Americas

Boeing downplays 787 production snags

(AP)
Updated: 2007-06-13 16:08

SEATTLE - As it builds the first of its 787 jetliners, Boeing Co. is grappling with production snags ranging from fuselage sections that didn't fit together perfectly on the first try to an industrywide shortage of the fasteners that hold the plane together.

The first Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner takes shape in the assembly plant in Everett, Wash. in this May 21, 2007, file photo. [AP]

But the company insists it expected bumps in the road as it started assembling its first all-new plane in more than a decade, and it says it's resolving problems as quickly as they crop up.

The latest hiccup: A 0.3-inch gap where the left side of the nose-and-cockpit section didn't line up with the fuselage section behind it.

Boeing has fixed the problem, which company spokeswoman Mary Hanson characterized as "a normal part of the production process" for new airplanes, whether they're built mostly from carbon-fiber composites like the 787 or from aluminum.

"You go through these issues of building airplanes all the time," she said. "They'll join together perfectly, ultimately. You learn as you do these things, and you make adjustments along the way, and the process gets better."

The Seattle Times reported on the fuselage problem Tuesday after receiving a photograph purportedly taken during the final-assembly process.

Hanson said she could not verify the authenticity of the picture or confirm whether the company routinely takes such photographs as it evaluates its production process and works with its suppliers to solve problems.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, citing an unidentified source, reported Tuesday in its aerospace blog that the gap was 1.75 inches wide before Boeing started working to fix the problem. Hanson declined to comment on the report. "The issue is resolved and we've moved on," she said.

Boeing started assembling its first 787 last month, and Hanson said none of the problems encountered so far threaten to delay the plane, which is scheduled to take its first flight around late August and enter commercial service in May 2008.

The 787 will be the first large commercial airliner built mostly from light, sturdy composite materials instead of aluminum, making the plane more fuel-efficient and less expensive to maintain.

Boeing has lined up a vast network of suppliers around the globe that are manufacturing large pieces of the 787, which are then flown on a superfreighter to the final assembly plant in Everett, north of Seattle, where the plane is essentially snapped together.

Because the production process is nothing like Boeing has ever done before, Paul Nisbet, an aerospace analyst with JSA Research Inc., said he hasn't been surprised to hear about production problems.

"I would certainly expect that when you're revolutionizing the way you build the airplane, the first one coming together is going to have some weak points," Nisbet said.

Nisbet compared Boeing's continued confidence about staying on schedule with the 787 to the production problems that forced rival Airbus SAS to delay deliveries of its A380 superjumbo by two years, wiping more than $6 billion off the company's profit forecasts for 2006-2010.

Airbus spokesman Clay McConnell said the A380 program is on the rebound and that customers are giving the company "rave reviews of our ability to recover" from production problems.

The surge in plane orders that both Boeing and Airbus have enjoyed in recent years has put enormous pressure on suppliers of airplane fasteners.