While the national economy shows troubling signs of slowing down, you’d never know it at Washington’s preeminent home-grown aircraft manufacturer. Recently, at Boeing’s Everett plant, the 787 Dreamliner passed a major milestone when crews switched on the aircraft’s electrical system.

More good news came when Congress’ General Accounting Office rejected the U.S. Air Force’s award of its fuel tanker contract to a consortium that included Airbus, but excluded Boeing. Meanwhile, Boeing’s Renton plant — famous for building commercial airliners — is hard at work on a project unlike any other it has ever tackled.

On a special assembly line within the enormous plant, workers are assembling a derivative of the Next Generation 737-800 — not for commercial aviation, but for the U.S. Navy. This is the first 737 for the Navy’s P-8A Poseidon program. Awarded in 2004 to a Boeing-led industry team comprising CFM International, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, GE Aviation and Spirit AeroSystems, this $3.89 billion contract will produce a long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, electronic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft that can fly slow and low over oceans, looking for enemy vessels on or beneath the surface.

“The P-8A will replace the Navy’s P-3C Orion aircraft,” said Boeing spokesman Chick Ramey. “The P-3C is getting pretty old and the Navy is grounding some of the P-3Cs, so it’s really looking forward to getting the P-8A into its inventory.”

The team began production on the first of five test aircraft in December at industry Spirit AeroSystems’ Wichita, Kan., plant. Fuselage assemblies will come together on Spirit’s existing Next-Generation 737 production line. Following delivery of the fuselage, Boeing began assembling the P-8A at Renton in March on the plant’s new third final assembly line. Early in May, workers in Renton joined the first aircraft’s wing assembly and fuselage. This summer will see another milestone — the hanging of engines on the plane.

Boeing will conduct aircraft quality and performance acceptance flight testing at Renton Field. Final installation and checkout of the mission systems and special flight test instrumentation will take place at Boeing Field. The aircraft will then be ferried to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, in Maryland, for flight testing.

If all goes as planned, Boeing will deliver the first aircraft for flight testing in 2009. Plans are for initial operational capability — when the plane is first deployable — in 2013.

“So far, the process is going smoothly and moving along pretty rapidly as scheduled,” said Ramey. “There haven’t been any major issues.”

While the initial contract is for five test aircraft, the Navy ultimately plans to purchase 108 P-8As, which translates into many excellent family-wage jobs for Washington’s economy. Currently, more than 1,500 Boeing employees work on the Poseidon program in Seattle. A few hundred more work on the aircraft at Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems headquarters in St. Louis.

One of the unique aspects of the Poseidon program is the close cooperation between Boeing Integrated Defense Systems and Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which have historically worked independently.

“The partnership between Integrated Defense Systems and Boeing Commercial is really significant,” commented Ramey. “Everyone involved in the project is working as a seamless team rather than two separate teams.”

In the long run, the Boeing’s Poseidon project holds enormous international sales potential, with the strong possibility of orders for 100 or more aircraft from foreign buyers. Currently, India is considering buying the P-8I, a derivative of the P-8A designed specifically for the unique, exacting requirements of the Indian Navy. Australia is also a strong sales prospect.

“A lot of countries are flying P-3s or similar aircraft,” Ramey said. “There’s a lot of interest from the international community.”

 One thing that seems certain is that there will be a great deal more activity at Boeing’s Renton plant as the P-8A project ramps. During the first three years of the Poseidon contract, Boeing will build six, eight, and 10 planes respectively before shifting into high gear with a schedule of 12 to 18 aircraft per year. In all, excluding any international future contracts, the program will bring Boeing approximately $40 billion per year over 25 years.

“We’re very excited about this program,” concluded Ramey. “It holds enormous potential for Boeing.”