SCOTTSDALE — During his ISTAT presentation, I had a chance to ask Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh about the performance of the 787, which is readying to enter service with Japan’s All Nippon Airways in the third quarter.
FlightBlogger: A question about the payload range performance of the 787. At what point are you going to be able to deliver a 787 that flies fully 8,000nm, fully fueled and with full payload?
Jim Albaugh: Well right now if you look at the airplanes that we’re going to deliver we meet the missions that our customers have put in place for us to meet. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that we’re not going to meet the spec, but I think we’ll be able to meet what our guarantees are. And you got to remember, the first airplanes are going to be a little heavy, there are a lot of things that we’re going to do to clean the airplane up, a lot of things to do with the engine manufacturers, and I feel pretty comfortable that over time we’ll be able to get to the numbers that you just quoted. When that date’s going to be, I can’t tell you.
UPDATE 7:02 PM MST: Here’s my complete story on Albaugh’s comments, including what Boeing, GE and Rolls-Royce have planned to regain the aircraft’s payload range performance.
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.