Sun, Aug 16, 2009
Facility Builds Two Mid-Fuselage Sections Of The
Dreamliner
A production flaw in
Dreamliner fuselage sections detected at the Alenia Aeronautica
plant in Naples has caused production work to be stopped there,
Boeing has confirmed. Structural weakness in the composite
fuselage sections could cause a wrinkling of the material that
could lead to "significant degradation" if left unrepaired.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the work stoppage was
called for in a June 23 letter to the plant, according to the
paper. In an e-mail, Boeing spokeswoman Lori Gunter said the
problem was not as serious as had been implied. "After a thorough
review we found only two locations on each airplane that needed to
be strengthened with a fairly simple patch," she said. "(A)
modification needed to accommodate these findings is already
designed and being installed" on the affected fuselage parts."
While it is possible that two of the six test platform aircraft
may need the repair before their first flights, Gunter did not say
that was certain.
The problems apparently cropped up when Alenia began using a new
tooling machine on the 5th 787 to be manufactured there.
Manufacturing is still at a standstill while Boeing engineers work
to reduce the potential for wrinkling in the composite skin of the
aircraft.
When asked if Boeing should have disclosed the problem sooner,
Ms. Gunter said "The stoppage of work has no affect on schedule or
cost. This is fairly normal for a new development program. These
issues come up and we deal with them and move on."
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