Power-Up May Not Come Until Late June, Deliveries In Q3
2009
For Boeing, it's the stuff nightmares, not dreams, are made of.
As anticipation builds towards power-on of the first 787 Dreamliner
-- scheduled for the end of March -- and the aircraft's first
flight sometime this summer, on Thursday an analyst went on record
saying he expects another delay in delivery of the highly-popular
aircraft. If true, it would be the third delay in the 787 program
since the plane was unveiled last year.
Citing the ever-popular 'unnamed sources' in a note to
investors, Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Safran wrote this week the
American planemaker "continues to underestimate the amount of work
required on the 787," according to Bloomberg. "Changes to the
airplane have caused a delay in completing wiring of the aircraft,"
he added.
Safran says initial power-up may not occur now until the end of
June. That would have a domino effect on the rest of the
development, certification, and delivery schedule, he adds, pushing
first deliveries for the 787 to the third quarter of 2009 instead
of Boeing's current target date of "early 2009."
Boeing is already about eight months behind schedule for the
composite-bodied airliner. The planemaker debuted the aircraft in a
flashy ceremony on July 8, 2007... but it soon became clear that
plane was little more than a cobbled-together shell, and serious
issues with suppliers, fasteners and wiring lay behind the
scenes.
As ANN reported, Boeing
announced the first six-month delay to Dreamliner deliveries in
October 2007.. and while heads at Boeing didn't necessarily roll,
they did bounce, with former 787 program chief Mike Bair shuffled
out of the program, and several executives from other Boeing areas
moving over to the troubled 787 program.
Things seemed to be on track after that, and most 787 customers
accepted the delay with little public grumbling. Sales of the
airliner also continued at a fast pace, with 817 orders taken for
the efficient airliner through December 2007. In January, however,
Boeing announced a second
delay, this one of about three months... and eyebrows
raised.
Boeing currently claims 857 net orders for the plane... and its
customers are growing increasingly restless, at least when cameras
and microphones are rolling. If Safran's prognostication comes to
pass, the 787 will fly at least one year after Boeing's original
target date.
Yvonne Leach, spokesperson for Boeing, wouldn't comment on
Safran's projections -- saying only the planemaker is "working hard
to meet milestones," and the "assessment is ongoing" regarding a
revised delivery timetable for the aircraft. "We will communicate
to customers on this around the end of the first quarter," she
added.