SEATTLE — Boeing Co. says it has changed the design of a key part of its new 787 jetliner, but the company has not addressed rumors that the fix would contribute to further delays in the plane’s first flight.
“It is a normal part of the development of a new airplane to discover need for improvements, and that is what we are experiencing on the 787,” said Boeing spokeswoman Yvonne Leach, in a statement issued Thursday.
Earlier in the week, Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman of International Lease Finance Corp., one of Boeing’s largest customers, said changes to the plane’s center wing box could push back Boeing’s 787 timeline.
The center wing box connects the jetliner’s wing to the fuselage and holds fuel. At the time, Leach did not specifically address what parts Boeing might be tweaking, but on Thursday she said the issue with the center wing box has been addressed and that planes already on the assembly line will be fixed.
Udvar-Hazy, whose company has ordered 74 of the planes, predicted the 787’s first flight won’t occur until the fall and that the first delivery will be postponed to the end of the third quarter of 2009.
Boeing has not given any updates on the 787’s timing since January, when it announced the 787 program’s third major delay. The company pushed plans to send the jetliner on its first flight to the end of June, and to deliver the first plane to All Nippon Airways in early 2009.
The Chicago-based company is currently reviewing that schedule, and industry watchers expect it will announce a fourth delay in late March or early April.
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