787 power and delivery woes

With about a week to go in the month it is obvious that Boeing will have delivered only one 787 in the month but what is most disconcerting is the lack of any real progress on the Everett (and Charleston) flightline.  There are 7 Dreamliners that have "finished" final assembly and change incorporation with another two that are either being painted or are finishing up some last minute inflight entertainment installation tasks.  It's the 7 airplanes that has caught peoples' attention.  Thus far Boeing has not conducted a single 787 test flight (B-1 or otherwise) since ZA262 (LN 49, ET-AOQ) for Ethiopian flew to Ft. Worth, Texas to be painted.  That was done on July 12th.  Additionally this aforementioned aircraft should have finished its paint job and flown back to Everett. Typically painting should have been completed in about a 10 to 11 days so it should fly back any day now, perhaps tomorrow. 

The first thought that the issue might be related to the gear box issues that has grounded 5 ANA 787s (3 have since gotten replacement parts and are back in the air).  However this is an issue that has effected (it appears) some of early delivered ANA 787s with the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines.  There are 787s with the GEnx engine that are ready to fly but have not flown just as yet.  Whatever is keeping these planes on the ground may be fleetwide though it hasn't stopped revenue flights.  It might be that Boeing is trying to finish up assembly tasks on each of these airplanes.  Boeing will have its earnings call on Wednesday morning.  It is hoped that there would be more clarification on this issue at that time.

In the meantime, the Trent 1000 gear box issue is likely a minor problem that affects a very small portion of the 787s in service but it's an issue that has attracted significant attention because it is the 787.