NAGOYA, Japan — For Boeing’s Everett engineers working on the company’s first all-new commercial jetliner in more than a decade, the dream begins here.

In this Japanese industrial city far from The Boeing Co.’s Puget Sound roots, in a factory built just for the 787 Dreamliner, Fuji Heavy Industries has completed the first large composite section that will go on the first 787 to fly next year.

Measuring 17.4 feet long by 19 feet wide, the composite structure is the lower skin of the center wing box, a critical section of the jet where the 787 wings will be attached. The wing box also serves as the center fuel tank.

Piece by monstrous piece, Boeing and its partners are building an airplane in an entirely new way that circles the globe.

As he looked at the one-piece structure two weeks ago for the first time, Boeing’s Scott Strode, vice president of 787 development and production, reflected on the many long hours and hard work by thousands of men and women to turn the Dreamliner into a real airplane