FAA to delay Boeing’s 787?
Published 7:58 am Monday, April 21, 2008
It didn’t take long for rumors of another Dreamliner delay to surface.
Boeing officials confirmed a long-anticipated delay – one that pushed first delivery to the third quarter of 2009 – earlier this month.
This weekend, German magazine Focus reported that Boeing will announce another delay next month due to difficulties obtaining certification from the FAA. The magazine cited unidentified sources from the FAA and predicted a delay of about three months, until late 2009 or early 2010.
Boeing spokeswoman Yvonne Leach told Reuters:
“The FAA has been overseeing our certification effort every step of the way and this is not our understanding.”
And an FAA spokeswoman told the publication that she wasn’t aware of an additional delay.
In the Herald’s online (unscientific) reader poll taken after Boeing confirmed a delay and pushed the jet’s delivery date until third quarter 2009, about 36 percent of readers felt confident the jet maker would meet its latest mark.
About 24 percent of poll respondents thought the 787 would be delivered late in 2009 while 21 percent said early 2010. Seven percent picked late 2010 and a very skeptical 12 percent of poll takers thought the 787 won’t be delivered until 2011 or later.
