SEATTLE – As it builds the first of its 787 jetliners, Boeing Co. is grappling with production snags that include fuselage sections that didn’t fit together perfectly on the first try and an industrywide shortage of the fasteners that hold the plane together.
But the company insists it expected bumps in the road as it started assembling its first all-new plane in more than a decade, and that it’s resolving problems as quickly as they crop up.
The latest hiccup: A 0.3-inch gap where the left side of the nose-and-cockpit section didn’t line up with the fuselage section behind it.
Boeing has fixed the problem, which company spokeswoman Mary Hanson characterized as “a normal part of the production process” for new airplanes, whether they’re built mostly from carbon-fiber composites like the 787 or from aluminum.
“You go through these issues of building airplanes all the time,” she said. “They’ll join together perfectly, ultimately. You learn as you do these things, and you make adjustments along the way, and the process gets better.”
Boeing started assembling its first 787 last month, and Hanson said none of the problems encountered so far threaten to delay the plane, which is scheduled to take its first flight around late August and enter commercial service in May 2008.
The 787 will be the first large commercial airliner built mostly from light, sturdy composite materials instead of aluminum, making the plane more fuel- efficient and less expensive to maintain.
Boeing has lined up a vast network of suppliers around the globe that are manufacturing large pieces of the 787, which are then flown on a superfreighter to the final assembly plant in Everett, where the plane is essentially snapped together.
Because the production process is nothing like Boeing has ever done before, Paul Nisbet, an aerospace analyst with JSA Research Inc., said he hasn’t been surprised to hear about production problems.
“I would certainly expect that when you’re revolutionizing the way you build the airplane, the first one coming together is going to have some weak points,” Nisbet said.
Nisbet compared Boeing’s continued confidence about staying on schedule with the 787 to the production problems that forced rival Airbus SAS to delay deliveries of its A380 superjumbo by two years, wiping more than $6 billion off the company’s profit forecasts for 2006-2010.
Airbus spokesman Clay McConnell said the A380 program is on the rebound and that customers are giving the company “rave reviews of our ability to recover” from production problems.
“We are on track for a recovery of that program, as we have told our customers we would be,” McConnell said.
The surge in plane orders that both Boeing and Airbus have enjoyed in recent years has put enormous pressure on suppliers of airplane fasteners.
Large sections of the first 787 arrived at the final assembly plant with lots of temporary fasteners that will have to be replaced with permanent ones.
Though Boeing knew about the fastener shortage well ahead of time, Scott Strode, vice president of airplane development and production for the 787, said it proved to be a bigger challenge than the company had anticipated.
“We were surprised at how much detailed management we had to do on all of those little fasteners to get them here, but we are getting them here,” Strode said when Boeing kicked off final assembly on the first 787.
Alcoa Inc., the world’s largest producer of aerospace fasteners and a supplier for the 787, had Boeing visit a few of its Southern California plants in recent weeks as it works on ways to meet demand, Alcoa spokesman Kevin Lowery said in an e-mail.
“Build rates are quite strong and the demand for fasteners for the 787 is stronger than anyone expected,” Lowery said.
Boeing has also had to work with Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica after the horizontal stabilizer it made for the first 787 arrived with dings that indicated it may have been improperly handled during shipment.
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