Boeing 787 First Flight Delayed Again

Boeing today announced that the first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been delayed again for an indefinite time.

The 787 Dreamliner was originally scheduled to take its first flight early 2008. Actually, until the announcement today, its maiden flight was planned for the end of June 09. The date was now delayed for the sixth time.

Reason for the new delay is “the need of reinforcement in an area within the side-of-body section of the aircraft”.

The need was identified during the recent scheduled tests on the full-scale static test airplane. Preliminary analysis indicated that flight test could proceed this month as planned. However, after further testing and consideration of possible modified flight test plans, the decision was made late last week that first flight should instead be postponed until productive flight testing could occur.

Boeing 787 Test Plane on TarmacFirst flight and first delivery will be rescheduled following the final determination of the required modification and testing plan. It will be several weeks before the new schedule is available. The 787 team will continue with other aspects of testing on Airplane #1, including final gauntlet testing and low-speed taxiing. Work will also continue on the other five flight test aircraft and the subsequent aircraft in the production system.

Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said a team of experts has already identified several potential solutions.

“Consideration was given to a temporary solution that would allow us to fly as scheduled, but we ultimately concluded that the right thing was to develop, design, test and incorporate a permanent modification to the localized area requiring reinforcement. Structural modifications like these are not uncommon in the development of new airplanes, and this is not an issue related to our choice of materials or the assembly and installation work of our team,” Carson said.

… Well, we’ll see if the never ending story of delays will find an end in near future …

Source: Boeing
Photo: Boeing

3 thoughts on “Boeing 787 First Flight Delayed Again”

  1. Boeing did the right thing. Do and do it right…or DON’T do it at all!

    They are late because of outsourcing and trying to work around the expertise of American Boeing employees…It has NEVER had a plane this messed up and late. Welcome to globalism.

  2. These kinds of delays are, unfortunately, becoming more common, as complexity of design and materials escalates. Boeing is right to delay the first flight until a permanent solution can be found, but customers will not want to wait indefinitely. The A350XWB meanwhile continues to progress, with a faster initial order rate than the 787.