Seattle Times: 787 May Not Fly This Year

In an article that echoed Flightblogger's post yesterday, Dominic Gates of the Seattle Times reported that the 787 may not be ready to fly this year due to the required fix needed to the side of body join. I reported earlier that the detail design of the fix itself would take two months followed by manufacture and testing of the fix. Adding to the complication is accessibility to install the new parts. The design of the parts can also complicate the ramp up to full production of the 787 because of the time needed to retrofit the parts in airplanes already assembled as well as those still back in the supply chain. Boeing wants to avoid retrofitting too many assembled aircraft.

However, looking at the LCF flights that Boeing and Evergreen have been flying, there seems to be quite a bit of activity. Granted some of these flight might be training flights and/or repositioning of transport fixtures for the various parts, the activity could also mean an increase in activity especially with regards to build up of the main fuselage section which is still an issue in terms of the build up time.

Seattle Times: 787 May Not Fly This Year