F-35 vs. 787, part 2: Prototype hell

The two\naircraft are AA-1 and ZA001.

The former\nis the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter prototype completed in December 2006.

The latter\nis the first 787 prototype that was originally supposed to enter flight test about\neight months later, yet remains in the late stages of final assembly and 15\nmonths behind schedule.

Both\naircraft must be spectacular disappointments so far for Lockheed Martin and\nBoeing, respectively.

Consider\nthat the F-35 program's AA-1 required 65,000 more labor hours to build than\nplanned, a roughly 35% overrun, according to a March report by the Government Accountability\nOffice. Most of the delays were blamed on the wing and final assembly, both firmly\ncontrolled by Lockheed in the Team JSF industrial partnership.

But final\nassembly was the least of the worries for AA-1. Lockheed realized in 2004 that a\nmajor redesign was required to shed about 2,100 pounds from the airframe. Further\nchanges in production methods, propulsion output and operational requirements were\nneeded to offset another roughly 2,700 pounds. In all, AA-1 is almost 5,000\npounds too heavy, which equates to about one-eighth of the aircraft's maximum\nweight.

Nonetheless,\nLockheed and the joint program office decided in 2004 that assembling AA-1 would\nstill be worth the cost, even if the first prototype would become an instant anachronism.\nSubsequently, its limited value as a non-production representative flight test\nasset has been eroded by frequent groundings, including one that remains\nongoing.

The story\nof ZA001 is only slightly less tragic. After all, Boeing at least expects this\nperpetual resident of hangar 40-26 in Everett,\n Washington, to one day enter operational\nservice, albeit more than a year late and after one of the most severe\nproduction system meltdowns in the company's deservedly proud history.

The full\nstory of ZA001's tormented upbringing has been superbly told from the\nperspective of true insiders by my blogging colleague Jon Ostrower, master of\nthe ever-fascinating Flightblogger site on FlightGlobal.com.

But, to\nsummarize, what Boeing first portrayed as a slight delay caused by shortages of\nkey parts and software mushroomed into a system-wide industrial breakdown. On\ntop of that, Boeing discovered that the centre wing box would have to be\nredesigned. Continued production snafus, such as poor drilling by a single mechanic,\nhave plagued Boeing's recovery timeline.

Both manufacturers\nhave since moved on from their disaster-prone prototypes. The next roughly 20\nF-35s and 787s are each in various stages of assembly, with Lockheed having\ncompleted its first four flight test aircraft and Boeing still working on\ncompleting ZA001.

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  F-35 vs\n787, part 1: Rise, fall and recovery

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