787 First Flight Delayed For Several Weeks
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Michael Mecham mecham@aviationweek.com
Boeing said early this morning that first flight of the 787 will be delayed for weeks because of the need to reinforce a "side-of-body section" of the composite fuselage.
In a statement, the company denied that its choice of material was an issue.
No schedule was given for when the flight testing might resume. The weakness was identified during recent, regularly scheduled tests on the full-scale static test airplane.
Under Boeing's original schedule, first flight was to take place by the end of the second quarter--June 30. The first flight test airplane, ZA001, was in its final week of preparations to make that flight. Those activities must stop while an area of the side-of-body section is reinforced.
"First flight and first delivery will be rescheduled following the final determination of the required modification and testing plan," a company statement said.
This throws into doubt Boeing's plans to deliver the first production aircraft to launch customer All Nippon Airways by the end of the first quarter, 2010. The response from ANA headquarters in Tokyo is: "We are disappointed that the first flight of the 787 will be postponed, and urge Boeing to specify the schedule for the program as a whole as quickly as possible."
"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," Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Scott Carson said. "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."
Photo credit: Liz Matzelle
