Boeing 787 delayed again

www.flightglobal.com...

Boeing is remaining quiet about a report that the first flight of the 787 may be delayed a third time, until June. “We are declining comment,” the company says.

Citing “people familiar with the situation”, the Wall Street Journal today published a news alert saying the 787’s first flight will be delayed until June, and that an announcement will be made shortly.

There are wispers that there are a few serious issues with the 787 - and that boeing won`t be able to deliver on its promise of 109 aircraft by next year.

AWST has had some mention of serious supply chain problems. Also a picture of the production line showed issues as well. The planes were being assembled in a conventional way as opposed to whole assembled sections being delivered which does not bode well for them meeting delivery schedules.

All it takes is for 1 slip up or mistake on the production line and it will set the entire thing back months.


hmmmm.

reply to post by Harlequin


From what I have read its not the production line rather the supplier base that is having a hard time with production. If they have to announc a sig. delay and the stock gets hammered it may be a good buying oppurtunity.

Originally posted by FredT
If they have to announc a sig. delay and the stock gets hammered it may be a good buying oppurtunity.

I reckon aerospace companies are a long term loser - fuel prices will continue to rise, crippling the growth rate of the industry IMO.


Already there is serious talk of recessions, businesses and holidaymakers are soon gonna cut back - which may mean more video conferencing and no or less holidays.

One question - is it long lead items of short lead items? if long lead time - then its a boeing issue for not ordering enough at the time - for short term items then teh supplier really needs to get its thumb out of its *** as get on with it.


but , given the `revelations` about the F15 longerons being grossely sub standard - could it be the parts themselves are of poor quality and being rejected?

Disapointing but hardly surprising.

Its now confirmed from Boeing. 3 month delay till first flight of 787 aircraft.

www.flightglobal.com...

Deliveries are now expected to begin in early 2009, rather than late 2008.....

In a statement, Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive Scott Carson says "we continue to be challenged by start-up issues in our factory and in our extended global supply chain"

I suppose this might impact on future delivery slots? If it does, and with the line already sold out for several years, it might give back Airbus some of the market presence it clearly lost when it failed to respond adequately to the 787 in the first place.

This of course supposes that Airbus themselves have actually learned something from their own problems, but just as the 747-8 has closed the timing gap it had with the A380, Airbus must be hoping for a similar outcome for the A350.

Originally posted by waynos
I suppose this might impact on future delivery slots? If it does, and with the line already sold out for several years, it might give back Airbus some of the market presence it clearly lost when it failed to respond adequately to the 787 in the first place.

If its just a 3 month delay it may not be that big. AWST had a big article on what Airbus learned with its intial A350 debacle and no doubt they are learning from what Boeing is going through.

However, if we are looking at 6 months to ayear. then I would have to say Yes.

fred its the third delay to the aircraft - which has now slipped to a year behind

Originally posted by waynos
I suppose this might impact on future delivery slots? If it does, and with the line already sold out for several years, it might give back Airbus some of the market presence it clearly lost when it failed to respond adequately to the 787 in the first place.

Initial deliveries have slipped into the first quarter 2009, and no guidance has been given on production ramp up as of yet - future delivery slots are definitely affected.

This of course supposes that Airbus themselves have actually learned something from their own problems, but just as the 747-8 has closed the timing gap it had with the A380, Airbus must be hoping for a similar outcome for the A350.

The 747-8 has already suffered an initial slip of several months, putting the first 747-8 airframe behind the last 747-400 airframe on the line (it was planned for the 747-8 prototype to be off the line several frames ahead of the -400 closedown).

Originally posted by FredT

If its just a 3 month delay it may not be that big. AWST had a big article on what Airbus learned with its intial A350 debacle and no doubt they are learning from what Boeing is going through.

However, if we are looking at 6 months to ayear. then I would have to say Yes.

By the time the 787 will fly, it will be between 8 and 10 months behind, depending on when in 2Q 2008 it flies, and first deliveries will be a similar time frame behind (originally May 2008, pushed back to '1Q 2009').