Rumour: another 6 month delay for the 787

A number of news outlets (ATW Online and WSJ) have published stories saying that in the next 787 progress update (due later this month) Boeing will announce another delay in the 787, with first flight put back until 2Q or 3Q 2009, and deliveries pushed back into 2010.

www.atwonline.com...

This is getting worse and worse for Boeing! These delays are costing the company billions, and there is currently no end in sight - the plane has yet to fly, so its not as if its just certification that is outstanding...

This reminds me of the plastic jet engine which Rolls Royce tried to develop for the L-1011 Tristar. That project became so bogged down by delays and so exposed the company to law suits that it bankrupted Rolls Royce.

If this plastic fantastic 787 ever staggers into the air the consequences of failed or frustrated orders will push Boeing into bankruptcy.

Wasn't Allan Mullaly now begging funding from Congress for failed car companies also behind Boeing's decision to build the 787 ?

The failure is one of flawed management decision making, or failure to appreciate the lessons of Beechcraft's plastic Starship

Originally posted by sy.gunson
The failure is one of flawed management decision making, or failure to appreciate the lessons of Beechcraft's plastic Starship

The Starship story is more complex than most people realise - Beechcraft leased most (95% or so made) to the end users, and included longterm maintenance under the lease (purchased ones also came with a long warranty period unheard of in the industry).

The problem was, the subsidiary then contracted out the maintenance of these aircraft, and the contractors were billing for as much as they could get away with even if they were not doing the work.

The end result was that the Starship got an undeserved reputation of having very high maintenance costs, when infact 90% of the work being billed for was either simply not being done, or being overcharged dramatically.

So that reputation killed the market for the aircraft, and Beechcraft wound down production - when long term leases came up for renewal, rather than renewing and finding a new maintenance arm, Beechcraft scrapped every single airframe they could get their hands on.

Only a few remain in private hands these days.

Today Boeing confirmed another 6 month delay to the 787 program -

First Flight - 2Q 2009 (between the start of April and end of June)
First Delivery - 1Q 2010 (between the start of January and end of March)

Final assembly of the first Dreamliner started on May 21st 2007.

Boeing rolled out a 'completed' 787 on June 26th, when it was moved from the final assembly hall to the paint shop.

The 787 was then publicly revealed to the world on the 8th July 2007.

Boeing failed, however, to achieve the first major milestone of power-on until nearly a year later - June 2008!

This means, from starting final assembly, Boeing will have potentially taken 23 months to get one single 787 into the air (25 months if you don't give them the benefit of the doubt on the strike). For an aircraft that is supposed to take 3 days in final assembly, this is unbelievable.

There is also the issue of the first 10 aircraft having to be stripped down and rebuilt with the `fasteners` in the correct places.

Originally posted by Harlequin
There is also the issue of the first 10 aircraft having to be stripped down and rebuilt with the `fasteners` in the correct places.

Not only that, but the first 10 aircraft also have to be refurbed after the flight test...