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Boeing rolled the first 737 MAX 10 out of its Everett factory Monday, marking a milestone for the newly certified aircraft program and the newly opened North Line.
The North Line, which adds a fourth MAX production line to the three already operating in Renton, opened in July. The grand opening was nearly two years behind schedule as the company navigated the fallout from a midair panel blowout in January 2024.
Now, the first plane loaded into the factory this summer has completed all of the production line’s “flow days,” or production stops. The plane, a 737 MAX 10 slated for WestJet, rolled out of the factory and onto the apron Monday afternoon.
There are seven other aircraft currently making their way through Boeing’s newest production line, the company said.
The first rollout comes days after the Federal Aviation Administration certified the 737 MAX 10, paving the way for Boeing to start delivering the plane to customers after years of delays. Boeing employees and company leaders gathered last week to celebrate the MAX 10 certification and again on Monday to celebrate the first plane to roll off the North Line.
Joe Encinosa, production system architect and technical fellow for the North Line, told his co-workers from a makeshift stage Monday that the day was “about more than a rollout.”
“It’s about what happens when talented people come together, commit to a shared vision and refuse to give up when the road gets difficult,” Encinosa said. Boeing has faced “obstacles” getting the line up and running, he said, but now, it has “built a strategy that positions us for the future.”
Encinosa, who describes his job as clearing roadblocks to get new production lines operating, said he has been at the factory every day except one since the first plane arrived in July. Now, as more planes move through the production line, he’s getting fewer calls about the earliest flow days, a sign things are already moving more smoothly, he said.
Alex Aguinaldo, the team lead for engine installation on the North Line, said Monday his crew has been anxiously waiting for the first MAX 10 to make their way to their station, one of the last jobs before the aircraft rolls out of the factory. He said he felt an immense sense of pride for the whole North Line team that turned that empty shiny floor into a functional flow day.
The North Line will be instrumental in Boeing’s push to increase its monthly 737 production rate, particularly when it starts increasing to 52 MAX planes per month. Right now, the manufacturer is working to stabilize at a rate of 42 MAXs per month, before moving to 47.
The North Line will also be key to building the MAX 10, the largest MAX variant. It fills a space that Boeing previously used to build its widebody 787 aircraft, before moving that work outside of the Puget Sound region to its South Carolina factory, so the line is larger than the MAX lines in Renton. That means Boeing can fill its North Line with MAX 10s, nose to tail, while it would need to stagger the variant in the Renton factory.
The MAX 10 will carry more passengers than any other MAX variant, with room for 185 to 210 seats and a maximum of 230, but will fly shorter distances, with a range up to 3,100 nautical miles. The MAX 7, on the other end of the spectrum, carries 135 to160 passengers and a maximum of 172 and travels up to 3,800 nautical miles.
The WestJet plane was the first to roll out of the factory but might not be the first MAX 10 delivered. The aircraft still has to undergo a process called “change incorporation,” where Boeing reworks the earliest planes to incorporate design changes made during the certification process.
In this case, Boeing will have to add its engine anti-ice fix and an enhanced angle of attack sensor, two updates the FAA required before certifying the two new MAX variants.
Boeing has not said how long change incorporation for the MAX 10 will take or how much it will cost.
The WestJet MAX 10 rolled out of the factory around 2 p.m. Monday, about 30 minutes behind schedule. The aircraft was set to wait on the apron until the parking lot cleared for its move to the Everett delivery center that evening. The aircraft will move as slow as three miles per hour and up to 13 miles per hour as it travels to its next stop.
At the delivery center, it will undergo preflight checks and, later, will move either to Boeing’s Moses Lake facility or its Seattle delivery center for change incorporation.
Waiting behind it, in the North Line’s last set of flow days, was another MAX 10, also slated for delivery to WestJet.
Before either plane is delivered, the FAA must certify the North Line, a separate process from the regulator’s MAX 10 certification this month.
In July, when Boeing first opened the North Line, senior director for the 737 North Line Jennifer Boland-Masterson said she hopes to finalize the production certification this year.
In the meantime, for at least the first 10 aircraft, the North Line is operating at a “low rate of production,” moving planes through each station slowly to make sure everything is working as planned.
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