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.

FMI: www.boeing.com