Editors' pick: Originally published April 5.

This is the second story in a series about the future of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The first story discussed whether Boeing wants the 787-9 to replace the 787-8 as the centerpiece of the program, and how a shift might impact 787-8 production.



Four years into the life of the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing (BA) is starting work on the aircraft's third variation.

Last month, major assembly of the first 787-10 began in Nagoya, Japan, where Boeing partner Kawasaki Heavy Industries began installing circular frames into the midforward section of the fuselage.

The first aircraft is scheduled for delivery in 2018. Launch customers are Singapore Airlines and, in North America, United Airlines (UAL) .

Unlike the 787-8 and the 787-9, the 787-10 will not be assembled in Everett, Wash. Rather, final assembly of every aircraft will take place at the plant in North Charleston, S.C. This is because the plane's mid-fuselage section, which will be assembled in North Charleston, will be too long to fit into the Dreamlifter cargo aircraft that typically transports sections between North Charleston and Everett.

The 787-10 will be the biggest aircraft in the 787 family, 224 feet long with seating for about 330 passengers. It will also have the shortest range, about 6,430 nautical miles. Boeing began taking orders in 2013 and now has 153 of them.

"The 10 will be an interesting experiment," said Richard Aboulafia, aerospace analyst for Teal Group. "It might be a marvelous performer, so that people won't mind losing 500 to 800 nautical miles. You give up range to have more passengers.

"But at what point do you begin to sacrifice something by making the aircraft too big?" Aboulafia asked. "With the 767-400, we found out."

The development path of the 787 is widely viewed as being similar to that of the 767, a predecessor which in some ways has been replaced by the 787. The 767-200 was introduced in 1982; it first flew for United.

The 767-300, a stretched version with 20% more capacity, was introduced in 1986 and came to account for about two-thirds of all 767 sales. At one point, the 767 flew the majority of the world's trans-Atlantic flights, according to Wikipedia.

The 767-400, introduced in 2000, had 12% more capacity than the 767-300. But it was introduced into one of the airline industry's periodic downturns and didn't do as well.