Faulty Attachments Located In Hard-To-Reach Areas

Boeing has announced it will make the first flight of its new 787 Dreamliner without replacing faulty fasteners in some hard-to-reach areas of the plane, to avoid further delays in development of the popular new plane.

Program spokeswoman Yvonne Leach told The Associated Press, "There has been a huge effort to go in and replace a huge number of these fasteners." She says the ones to be left in place do not pose safety risks, but will ultimately be replaced before the affected aircraft reach customers.

Fasteners have been a huge burr under Boeing's saddle of late. Dreamliner development has been held up, first by a shortage of fasteners for assembly of composite portions of the plane, then by a contractor who installed them improperly.

Then, in November, Spirit Aerosystems, another contractor, discovered that for more than a year, nutplates used in inaccessible areas of Boeing's 737s had missed getting required anti-corrosive cadmium coatings. Days later, the problem was also found to affect widebody models as well, 476 planes in all.

Boeing reports 910 Dreamliners on order from airlines and leasing companies. Leach says the latest fastener headache will not change plans to make the 787's first flight by mid-year.

A total of six development aircraft will be flown through testing with the substandard fasteners.

FMI: www.boeing.com