Wichita Plant Manager: Yes.

As Boeing workers in Wichita gathered to say goodbye to the 757, they couldn't help but wonder: Was the aircraft they've been shipping to customers since 1982 a victim of terrorists?

Wichita Plant Manager Jeff Turner has no doubt.

"This airplane ... was also the victim of a terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001," he told the gathering Wednesday.

The Wichita Eagle quotes him as saying, just the day before the attacks, Boeing had four of the 757 planes under construction at the Wichita plant and "lots of the demand."

"Our vision was to bring the 757 here and incorporate into it some of the same concepts in our wonderfully successful 737," he told employees. "But on that fateful morning of Sept. 11, by 10 o'clock in the morning this airplane had no future."

A lot of aircraft were grounded in the wake of the attacks, he said. A lot of them went into storage. The demand that looked so promising evaporated in the span of an hour.

Wednesday's long goodbye marked completion of the 1,050th 757 fuselage at the Wichita plant.

"It is the end of the line.... I am sad about that," Turner said. "I am frustrated it happened that way, but it did."

Now, Boeing is considering selling the Wichita plant. Regardless, though, Turner told employees the company still plans to utilize them in construction of the 7E7, slated to begin in 2006.

Boeing/Wichita (or whatever the plant is called after it's sold) will build engine pylons, the forward fuselage and the flight deck on Boeing's latest creation.

FMI: www.boeing.com