Global Fastener News

Boeing Delays Dreamliner Delivery

Jason Sandefur

Weeks after fastener shortages and other assembly setbacks delayed the first flight of its Dreamliner, The Boeing Co. announced a six-month delay in its planned deliveries of the 787 “due to continued challenges completing assembly of the first airplanes.” Deliveries of the Dreamliner, originally set for May 2008, are now slated to begin in late November or December 2008, with the first flight rescheduled for March 2008.
Boeing said 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 be uncovered in final ground or flight testing.
While expressing disappointment in delays, CEO Jim McNerney said he remains “confident in the design of the 787, and in the fundamental innovation and technologies that underpin it.”
Boeing has sent hundreds of engineers to help third-tier suppliers as far away as Israel boost production for critical fuselage components.
In recent weeks McNerney has blamed Alcoa Fastening Systems and other fastener suppliers for ongoing shortages that have delayed the test flight of its 787 Dreamliner.
“You know the root cause here — the fastener industry got consolidated, post 9/11,” McNerney reportedly told a group of investors. “The consolidators misjudged the demand swingback — a lot of us misjudged the demand swingback — post 9/11.”
McNerney’s comments conflict with earlier reports suggesting that 787 fastener specifications were as much as 8 months late, forcing AFS and other suppliers to work non-stop to complete design work and manufacture the 9 different fastener types for the Dreamliner.
Not everyone agrees that fastener industry consolidation is to blame for the current shortage.
“The consolidation on the aerospace fastener industry has not had a dampening effect on the ability to ramp up, ” an aerospace fastener manufacturer told FastenerNews.com. “At worse it has been neutral, at best the new owners may have encouraged the addition of new or more capital equipment to help meet the demand.” Web: boeing.com �2007 FastenerNews.com