Saturday, December 13, 2008

Dreamliner Becoming a Nightmare?


The Dreamliner was supposed to be the shining example of 21st century globalized manufacturing. Not good news for Boeing. New Boeing 787 Jetliner Faces Another Delay
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is facing yet another delay, and the first plane will not be delivered until 2010 at the earliest, nearly two years behind the original schedule, according to senior airline executives.

The completion date of the Dreamliner, an innovative and high-profile project, has already been pushed back three times. All Nippon Airways, the Japanese airline, will receive its planes first, with other customers not able to take delivery until 2011 or beyond.

This would be nearly two years after the company had expected to begin delivering the planes to airlines, which have rushed to place orders for the fuel-efficient jet. Their enthusiasm had made the Dreamliner the most popular program in Boeing history, with more than 60 airlines placing orders for more than 800 planes.
Photo by Max Boss

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mike,

I've been reporting air transport for decades. Yeah. Arrested development for sure. But the rumors on Flightblogger and the Seattle PI blog about delamination appearing on the wing of the static bird are terribly unsettling. I've been following this project on my own blog Plane Talking and I have to confess I am dismayed at the lack of detailed accountability from the manufacturer, and the really serious contradictions that have arisen between various official announcements.

Having sat in the mock up in Renton, and followed Boeing all my life, this is agony seeing 'bright invention' turn into what looks like a calamity even if the latest rumors prove incorrect.

Ben Sandilands

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