In this field the work to be done is enormous

Around the gigantic Everett Assembly site, near Seattle, Boeing 787 brand new twenty, most in the colours of All Nippon Airways (ANA) seem to not wait as their engines to the air. But three months of the date scheduled for the first delivery, the B787 continues to play with the nerves of the leaders of Boeing. The newest member of the company, which has already accumulated three years behind its original schedule, just held a new blow. Fire an electric table during a test flight, last Tuesday, has forced the manufacturer to interrupt all the tests in flight for an indefinite period. What compromise the obtaining of certification and first delivery to ANA, scheduled around February 19.

Since the release of plant for the first copy, July 8, 2007, the B787 already known not less than five revisions of the timetable for deliveries, and several minor incidents. But Scott Fancher's confession, the Director of the program, the incident Tuesday is the most serious since the beginning of flight tests, December 15, 2009. "It is too early to know what will be the impact for the program, he says. Able to resume flights, we must know what happened and evaluate what needs to be done.

This blow falls with much worse than rumours of further delays were already well underway in recent weeks. If the objective of initial delivery to ANA know February has not denied for the time being, the manufacturer has, it seems, announced following customers, Japan Airlines, Korean Air Lines and Air India, new reports of delivery ranging from three to ten months.

Nasty surprises

Boeing is still denied to indicate a detailed schedule of delivery, nor forecasts of production for next year. Single precision: the aircraft manufacturer, which manufacture today hardly two B787 per month, is a rate of 10 units per month in 2013.

Before the fire Tuesday, the explosion of a Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine to the test, in August, had already forced Boeing to revise its schedule. "Today, this problem is resolved," assures Stan Deal, in charge of relations with suppliers. Rolls-Royce made the necessary changes. A problem of defect on some stabilizers (the rear fins), manufactured by the Italian Alenia, had also raised a few concerns with Boeing.

To these surprises add problems persistent elements of fuselage still delivered incomplete to Everett. Like Airbus at the time of the A380 wiring problems, Boeing workers must complete installation of equipment on sections of fuselage delivered by Alenia or American Vought themselves. "We have still one hand important work to resume, recognizes Stan Deal, but manageable proportions, without comparison with what we have experienced in the past.". The situation should stabilize in the next six months.

These delays and setbacks is also felt at the end of string, to the training centre for future crews. Boeing, which has invested in 80 to 16 million exhibit flight simulators, has not yet been able to form a single crew of B787. "Training should be the closest possible online, because the training of a driver is valid six months", explains Mark Albert, the pattern of the Renton training centre. In this field, the work to be done is enormous. Each of the ordered B787 847 will require between 6 and 16 crews, according to its terms of operation.