Local Vought head gone

Company won't say whether Perdue was fired or he resigned

ALICE KEENEY

Last month Vought Industries celebrated its first completed, ready- to- ship order, a 38- foot cone that will make up part of the Dreamliner body.

The local head of Vought Aircraft Industries Inc., a key player in Boeing's Dreamliner passenger jet project, has left the company.

Ted Perdue, vice president of the Dallas-based company's 787 Division, will no longer head the company's North Charleston manufacturing plant, which is in charge of building large pieces of the fuselage for the Seattle company's hot-selling aircraft.

An internal company memo issued on May 29 said Perdue was leaving to pursue other opportunities. The announcement came shortly before company analysts gathered in Charleston for a tour of the plant.

Vought spokeswoman Lynne Warne would not say whether Perdue had been fired or voluntarily resigned.

The company's North Charleston branch came under fire for shipping its first section of fuselage without some necessary parts.

"We do have supplier problems," Warne said. "We've had recent supplier lapses, and we're working with Boeing to get our supplier-related issues back on track."

She stressed that other Boeing suppliers have had similar glitches during the first model's production.

A longtime employee, Perdue was in charge of coordinating the supply chain management and bottom-line performance division for the 787 project.

He began working for Vought's predecessor company, LTV Aerospace and Defense, in 1984 as a composite structure analyst.

The company's chief financial officer, Keith Howe, is taking Perdue's responsibilities until a replacement is named, Warne said.

Boeing tapped Vought and its partner in North Charleston, Alenia Aeronautica of Italy, to make about 26 percent of the fuselage and other structural components that will go into the 787, a fuel-efficient widebody passenger jet designed to replace the 757 and 767. Boeing is Vought's biggest customer.

The 787 project is being closely watched because it marks a departure from old-line aircraft manufacturing.

For example, major compo- nents are being made all around the world by suppliers such as Vought, then flown to Boeing in Washington state for final assembly.

Also, much of the airframe — including the wings and the fuselage parts that Vought are manufacturing — are formed not from aluminum but from lightweight composites, such as carbon fiber and resin epoxies, to reduce fuel consumption.

Last month Vought celebrated its first completed, ready-to-ship order, a 38-foot-long cone that will make up nearly one-quarter of the first Dreamliner's main body.

All Nippon Airways of Japan is scheduled to take delivery of the first Dreamliner in mid-2008.

Reach Katy Stech at 937-5549 or kstech@postandcourier.com.