Sat, Oct 02, 2010
New Freighter Deliveries Pushed To Mid 2011
With the announcement of about a six month delay in the first
deliveries of Boeing's new 747-8 freighter, some engineering
analysts are saying that the planemaker is suffering from cultural
issues stemming from budgetary constraints.
The stretched 747-8 is suffering from a flutter issue on its
wing tips and another problem with a hinged control surface,
neither of which could have been predicted by pre-flight computer
modeling, engineers say. "That's why we flight test," Boeing
spokesman Tim Bader told the Seattle Times. He said that
the company is in the process of making the necessary refinements
to eliminate the problems.
But an analyst from Tecop International told the paper that
Boeing's performance has fallen below expectations in recent years
on this project, the Dreamliner, and the new Italian tanker. Hans
Webber said that Boeing has been slipping since it completed
development on the 777. And Society of Professional Engineering
Employees in America analyst Stan Sorscher told the Times that the
problems stemmed from a culture of budget constraints and
unwillingness to admit when there are problems. Sorscher said that
part of the problem comes from outsourcing engineering work, but
there is more to in than that. SPEEA is the union which represents
white-collar engineers at Boeing.
A flutter problem caused by refueling pods added near the
airplanes' wingtips has delayed the Italian tanker by about five
years.
Boeing outsourced some of the design and construction work on
the 747-8 to Russian and European firms. One of those, Stork
Fokker, designed the wing's trailing edge where one of the problems
has cropped up. But Boeing insists that the quality of the
engineering work is not the cause of the issue.
The Seattle Times reports that Boeing has only 109 firm
orders for the 747-8, which will not come close to recouping the
development costs of the airplane, and having to address problems
is only making it more expensive.
In a related development, Boeing announced this week that it had
picked up additional orders for 777's from Air China (4) and
Federal Express (2), and that Luxair of Luxembourg had ordered an
additional 737-800. But the Associated Press reports that the
company has also lost three 737 orders this week.
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