Aviation News Item: 00613

24th Jun 2009

Source: ubmaviationnews.com

Boeing has once again postponed the first flight of the 787, which was scheduled to take place before the end of this month. The company named a "need to reinforce an area within the side-of-body section of the aircraft" as the reason for this latest delay. The requirement was identified during recent tests on a full-scale static test aircraft. "Consideration was given to a temporary solution that would allow us to fly as scheduled," said Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes; "but we ultimately concluded that the right thing was to develop, design, test and incorporate a permanent modification to the localised area requiring reinforcement. 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." Boeing said it will be several weeks before the new schedule for first flight and the first aircraft deliveries will be available. The Dreamliner was originally meant to takeoff for the first flight in September 2007, with deliveries starting in May 2008.

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