HARMONDSWORTH, England, November 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

British Airways has begun construction on its first Dreamliner, the Boeing 787, due to join the airline's fleet in May next year.

British Airways has ordered 24 of Boeing's game-changing aircraft, as well as 12 Airbus A380 "superjumbos".

The airline is on track to be first in Europe to have both aircraft types operating in its fleet.

Keith Williams, British Airways' chief executive, said: "This is an exciting first step to welcoming the first of our Boeing 787s into the British Airways fleet.

"The Dreamliner, with its lightweight composite construction, is truly radical. It marks a new era in British Airways as we take delivery of a new generation of stylish and fuel-efficient aircraft, bringing even better service to our customers.

"These revolutionary aircraft form part of a £5bn investment by British Airways in new aircraft, smarter cabins, elegant lounges, and new technologies to make life more comfortable in the air and on the ground."

The aircraft breaks with tradition by using a carbon fibre composite skin, instead of aluminium to cover the four separately built fuselage sections, which are "baked" in huge ovens.

65 per cent of the 787 is built by suppliers from outside of the US. The parts are then brought together and joined on the final assembly lines in Boeing's Seattle or Charleston factories, using thousands of "fasteners", compared to the nearly 1,000,000 rivets used to build a conventional Boeing 747.

The first part of the British Airways 787 to be built, which is 50 per cent constructed of composite materials, was the mid -orward fuselage, which was constructed in Japan.

Suppliers in the UK provide the plane's landing gear, while Derbyshire-based Rolls-Royce is supplying Trent 1000 engines for the Dreamliner.

Other parts of the aircraft, such as the centre fuselage, are built in Italy, while the aft and forward fuselage (including the flight deck), as well as the engine nacelles are built in the US.

The centre wing box, main landing gear wheel well, wings and fixed trailing edge are made in Japan, while the horizontal stabiliser is made in Italy, the wing's moveable trailing edge in Australia and landing gear in the UK.

Dedicated teams across British Airways are working behind the scenes to prepare for both the 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A380s entering into service. The new aircraft will bring significant opportunities to grow British Airways' route network, with new destinations for both the B787 and the A380 to be announced next year

Last year, British Airways completed the latest phase of a multi-million pound redevelopment of its Heathrow engineering base to prepare for the arrival of the new fleet of Boeing 787s, 777-300ERs and the Airbus A380s.

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SOURCE British Airways