ZHUHAI — Few companies on the planet are as disciplined as Boeing with their words, so how the US airframer chooses to express itself can illuminate how the company’s leadership is thinking. Boeing released its third statement Tuesday on the November 9 fire that occurred while ZA002 was on approach to Laredo, Texas. The most important line in the statement at first pass is positive for the 787, taking a glass-half full approach to system redundancy.
“The incident demonstrated many aspects of the safety and redundancy in the 787 design, which ensure that if events such as these occur, the airplane can continue safe flight and landing”.
Morgan Stanley aerospace research analyst, Heidi Wood, reads between the lines, remarking:
“The vagueness alerts us, as it sidesteps claiming the systems all worked. This tells us the multiple redundancies may not have performed as they should have, which dovetails with what our sources have been asserting. We’re impressed by the honest admission; we believe this is an FAA chief concern. “
Exactly what redundancy was not provided after the P100 panel failed is unclear at this point, but Wood does not expect the flight test fleet to return to testing anytime soon, estimating a December or January resumption of the certification campaign, which “could push first delivery to 2012” with changes to aircraft hardware and software.
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.