Boeing Update On 787

July 15th, 2008

Three months on after the third major delay to the 787 Dreamliner, at the Farnborough Air Show, Boeing today held its quarterly update on the program. While questions still surround the damaged but repaired fuselage section of the fourth 787, destined for customer Northwest Airlines, itself in merger talks with rival Delta Airlines, one of the key milestones outlined by the 787 VP/General Manager, Patrick Shanahan, was attained during June 2008 and slightly ahead of schedule.

Power to the first 787 was applied in early June and full systems power up was completed by the end of the month, marking a key step towards getting the airplane out onto the ramp in preparation for taxi tests in the run up to first flight, scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year.

Image courtesy of Boeing

During the media briefing, Patrick Shanahan was markedly upbeat and positive about the turnaround for the 787. The decision to farm out so much work on such a revolutionary airplane is one that still irks investors and analysts alike, yet the last few months since the third delay has seen each subsequent 787 fuselage component arrive at Everett for final assembly in better shape than its predecessors.

Image copyright of FleetBuzz Editorial

Equally, destructive testing on the horizontal stabiliser was also a success after being put through its paces by partner Alenia, in Naples, Italy. Overall, the briefing was upbeat about the overall programme, although markedly less in specific detail given the publication of other news already.

The main points of the briefing are as follows:

• Time remains a challenging issue
• “Eating into margin” that Shanahan says he doesn’t want to do.
• Line replaceable unit software upgrades to be easier
• Aim to balance new technology with commonality
• All electric architecture (EA) replacing bleed air system - 2 power systems (fore/aft) to drive pneumatics
• EA to decrease wiringm decrease weight
• Shanahan equates EA to “very large brain” of the airplane - FCS commands driven by onboard system network
• Power on in June 08 brought very few anomalies, most of which were rectified quickly
• 96% hardware is qualified for flight
• 95% first flight hardware ready
• 98% safety hardware tests complete
• Traceability of brake software is small issue - software being rewritten for certification
• Continuation of trade studies on 787-9
• Aiming for 787-9 EIS early 2012
• 787-9 firm configurationdue Q2, 2009
• 787-3 to benefit from 787-8/9 improvements
• Airplane # 1 in “good shape”
• Mid-body section issues eating margin
• Quality of Sec 41 of “high quality”
• Gauntlet tests due for Airplane #1
• Targeting completion of Airplane #1
• Static test airplane - To conduct 3 key tests:
  • Pressurisation testing
  • Leading/trailing edge tests
  • Vibration testing
• Global Aeronautica suffered because of lack of engineering availability, affecting travelled work
• Not enough travelled work being pushed to suppliers by Global Aeronautica
• Finalising ship date for Airplane #4

Shanahan was concerned that margin in the programme was being used up, but was confident that the overall recovery and management of the travelled work was under control and that the partners in the global supply chain were improving all the time and ready to increase production.

He noted that Everett was now the bottleneck, and joked that 787 customers wondered why he was at the Farnborough Air Show when he had airplanes to build and deliver. The next briefing due later this year will outline in greater detail the plan for first flight as the company completes the first airplane and prepares to run engine tests as soon as next month.

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