Boeing’s biggest 787 customer today confirmed plans to keep all 74 aircraft currently on order and disclosed new interest to potentially place more orders for the next-generation widebody later this year.
The vote of confidence by International Lease Finance Corp. chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy – emailed to ATI affiliate Commercial Aviation Online – come the day after he disclosed that Boeing must redesign the 787 centre wing box.
“The 787 will turn out to be a good aircraft,” Udvar-Hazy wrote. “ILFC plans to keep its 74 orders firm and we are having a careful review later this year to see if ILFC needs to order more 787s to meet airline customer lease demand.”
News of the re-design problem first appeared in a JP Morgan research note to investors, citing Udvar-Hazy as the source. As a result, Udvar-Hazy noted, the first delivery to launch customer All Nippon Airlines may shift several months to the third quarter 2009.
FlightGlobal.com affiliate FlightBlogger also today reported that the redesign arose after an attempt to save weight on the vital section of the airframe backfired.
Boeing’s engineers have learned that the shift toward thinner and lighter spars in the centre wing box could a trigger premature buckling problem.
The impact of the redesign issue on the planned first flight date “around” late June remains unclear.
“We are working with our partners to address the need for design changes in some areas,” a Boeing spokeswoman says. “While these changes are not good for final assembly because they are dealing with travelled work at this time, the design changes are not the sole pacing item.”
The centre wing box for the 787 is supplied by
Boeing is continuing to review the 787 production system and plans to release a new schedule update in April.
Source: Commercial Aviation Online
