Boeing Live Event Coverage

Seattle Times aerospace reporter Dominic Gates covers top industry events to bring you the latest news, highlighting how it impacts Boeing and its competitors.

Blog Home | E-mail Dominic | Subscribe

July 19, 2010 at 12:18 PM

Comments (0) E-mail article Print Share

747-8 delivery may slip into next year; Shanahan says new flight tests required

Posted by Dominic Gates

The 747-8, Boeing's new larger version of its venerable jumbo jet, is still scheduled like the 787 Dreamliner to be delivered this year.

But at the main Boeing Commercial Airplanes press conference today, chief executive Jim Albaugh admitted that like the Dreamliner, its delivery too may slip into next year.

In an interview this afternoon, Pat Shanahan, the vice president of airplane programs (below)

said the reason for the schedule pressure on the 747-8 is that problems with the design configuration require "enhancements to the flight controls" and "some new flight tests we hadn't originally planned."

"We have different loading conditions that we need to go fly to certify the structural capability," Shanahan said.

And because of the addition of new instrumentation on the test airplanes for those tests, "some of our layups (on the ground) are taking longer.".

Shanahan declined to say what specific problem had been identified.

"These extra flight tests put a lot of pressure on the end of the year" deadline, he said.

Boeing Live Event Coverage

747-8 delivery may slip into next year; Shanahan says new flight tests required

The Seattle Times Company

Services

News

Marketplace

Subscriber Services

Other editions