Aircraft

Boeing has confirmed that the 747, 767 and 777 face new production disruptions caused by the same quality control issue already plaguing the 737 programme. This same missing cadmium coating affects several thousand nutplate assemblies on a 777 and "hundreds" within each 747 and 767, says the airframer. The problem has been traced to one of three suppliers to Spirit AeroSystems, which has been supplying the non-conforming parts since August 2007. To comply with US Federal Aviation Administration standards, each of the errant nutplates must be replaced, although the problem is not a flight-safety issue.