Airbus critiques Boeing’s 787

Published 4:29 pm Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Wouldn’t we all like to know what our competitor is thinking?

Airbus put together a “Lessons Learnt” about Boeing’s 787. The document was obtained by Flight International’s Jon Ostrower who posted it on FlightBlogger.

The document gives Airbus’s take on Boeing’s production problems with the 787.

Here’s an excerpt from the blog entry:

All of this was further exacerbated, according to Airbus, by “low-wage, trained-on-the-job workers that had no previous aerospace experience” working at supplier partners. Airbus believes “inadequate supplier capability in design,” contributed further, citing as an example that “Vought had no engineering department when selected” by Boeing.

Combined with an “insufficient supply of frame, clips brackets and floor beams” the result was a “loss of configuration” control stemming from production records on “deferred work that were found to be incomplete or lost in transfer.” In addition, parts that did arrive complete to final assembly were “found to be completed incorrectly” requiring additional rework in Everett.

Airbus’s assessment of Boeing’s trouble with weight on the 787 is also detailed as well as the European jet maker’s predictions on the Dreamliner’s schedule.