Boeing's 787 won't fly until next spring

The first of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliners won't be delivered until late next year, a six-month delay on the original schedule.

The jet won't even fly for the first time until next spring. Though just a month ago first flight was re-scheduled from September to November/December, today Boeing pushed it out again to the end of next year's first quarter.

But Boeing said it will largely stick with its planned production schedule, yielding about 40 planes by the new target date of first delivery in late 2008. It still plans to produce 109 through the end of 2009, just three short of its prior goal.

The 787 has 710 orders from 50 customers, making it the fastest-selling new jet ever.

About 15 of those airline customers will now have their delivery dates pushed back, starting with All Nippon of Japan, followed by a series of Chinese airlines and also including Northwest.

Still, on a day of disappointing news, executives put on a stiff-upper-lip display of optimism.

"We remain confident in the design of the 787 and the fundamental innovation and technologies that underpin it," said Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney. "Our enthusiasm and expectations for its ultimate success is unchanged."

Company officials insisted the financial impact of the delays will be minimal. Chief financial officer James Bell said the company's earnings guidance for 2008 is unchanged.

The big problem is Dreamliner number one, which as rolled out to huge fanfare in July but then was partly dismantled so work could resume on installing the many missing inside components.

In a teleconference Wednesday morning announcing the bad news, top Boeing executives pinned the latest delay on the extensive problems in finishing that airplane. The difficulties stem largely from work not done as planned by Boeing's major partners before large pieces of the structure arrived in Everett.

But Boeing's leadership insisted today that its 787 global supply chain — with the major pieces built in Italy, Japan and Charleston, SC — is not badly broken. Executives offered assurances that once past these "start-up" problems, the major suppliers can catch up and meet the new schedule.

"The issues we are seeing are tied to the rework in the first airplane, not to fundamental issues in the production system," said Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive Scott Carson on the conference call.

"It's more an issue of getting the supply chain up and going," said CEO McNerney. "It's starting up the supply chain, rather than a fatal flaw in the supply chain."

The first airplane was taken off its jacks Sunday and is now resting on its wheels again. The primary structure has been completed and mechanics are now doing interior and systems installation, Carson said.

He said out-of-sequence work will continue to be an issue right through to the building of airplane number 28. But for the planes still to come, at least the out-of-sequence activity will be planned for.

After the first airplane, he said, the big structural pieces arriving in Everett "won't be coming with surprises."

Carson conceded that with first flight pushed out by at least six and maybe seven months, promising to deliver 109 planes by the end of 2009 is "clearly an aggressive plan."

The schedule now calls for 40 or airplanes to be completed before certification. Carson played down the risk that those planes might need extensive changes as a result of issues that crop up during the flight test program.

"We remain confident this new plan is achievable," Carson said.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com