Further Delays for Boeing 787...

[On Your Six]

Throw more salt on our wounds... Just saw this on CNBC.com:

Boeing is close to announcing a further delay to its 787 Dreamliner, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, sending its stock down about 5 percent.

The Chicago-based plane maker "continues to experience problems on a variety of fronts," according to the report, threatening to push back the plane's first test flight to June from the current end-March target

 

[fencitup]

You CAN'T rush a good thing !

 

[jke406]

Can you hear the sound of nasally laughter all the way from Toulouse?

 

[Quiet Flight]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_bi_ge/boeing_delay;_ylt=AuJwo1UqiBNXKwJwRo81uGtv24cA

By ASHLEY M. HEHER, AP Business Writer 25 minutes ago

CHICAGO - Boeing Co. said Wednesday that it was going to push back the inaugural flight for its much-anticipated 787 Dreamliner jet by as much as three months, delaying the plane's test flight until the end of the second quarter to allow additional time to assemble the massive aircraft.




The latest delay means Boeing won't be able to begin delivering the airplane until early 2009, instead of late 2008.
The Chicago-based aerospace company had hoped the 787's first flight would be conducted sometime at the end of the first quarter.
The 787 program has already been hit with two delays, most recently last October, when Boeing said supply chain and assembly line problems had forced it to push back flight testing until March and delivery to its first customer, Japan's All Nippon Airways Co., at the end of 2008.
"The fundamental design and technologies of the 787 remain sound," Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a statement. "However, we continue to be challenged by startup issues in our factory and in our extended global supply chain."

I guess having the parts made closer to home would have been too easy. I understand the whole "use overseas suppliers to generate overseas aircraft orders" theory, but this could be quite a cluster if one of these suppliers that is holding them back now just can't keep up in the future. Or just all together shuts down. We'll see...

 

[Rottweiller]

Can you hear the sound of nasally laughter all the way from Toulouse?

Where are all those Airbus bashers that were quick to chime up about the A380 delays?? I hear crickets

 

[Marko Ramius]

Where are all those Airbus bashers that were quick to chime up about the A380 delays?? I hear crickets

Yeah I have some bets to collect on at work. I think we can see why Boeing was amazingly gracious to Airbus about their 380 delays. Both planes are well designed and the 787 will likely have a pretty uneventful test program like the 380 did, but getting all of the parts built properly and in the same place is much of a challenge in the new lowest common denominator subcontract everything world. Considering that the 787 represents a larger technological leap from the 777 than the 380 does from say the A340-600, I'd imagine that there could actually be a few more issues in testing with the 787 than the 380. I'm sure Airbus is watching for the 350XWB.