Boeing yesterday announced that it chose South Carolina as the location for fabrication and assembly of airplane interior parts for the Charleston 787 final assembly line and delivery site. It is still reviewing potential sites for the Boeing Fabrication Interiors South Carolina facility and plans to make a decision by midsummer.

Aviation Partners Boeing said it expects its 767 winglet program to be a runaway success and this week announced agreements to fit blended winglets on 767-300ERs operated by Air New Zealand and Hawaiian Airlines.

FedEx Express received a US FAA supplemental type certificate for a new avionics system that combines Honeywell's Head Up Display and Elbit Systems of America's infrared Enhanced Flight Vision System and plans to install it on its MD-10 freighters.

PECO said it won US FAA Parts Manufacturer Approval for more than 1,600 of the assemblies and components it supplies to Boeing. Based in Portland, Ore., PECO provides OEMs with interior products such as passenger service units, flight attendant modules, reading light assemblies, spacer panels and cabin air diffusers. The approval is part of a PECO initiative to advance these parts in the aftermarket. "Boeing and the FAA have been excellent partners in our drive to obtain this approval and launch the program," President and CEO Scott Smith told Airline Procurement.

Aviation Partners Boeing officially launched its 767-300ER blended winglet program this week, saying it has firm orders for 68 shipsets from three airlines on three continents. It expects US FAA certification in the fourth quarter of 2008. AVP said the winglets, available for both passenger and freighter versions, are worth 350,000 gal. in annual fuel savings per aircraft, a payload improvement of up to 12,000 lb. and a range increase of up to 360 nm.

Rockwell Collins was selected yesterday by Boeing to provide the avionics system for the 747-8 Intercontinental and -8 freighter. Value was not disclosed for the deal, which includes the entire suite of flightdeck displays as well as autopilot, communication, navigation, surveillance, maintenance, emergency and data management systems. The 747-8F is scheduled to enter service in late 2009 with initial deliveries to Cargolux and Nippon Cargo Airlines (ATWOnline, Nov.

All Nippon Airways, which launched the 787 program with an order for 50, has chosen the industry's first commercial electric braking system, Goodrich announced yesterday. "We anticipated demand for an alternative to traditional, hydraulically actuated braking and began the pursuit of electronically actuated braking more than a decade ago," Goodrich Airframe Systems Segment President Jack Carmola said.

FAA and several contractors in March will begin testing a prototype communications scheme that theoretically could save millions of dollars per year for airlines and possibly give them some extra revenue to boot. The concept, called Aerosat Airborne Internet, calls for using the thousands of en route aircraft in the skies at any moment to create a communications "mesh" that proponents say could increase bandwidth dramatically and reduce the cost of existing communications pipes.