The company had halted 787 deliveries between November 2020 and August 2022 due to problems including an issue involving improper gaps between the type's composite fuselage sections. Boeing says it is inspecting 787s in its inventory and that affected jets will require rework, causing some delivery delays.
With 150 firm orders, United has the largest Dreamliner orderbook on record and is positioned to become the largest 787 operator in the world. Today's announcement follows the airline's record-setting purchase of 100 787 airplanes last year.
Earlier this year, Boeing said it was moving from producing three to four 787s monthly. Boeing now says it “plans to ramp” 787 output to five aircraft monthly in late 2023. It is also sticking with a plan to produce 10 of the widebodies monthly in 2025 or 2026, and of delivering 70-80 of the jets this year.
While the rework of the fuselage flaws was occurring over the last year, Boeing lowered the 787 program's production rate to below five per month. The company reported 120 total undelivered 787 Dreamliners sitting in inventory during their July 27 second quarter 2022 earnings.
The A350-900 has a 665 nautical mile advantage in range, while the 787-9 has a lighter maximum take-off weight by 62,408 pounds. The A350-900 offers more seating in a typical configuration, which we would expect to result in a lower seat-mile cost.
The defect is a small, paper-thin gap in the attachment, Boeing said. Such gaps are typically plugged using a filler known as a shim. The shims in the attachment were incorrectly sized so that the gap exceeded the five-thousandths of an inch allowable in the specification.
The 787's latest problem mirrors production issues discovered over 2020 and 2021 that included improperly fitted shimming that led to paper-thin gaps between surfaces on the Dreamliner's fuselage.
The 787's latest problem mirrors production issues discovered over 2020 and 2021 that included improperly fitted shimming that led to paper-thin gaps between surfaces on the Dreamliner's fuselage.
Over 70% of the value of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner was provided by outside suppliers, including engineering work in USA, Australia, France, Japan and Italy. This was a much higher share than in the previous airplanes of the company where less than 50% was outsourced.
Boeing's Sanderson isn't defending the delays, but stresses that “All 787s in service and in our inventory are perfectly safe to fly.” The planemaker sees a silver lining with learnings applied to build even better 787s and new aircraft like the next-generation 777-9.
Boeing resumes 787 deliveries but faces catch-up to meet 2023 delivery goal. Boeing's most recent Dreamliner delivery pause came to an end on 15 March when the airframer handed over a 787-9 to German carrier Lufthansa.
Out of the over 1000 Boeing 787 airliners that have been built since 2011 when the type was introduced, approximately 0 (Zero) have crashed. It is perfectly safe to fly any Boeing aircraft including the 737 Max 8. also the 787 and 737 are entirely different aircraft.
While the 787 Dreamliners have not been grounded, the FAA had ordered a halt to deliveries of the widebody jet between May of 2021 and July of 2022 as it looked into questions about quality control during its assembly process.
The typical lifespan of airlinersThe composite-driven Boeing 787 Dreamliner is designed for 44,000 flight cycles. These jets can theoretically last several decades with an average of two flight cycles a day.
The requirement for any large commercial flight (short-haul or long-haul) is to have a minimum of two pilots, regardless of the nature of the flight. That comprises a commander of the aircraft (captain) and a co-pilot (also known as the first officer).