EVERETT — The Boeing Co. won’t deliver its first 787 Dreamliner by the end of next year after announcing a six-month slide in the schedule on Thursday.
That’s 112 fewer Dreamliners than Boeing initially had planned to deliver by the end of 2009 and 25 fewer than the company committed to in April, the last time it reshuffled its schedule. The company couldn’t estimate on Thursday how many 787 jets will be delivered in 2010.
“It doesn’t look like this new schedule has a lot of science behind it,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group.
In its fourth major 787 delay, Boeing pushed the jet’s first flight out to the second quarter of 2009. The first delivery will take place by March 2010, nearly two years after the Dreamliner was originally set to enter commercial service. Boeing cited the 57-day strike by its Machinists and the improper installation of parts as reason for the new delay.
“We will overcome this set of circumstances as we have others in the past, and we understand clearly what needs to be done moving forward,” said Pat Shanahan, who was promoted from 787 general manager to vice president of Airplane Programs at Boeing on Thursday.
Shanahan still will have oversight of the 787 while Scott Fancher, who previously led Boeing’s missile defense business, takes over as vice president of the Dreamliner program. Boeing shook up its commercial airplanes management even further, naming Ray Conner as vice president of supply chain management and operations. Carolyn Corvi, who Shanahan succeeds, will retire at the end of the year after 34 years at Boeing.
“The steps we are taking today will sharpen our management focus and bring our organizational structure to bear to improve execution in our supply chain, as well as on our development programs,” said Scott Carson, president and chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Boeing recently saw a disruption in production of its 737, 747, 767 and 777 jets as a result of faulty parts. And the company’s global supply chain has been blamed repeatedly for Dreamliner delays.
Regardless of the delays, Boeing’s fuel-efficient 787 remains popular, picking up a request for 15 more Dreamliners on Thursday. The order, posted on Boeing’s orders and deliveries Web site, was attributed to an unidentified customer. That pushes the 787’s lifetime tally over 900 orders.
Analysts and media had been predicting the latest 787 setback for weeks given that Boeing already said the Dreamliner wouldn’t fly later this year as planned because of the Machinists strike. During the nearly two-month work stoppage, Boeing discovered that less than 3 percent of the jet’s fasteners had been installed improperly — an error that affected not only the first aircraft but others in production.
On Thursday, Boeing’s Yvonne Leach, 787 program spokeswoman, said the company continued to work through the fastener issue, identifying and replacing problem ones. Although Leach declined to estimate how far along Boeing is in resolving the matter, she said that it will take “weeks, not months.”
Howard Rubel, an analyst with Jefferies &Co., said the delay was a result of the strike and poor workmanship by a subcontractor, “and it just takes time to put fasteners back in properly.”
“It’s not a case of anything harder or more complicated than that,” he said.
But Aboulafia and others remain unconvinced that Boeing’s revised 787 schedule is realistic, partly because of the company’s aggressive flight test schedule.
The company didn’t drastically change its flight test schedule on Thursday, allowing nine months from first flight to delivery. Boeing will have 34 test pilots alternating flying six 787s virtually round the clock to complete the task, Leach said.
New aircraft typically take about a year from first flight until entering commercial service. And the Dreamliner’s mostly composite structure, built in a radically different way, gives observers cause for concern that extensive issues will crop up during flight test.
“When there’s an absence of credibility and a lot of doubt, the last thing you want to do is claim you’re going to set a certification record,” Aboulafia said.
Boeing’s Shanahan said the company remains “laser focused” on preparations for the 787’s first flight. But before the strike, the company already had missed some of dates it laid out in April for software and hardware testing — qualifications that Boeing needs to finish prior to first flight.
Carson said on Thursday that the company had “made progress with structural testing, systems hardware qualification and production” before the strike and fastener troubles.
Boeing’s Leach said the company still is discussing schedules with customers of the 787-9, the second version of the Dreamliner. In April, Boeing had planned to deliver the first 787-9 in early 2012.
“We’re not ready to give an update on that yet,” Leach said.
However, the company remains committed to its plan to ramp up its pace to producing 10 787-8 Dreamliners monthly by 2012, she said.
At a meeting of airline executives in Chicago, All Nippon Airways president and chief executive, Mineo Yamamoto, said Thursday the latest 787 delay was “very regrettable.” Under the original schedule, the Japanese carrier would have received its first 787 last May.
“They were supposed to be in operation by now,” he said, through a translator.
Despite the delays, analysts see few 787 cancellations in Boeing’s future. The company has received only one request for cancellation for the 787.
Boeing’s shares dropped $1.41 to close at $40.27 on Thursday. The company didn’t provide an estimate Thursday how the 787 delay will affect its financial outlook for 2009.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
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