I wonder if delivery of the Dreamliner will ever be anything but a
dream.
I
f we hadn’t already seen it with our own eyes, we would almost think it’s a unicorn.
Boeing’s former pride and joy, now albatross, the 787 Dreamliner, has been pushed back yet again, to the third quarter, the company announced on Tuesday.
The reason? “An in-flight incident during testing last November” that forced Boeing to develop, install and test updated software and new electrical power distribution panels.
In a report, Bloomberg describes the incident:
The setback follows a Nov. 9 electrical fire on one of the test jets that knocked out some controls and forced an emergency landing. Boeing suspended all Dreamliner flights for six weeks while it investigated the incident and redesigned parts of the plane. The first revised 787 was allowed to start flying again Dec. 23 for the company’s purposes only.
Dreamliner VP Scott Fancher said in a statement:
This revised timeline for first delivery accommodates the work we believe remains to be done to complete testing and certification of the 787. We’ve also restored some margin in the schedule to allow for any additional time that may be needed to complete certification activities.
Bloomberg notes that this is the sixth time the 787 delivery date has been pushed back. (Us, well, we had lost count.) Believe it or not, the original date on the project was May 2008.
Safety first, of course. Though shareholders can’t be too happy about this news.
Related on SmartPlanet:
- Boeing: 787 will get ‘minor design changes’; Delay to be determined
- Boeing: 787 Dreamliner fire probe continues
- Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner: Simply too complex?
- Boeing to delay 787 Dreamliner up to 10 months, report says
- Boeing: 787 Dreamliner first delivery on track, but schedule under pressure
- Boeing 787 Dreamliner adds another 20 feet of length
- Airbus A350 versus Boeing 787: differences and many similarities
- More Boeing 787 Dreamliner coverage
