Why did Boeing stop making the 787?

“In reviewing certification records, Boeing discovered an analysis error by our supplier related to the 787 forward pressure bulkhead,” said the company, referring to the portion of a plane at its nose that maintains the pressurized conditions in the cabin.



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The latest announcement brings back memories of the delivery drought that affected Boeing's 787s not too long ago. Deliveries of the Boeing 787 were stopped by the FAA in May 2021 after production flaws surfaced and concerns over Boeing's inspection methods.

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In that case, “a nonstandard manufacturing process” affected two out of eight fittings that attached the tailfin to the fuselage. Repairs of that flaw are taking months per airplane. With this new defect on the 787 horizontal tail, Boeing declined to clarify exactly what it is that the fitting attaches to.

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The problem involves a fitting for the 787's horizontal stabilizer installed by a Boeing production facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, the company said. The horizontal stabilizer, located at the base of an aircraft's tail, allows a plane to maintain longitudinal balance while flying.

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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.

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The Dreamliner is a successful aircraft, still in production with more than 1600 delivered or on order. The list price for a new Boeing 787-8 is $239 million dollars. Yet even as international travel opens again for these long-range aircraft, two Dreamliners barely ten years old are waiting for the wrecker's ball.

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The 787 was designed to be the first production airliner with the fuselage comprising one-piece composite barrel sections instead of the multiple aluminum sheets and some 50,000 fasteners used on existing aircraft. Boeing selected two new engines to power the 787, the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 and General Electric GEnx.

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The typical lifespan of airliners The 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.

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What was the 787 meant to replace? At launch, Boeing targeted the 787 with 20% less fuel burn than replaced aircraft like the Boeing 767, carrying 200 to 300 passengers on point-to-point routes up to 8,500 nautical miles [nmi] (15,700 km; 9,800 mi), a shift from hub-and-spoke travel.

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The latest issue affects a fitting assembly in horizontal stabilizers built by a Boeing facility in Salt Lake City. The fittings come from an external supplier, and each unit is assembled and installed onto stabilizers in Salt Lake, a Boeing source said.

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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.

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There were 865 Boeing 787 aircraft in airline service as of November 2022, comprising 353 787-8s, 477 787-9s and 35 787-10s.

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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.

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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.

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The Boeing 777 series is larger than the 787 and thus can carry more passengers. The 787-10 has a higher capacity than the smaller 777-200 series. However, it falls short of the larger 777-300 models by 66 passengers in a typical two-class configuration. Of course, the exact capacity varies from airline to airline.

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Boeing 787 Dreamliner: Tupperjet (plastic tupperware), Firebird (since several early on-board fires), Seven-Late-Seven, Bad Dream Liner, Flatliner, Sparky the Game Changer, Binliner, The microwave (cooks batteries), Scabliner, Sparky, Plastic Princess, Spuds McKenzie.

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Did you know that the 787 can deploy a propellor underneath its fuselage? It's called a RAT.

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What is the longest flight in the world by distance? The longest flight in the world by distance is New York (JFK) to Singapore (SIN) on Singapore Airlines clocking in at 9,537 miles. What plane can fly the farthest in the world?

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While passengers love the experience in the back, it's also a great place for the pilots to work. A number of features on the aircraft set it apart from other aircraft types. So, even when your working day can be 19 hours long, I'd much rather be doing it in a Dreamliner than any other type.

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Designed for optimized fuel efficiency Boeing states that the Dreamliner's fly-by-wire technology: ... optimizes the shape (or 'camber') of the wing automatically to save the most fuel.

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On January 17th, 2013, the FAA ordered the entire 787 fleet across all airlines to be grounded, and the NTSB launched an investigation. The culprit was eventually identified as a lithium-ion battery. A cell within the battery was believed to have short-circuited, causing what is known as a thermal runaway.

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ANA is the world's largest 787 operator with 71 planes in its fleet and 12 more to be delivered prior to the latest agreement. “Boeing's 787s have served ANA with distinction, and we are proud to expand our fleet by adding more of these technologically-advanced aircraft,” said Yutaka Ito, executive VP of ANA.

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