come in spurts over the length of 2010 while demand for passenger flight tickets rises. By 2011, then, the demand for jet aircraft will be on the rise.

Boeing has been falling behind schedule on its new 787 Dreamliner made of carbon composi tes. Present ly the program is about two years behind schedule.

Two profound points were made on the matter in the past week: (1) The man responsible for the much delayed aircraft announced his ret irement plans, leaving Boeing by the end of the year. (2) The World Trade Organization came down with a decision against European governments for their expor t aid in lending money to Airbus, Boeing's only global rival in the large passenger jet aircraft business.

New management typically suggests new strategies and new schedules. But for Boeing, the recession has been customizing a fairly accommodating schedule. That is, since the demand for aircraft seats is down, the demand for new aircraft is down, all of which allows for some delays on the delivery of new aircraft. Two years are a bit much, but delivery delays in such a soft demand is not all bad.

The decision by the WTO against European governments and thereby in favor of the United States af fords some opportunities for competition in the jet aircraft manufacturing business. But the beneficiaries can be counted beyond the Uni ted States. They include any country that's been on the brink of entering or re- entering the large passenger jet manufacturing competition. Take China, for instance, and Russia. The South Koreans are capable of competing on a level playing field, as are the Japanese. Don't forget the Brazilians and the Canadians, two major manufacturers of smaller passenger jets.

And aircraft assembly can follow the favorable site conditions just as much as Mercedes went to Alabama; Toyota, Tennessee; and BMW, South Carolina, not to mention many others. (By the way, Fiat , Chrysler's new owner and the umbrella over Alfa Romeo, is looking to the United States for an assembly line for its Alfa 169.)

BMW has a huge presence in Spartanburg County, of course, but what does all this aerospace industry analysis have to do with South Carolina? Plenty.

Wi th probable expansion in worldwide manufacture of large passenger jet aircraft, assembly plants can locate most anywhere that's the most attractive and makes the most business sense. A jet aircraft assembly cluster in the Lowcountry real ly could happen.

Boeing announced its $580 million purchase of Nor th Charleston's Vought fuselage assembly plant in early July. The Vought plant has been running as a parts assembly plant - big parts of the 787 fuselage, but parts all the same. In Everet t , Washington, Boeing has its only 787 Dreaml iner assembly l ine, and to meet the projected 2012 product ion rate of 10 787s a month and to overcome the two- year delay (so far), Boeing needs a second assembly line.

Before the end of the year, Boeing is expected to announce the location of its second assembly line, and odds makers are giving the nod to North Charleston.

Even before selecting Everett in 2003 as the site of its only 787 Dreamliner assembly line, Boeing shopped the South, especial ly Nor th Charleston. Snohomish County (Washington) executive Aaron Reardon wanted to see for himsel f just how the compet it ion looked, just what was this Nor th Charleston that was a genuine threat to Boeing's home state of Washington? Boeing employs 74,000 Washington workers, and in Reardon's Snohomish County alone, Boeing employs 35,000. In North Charleston, Vought and partner Global Aeronaut ica together employ 1,500 workers.

Reardon was quoted

by the Cha rleston

Regional Business Journal

and scbiznews.com: "I took the t ime to f ly around and see what you all were doing. I wanted to know what this New South was al l about . What I 've discovered, what I've tried to convey to my peers and elected officials, is the South is indeed very modern and very competitive.

"In this new economy, the South is a very real strength for America and is a competitor for manufacturing jobs, and is a very real threat for the Northwest and others as well ... I 've long thought South Carolina has been a competitor.

"I started raising the flag on the second 787 line back in January. I have been expressing since then that South Carolina is the No. 1 competitor, partly because of the Vought facility there."

Point being, as Reardon suggests, Boeing is not locked in with Washington State, and South Carolina is its top competitor.