The amazing sales record set by the Boeing Dreamliner (866 on order, more than any other wide-body passenger aircraft) is now being overshadowed by the technical problems holding up production:
[. . .] thanks to one technical glitch after another, the new plane is running way behind schedule. Today, it is known increasingly as the “Dream-on-liner”. Originally due in 2007, its initial delivery (to All Nippon Airways) won’t now take place until 2011 at the earliest.
The latest delay looks like the most serious yet. In May, routine bending tests in the workshop showed the wing structure to have separated from its skin (“delaminated”) at 120%-130% of the load limit. To pass muster with the Federal Aviation Administration and other certification bodies, wings have to sustain at least 150% of the load limit without rupturing.
Then, in late June, Boeing announced it was postponing the plane’s maiden flight — originally scheduled for June 30th — while it found a way to reinforce the structure where the wings join the fuselage. The 787 Dreamliner’s first flight has now been put off until this autumn or later.
Boeing declared at the time that the fix was relatively simple. Scott Fancher, the Dreamliner’s programme chief, said all that was needed was “a simple modification” using “a handful of parts”. But Gulliver thinks Boeing is in bigger trouble than it admits — and is having to rerun fresh batches of its computer simulations of the wing’s design.
The preceding advertorial is brought to you by Airbus Industries.
Okay, not really . . . as far as I know. But I’m sure it’s music to the ears of Airbus sales folks.
