Boeing said Friday that it is making "steady progress toward building the first 787," pointing to the rollout of its second 747-400LCF, the Dreamlifter designed to move 787 parts among factories around the world.

The 787 wasn't the first shot Boeing took at resurrecting its commercial airliner business in the dark days of the late 1990s.

It will coordinate with an adjoining composite-material fabrication factory, which will be responsible for forming composite material parts for the wing boxes such as wing skins, and the Yamatomachi Plant at its Shimonoseki Shipyard and Machinery Works in Yamaguchi, which produces skin stringers, one of reinforcement components of 787 wing boxes.