| Boeing delays Dreamliner launch again |
Aerospace giant Boeing said Wednesday it was again delaying the launch of its 787 Dreamliner, with deliveries now set to begin in early 2009.
The move is a setback for Boeing as it jockeys for position with Europe's Airbus as the world's largest maker of civilian aircraft.
Boeing said the first flight of the 787 has been moved from the end of the first quarter of this year "to around the end of the second quarter to provide additional time to complete assembly of the first airplane."
Deliveries are now expected to begin in early 2009, rather than late 2008, Boeing said. "The fundamental design and technologies of the 787 remain sound," said Scott Carson, president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, in a statement. "However, we continue to be challenged by start-up issues in our factory and in our extended global supply-chain."
In October, the US manufacturer had announced its second delay for the first deliveries of the 787 to December 2008 and had said the first flight would occur in March 2008.
Boeing has more than 700 orders for the new fuel-efficient aircraft from at least 50 airlines, representing more than 110 billion dollars according to catalog prices.
Carson said that while progress has been made on the assembly of the first 787, the rate at which work is being completed has not improved sufficiently to maintain the current schedule. "Our revised schedule is based upon updated assessments from the 787 management team of the progress we have made and the lessons we have learned to date," he said. "This includes our experience on the factory floor completing production work on the airplane that was originally intended to be done by our suppliers."
The Dreamliner, Boeing's first new model in over a decade, takes advantage of the huge advances made in aviation technology in the past decade, and was designed using high-tech plastic composites instead of aluminum. Up to 50% of the primary structure of the plane, including the fuselage and wing, are made of composites such as carbon-fiber, which reduce its weight.
Boeing, which aims to build some 2,000 Dreamliners over the next two decades, maintains that it will consume 20% less fuel then similar-sized planes already on the market. Able to fly up to 9,700 miles without refueling, it could easily manage a flight between New York and Manila, or Moscow and Sao Paulo, routes so far only open to bigger planes such as Boeing's 777 or 747.
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