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Boeing 787 Launch Delayed by Six Months
First flight now anticipated for end of first quarter 2008
Elizabeth M. Taurasi, Executive Editor -- Design News, October 10, 2007
Boeing today announced a six month delay in deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner due to continued challenges completing assembly of the first planes. This is the third delay for the rollout of the plane.
Delivers of the Dreamliner are now slated to begin in late November or December 2008, according to the company’s website. The original target date for deliveries was next May. First flight, which was already pushed back from a fall 2007 target date, is now anticipated for around the end of the first quarter 2008.
Early last month, Design News reported that Boeing officials confirmed a fastener shortage and problems with flight control software which pushed the “first flight” of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to sometime between mid-November and mid-December. That was the second delay for the plane. Today’s announcement cites ongoing challenges with out-of-sequence production work, including parts shortages and remaining software and systems integration activities. The company also acknowledged increasing risk to the delivery schedule, indicating that the margin to accommodate unexpected issues had been eliminated.
The newly revised schedule for first flight and first delivery addresses the production challenges and restores margin for the program to deal with issues that may have been uncovered in final ground or flight testing, according to a release on the company’s website.
Boeing will hold a conference call to discuss the 787 schedule changes today at 12:30 p.m. Central Time, which will be accessible at the company's website.
