Author: Jon Ostrower

 
This is a developing story and will be updated

What do we know?

Boeing is once again examining its 787 delivery schedule as it seeks to address the mountain of post-certification rework required to turn partially completed airframes into deliverable passenger aircraft, confirm multiple program sources.

Staff from around Boeing and its supply chain tell FlightBlogger that driving the current schedule review is the formulation of a plan on how to tackle the expansive amount of work required to bring each airframe up to a certified production standard.

Today, Boeing is aiming to hand over its first 787 to Japan’s All Nippon Airways in February, just shy of three years since the original May 2008 delivery, though a verdict on the necessary rework is expected in the coming weeks and could impact initial deliveries anywhere from weeks to several months depending on the customer.

“Flight testing is a dynamic process and we constantly review and manage risks and opportunities to the program schedule. Our plan remains first delivery of the Boeing 787 mid-first-quarter 2011,” says the airframer.

One program engineer says that in order to meet the mid-February delivery target for ANA all of the design changes for Airplane Seven (JA801A), the first production 787, had to be released by engineering by the close of October, however the source adds “there are some design changes that are not released yet but must be implemented to have the airplane certified” ahead of first delivery.

Program and industry sources suggested Airplane Seven’s delivery could be made to ANA on time in February, but how long after it entered revenue service pending additional changes, and how long after that more deliveries followed, remained an open question.

Boeing has remained reluctant to provide guidance on how many 787s it expects to hand over to carriers in 2011, though Jim McNerney, the company’s CEO, identified post certification rework a chief priority for the program.

“We are intensely focused on managing the change incorporation process on airplanes already built or in flow,” McNerney said in the company’s third quarter earnings, which maintained the February first delivery target. “The early delivery schedule is comprised of a mix of airplanes coming off the production line and airplanes completing the change incorporation process.”

Photos Credit Airlinereporter.com

During a visit to Montreal last week, I had an opportunity to discuss the progress of the CSeries with Bombardier vice president of commercial aircraft programs Ben Boehm and we covered a lot of ground in the interview, including the latest on the airframer’s sales campaign with Gulf Air, progress on the PW1524G engine, as well as recent current events with Boeing’s Alenia-made 787 horizontal stabilizer. Bombardier selected Alenia Aeronautica in March 2009 to design the composite vertical and horizontal stabilizers for the CSeries. Here is the complete transcript of his answer:

Q: Have you been in conversation with Alenia about what specifically has been happening on 787?

A: Yes. Obviously Alenia doesn’t reveal to us what’s going on with them and Boeing. Our discussions have been more around the aspect that: are you following, our supplier management recipe? Almost in a kind of an auditing sense, we’ve had a specific meeting with them since those things have become public to say, “Okay, now you understanding, we heard what’s happening. We’re not going to be rude and try and bug you about that.” We’re just going to be here and say, “look this is our process, I don’t care what Boeing’s processes and how they managed you, this is the Bombardier way on how we manage a supplier. And In case you’re doubting it and say no we should follow the Boeing way, well no you’re going to follow our way, because this is how we started this in 1995 managing off shore design-to-build suppliers.”

It includes: You log in and put your schedule in our system. We will have executive program reviews at this frequency. You will supply us burn down plans every month. You will update our weight program at this frequency. And we will be watching you.

Our reputation is staked on you and we’re not going to let you mess with us.

The biggest crux of that meeting now that we’ve heard of the Boeing/Alenia issues is to firmly reestablish our processes, because we know our processes work, ever since the Global [Express] we’ve been making planes like this with international supply chains so we know it works.

Q: Has Alenia been receptive?

A: The one thing most suppliers have said to us is you know “you’re strict, you guys have a different process, but you communicate.” And we talk, we meet regularly, we have a process for being able to go back and forth on things.

We can’t be draconian and say, “thou shalt do this and thou shalt do that.” Because remember why did we pick Alenia? Because they’re good at what they do. They make good flight surfaces, in this case the horizontal and vertical stabilizer. We pick specialists in their field.

So when Bombardier picks a supplier, we are picking them for their expertise. That why it’s design to build not build-to-print, they are completely responsible.

So, we can’t go in there with a big hammer and say, “you’re doing it wrong, you’re deisgning wrong and all of that” because that defeats the whole purpose. Then it becomes a blame a game, they they could turn around and say, “you told us to do that, so don’t blame us”.

This way you say, follow our process, meet our goal posts, the rest is up to you. But meet our goal posts and follow the process and that’s something Bombardier had to learn, that’s taken us years to learn because otherwise you end up in the blame game or you just don’t have that relationship.

