UPDATED: New 787 leader reaffirms Dreamliner schedule

Published 12:22 pm Tuesday, December 11, 2007

As expected, Boeing’s new head of the 787 program, Pat Shanahan, says the company’s Dreamliner jet will meet its delayed schedule.

Shanahan, who took over for former 787 vice president Mike Bair in October, says he has made some fundamental changes to the program to make sure the Dreamliner flies by the end of the first quarter.

“I believe we have made considerable progress in aligning the 787 team around our commitments,” Shanahan said.

Shanahan said he is spending much of his time attacking the issue of traveled work — incomplete structures shipped from partners. However, the amount of traveled work is decreasing, he said.

UPDATE (Noon PST):

Both analysts and Wall Street have had time to digest Boeing’s update.

At just before noon here in Everett, Boeing’s stock has declined more than 3 percent, or $2.84, today.

The take of most analysts? While Boeing’s Carson and Shanahan emphasized that the 787 remains on schedule, they provided too few details to convince many industry observers.

Local analyst Scott Hamilton, with Leeham Co., described the update as “pretty uninformative.” Boeing offered “feel good” answers rather than “concrete” details — especially in terms of how Boeing and its global partners go from power on of the first 787 in January to producing 109 planes by December 2009.

Here’s the link to my initial story. You also can check out the Wall Street Journal or MarketWatch articles. I’ll have more on this tomorrow.