Delay Eats Up Any Margin For Error In Ambitious Cert Schedule

The Dreamliner will take a little longer than originally planned to take to the sky. At a Wednesday press conference, Boeing confirmed reports that surfaced over the weekend, stating the company's much-anticipated composite-bodied 787 won't take flight until mid-November or even December.

As ANN reported, Boeing had hoped to fly the first 787 sometime between early August and the end of September. Problems with integrating systems on the advanced airliner, however, have pushed that timeframe back as much as two months.

Mike Bair, Boeing's 787 program manager, acknowledged the delay erases any breathing room the company had to deal with future problems before the company's targeted May 2008 certification and delivery timeframe.

"We had a very compressed flight test program that we initially laid out for the program, with some back-end buffer on it," said Bair. "We are just eliminating time that we might have had to deal with anything unexpected that might come up."

Boeing rolled out the first 787 on-time in early July. Analysts say pressure to meet that deadline -- so Boeing could roll out the 787 on 07/08/07 -- led Boeing to assemble only the shell of the aircraft, leaving many of its internal systems to be installed later.

The Seattle Times reported last month issues with the aircraft's structure, which was partially dismantled after the ceremony for the July 8 rollout, were to blame for the expected delays. The 787 was disassembled to facilitate the installation of such systems as electrical wiring, flight deck instrumentation and hydraulic tubing as well as replacing temporary fasteners with permanent ones.

The fastener replacement is taking much longer than expected, said the source, and the wiring installation has barely even begun. First "power on" is still weeks away.

Despite the delay, however, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Scott Carson said the program remains on track to meet its May 2008 deadline... as long as no other major problems crop up.

The company will fly an unprecedented six airplanes as part of the certification and flight test program to meet its accelerated schedule. Two additional airframes will be used for static testing.

FMI: www.boeing.com