Photo Credit Bombardier

Next week from November 4-6, Boeing will dispatch a 787 on a marketing trip through western Europe with stops in Paris and Amsterdam. Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported Friday that Schiphol Airport officials had confirmed that the twin jet was slated to visit the Netherlands on November 5.

At stake is an order for up to 100 aircraft for delivery starting in 2014 to replace the carrier’s older A340s and 747s. In May, KLM president Peter Hartman told Flightglobal the order had “stalled” because “the manufacturers are not willing to give us fixed dates and [aircraft] specifications.”

Boeing appears set to give Air France/KLM the certainty they are looking for with a 787 visit to each airline’s home base.

Program sources confirm that ZA006 (N787ZA), the second of two General Electric GEnx-1B powered 787s, is slated to hit the road for the new jet’s third European swing.

Air France/KLM has always selected General Electric or SNECMA (or CFM) engines for its aircraft, putting the GEnx powered 787 at the top of the airline’s interest list for replacement, though the carriers said they would likely opt for a mix of the two.

With three years to go before A350’s entry into service, negotiations between Airbus and GE to have second engine option along side the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB have largely disappeared from public view. In May 2009, GE said that once ZA005 and ZA006 entered flight test, the engine-maker believed it had an opportunity to “restructure discussions” with Airbus around adding a second engine to the program.

GE had previously been comfortable with offering an engine for the A350-800 and -900, but was reluctant about developing a competing engine for the -1000, which is set to go head-to-head with the 777-300ER powered by the GE90-115B.

Let’s see if a trip to Airbus’s backyard will push the engine back to the forefront.

Boeing’s two week hold in 787 shipments has overshadowed an even longer period of non-movement in the final assembly line, as the company works to address lingering horizontal stabilizers issues.

Driving the latest hold, the third this year, is a shifted delivery schedule of the Alenia Aeronautica-built 787 horizontal stabilizer and the need to deliver a shipset free of workmanship issues, first disclosed in June, that would need time consuming rework at Boeing’s Everett, Washington final assembly facility, says Boeing.

Yet, as Boeing disclosed the two two-week hold in delivery, structural sections had already been accumulating in the back of the factory as the assembly line has not advanced since early October for Airplane 28, and the line is not set to pulse again until early November and could stretch to the middle of the month, according to those working on the program.

As recently as August at the time of the last delay announcement, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh expressed confidence in the recovery plan, saying “horizontal stabilizer 27 and on we’re not too worried about, we’ve got that one pretty well overwhelmed.”

Though horizontal stabilizers 28 and 29 will still require inspection and potentially significant rework. Boeing now expects the first “clean” stabilizer free of workmanship issues to be delivered from Italy starting with Airplane 30. 

Here’s the latest from Southwest Airlines media day in Dallas today:

Photo Credit Nick Knapp

When it was mentioned internally in a Boeing company webcast last month, the 737 Next Generation Plus entered into the aerospace lexicon, with few specifics attached. This week, the 737NG+ became a reality as Boeing unveiled its first 737 Sky Interior and discussed the possibilities for what a 737NG+ might become. The Seattle Post Intelligencer reported yesterday on comments made by Boeing 737 chief engineer John Hamilton:

And engineers are looking into other changes, such as changing the tail size, incorporating carbon fiber-reinforced plastics and using new materials to cut weight on the floorboards for what Boeing is calling a 737NG Plus, Hamilton said. “We think we can get something more out of this (plane). We haven’t been able to really pin down a number yet.”

These are just the kind of changes that customers want, rather than clamoring for whole new engines, which add cost and complication, he said. “You’re not getting a strong response saying go re-engine. They like the incremental improvements.”

With an onslaught of new orders for the 737 as it is today, Boeing is in no hurry to invest the time, money and resources in re-engining the venerable narrowbody. Though all signs point to the airframer moving slowly toward an allnew airframe, though that entry into service could be a decade away. The urgency to make radical changes to the 737 is even less as Airbus steps back slowly from re-engining, as it looks to evaluate the feasibility of the A320 NEO matched against the engineering resources required for the A350, A380 and A400M.

/>This week will mark two years since Boeing and its largest union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) agreed to end the strike that crippled jetliner production for nearly two months. The four year contract is now at the half way point and a year from now negotiations will be getting underway once again between Boeing management and the IAM.

Crossing the contract’s mid-point, Seattle news station KIRO7 takes a deep dive into Boeing and its future in Washington State. The one-hour long, six-part program touches on all the usual suspects: 787 production, South Carolina, tanker, Airbus, 737 re-engining, P-8A progress, aerospace beyond Boeing in Washington State, China, local politics and of course, labor relations.

In addition to the six segments, KIRO has also provided the complete uncut interview with Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh.