Patent ID: 7992278

Claim:
A method of manufacturing an aircraft comprising the steps of: supporting a plurality of aircraft components on a plurality of crawlers, each of the crawlers comprising at least one rolling track and a structural support for supporting the aircraft components; opposing a first plurality of lifting magnets coupled to an interior surface of said at least one rolling track and a second plurality of lifting magnets coupled to an exterior surface of the structural support to lift the structural support, such that the structural support floats between and within said at least one rolling track; adjusting magnetic fields experienced by said first and second plurality of lift magnets to translate said at least one rolling track, such that said crawlers move along the production line to a plurality of stations; generating a plurality of magnetic stability fields; cooling a plurality of superconducting devices to a temperature approximately between 60 and 80 Kelvin generating current within the plurality of superconducting devices of said crawlers to counteract changes in said magnetic stability fields, such that the rolling track is stabilized relative to the structural support; and performing at least one manufacturing task at each of said plurality of stations to manufacture the aircraft.