All Nippon Airlines (ANA) is lamenting the new delay on Boeing delivering the Dreamliner to one of its launch customers and I don’t blame them.  I don’t think anybody regrets ordering the 787 even at this point but I do marvel somewhat at the patience being displayed by several of the customers.  This was an aircraft that Boeing arguably needed in its product lineup several years ago.

These delays have added up to something well past 2 years now and we don’t know what else may show up causing further delays.  The most disturbing part of these delays, to me, are that many have been caused by quality control issues with manufacturing partners and with problems centered on systems that arguably should have been robustly tested and matured at this point. 

It begs the question as to what the hell were these partners doing during the long delays involving fasteners for instance.  Engines could have been tested more.  There was no high rate production impeding Alenia’s abilty to ensure strict quality control.  Even power panels could have been tested much more in a integrated systems environment.  

Additional testing would have greatly reduced risk in delivering this aircraft and I just don’t get the sense that there was a financial commitment to this.  Certainly quality control problems on horizontal stabilizers shouldn’t have been discovered after so many airframes had already been built. 

This smells like a former aerospace company that used to be based here in the United States:  McDonnell Douglas.  It’s notable that it is former MD people who are largely running the business today and the truly successfuly Boeing people are now elsewhere.   What Boeing needs is an Alan Mullaly and at this point, I don’t think one exists at Boeing anymore.  If he/she does, they’re being kept hidden well. 

Blaming these delays because this airliner is on “the bleeding edge” of technology really doesn’t quite pass the sniff test anymore.  That was OK in 2007 and 2008.  It was even somewhat acceptable in 2009.  But this 2010 and it is about to be 2011.  Agressive and thorough testing should have eliminated most of the risks that are being realized at this moment and that is very disappointing.

Filed under: Aircraft Development by ajax