Aims To Increase Dreamliner Deliveries To 10 Per Month

Even as the company faces questions regarding when its revolutionary 787 Dreamliner will take to the skies for the first time, Boeing is also looking ahead towards full-scale production of its 787 Dreamliner... and how the company will best be able to send the 684 planes ordered to date, out the door.

In an interview with Bloomberg this week, Giorgio Zappa -- General Manager of Italy's Finmeccanica SpA, whose airplane unit is manufacturing 14 percent of the Dreamliner's composite body -- said Boeing may decide to increase planned 787 production from seven to 10 planes per month very soon.

"I believe it will make this decision in the next few weeks, and we have already started with the pre-project phase of our investment," Zappa said Monday.

Alenia Aeronautica is now contracted to provide components for seven fuselage assemblies per month. The company builds two fuselage sections, as well as the aircraft's vertical stablilizer.

Boeing's Mike Bair, who oversees the 787 program, said earlier this year the planemaker plans to deliver 112 planes by the end of 2009, and was examining options on how to build on that figure in later years.

On Monday, a Boeing spokesman said the company is still working on the situation.

"We are currently undergoing a production-rate study to determine if we are able to increase rates starting in 2011, but ... we don't have a specific date or timeline for when this decision will be made," spokesman Adam Morgan said.

As ANN reported, Boeing recently acknowledged reports the first flight of the 787, originally planned to occur by the end of August, had slipped to late September... and possibly into October. Difficulties with installing flight control systems and software, and getting those components "talking" with other systems in the highly-integrated airliner, are said to be behind the delay.

Boeing's goal for first flight of the Dreamliner remains late-September, with certification in May 2008. First customer deliveries are set to occur soon after that.

FMI: www.boeing.com