Originally Posted by
B00sted
Interesting. I disagree with you 100%.
The issue happened beyond that the airplane will see in normal service, but before the Ultimate load limit. The problem was with delamination.
"The delamination of the composite-plastic material isn't likely to lead to catastrophic failure of the airplane, but it would require constant monitoring and potentially costly repairs by the airlines."
They already have a fix for the issue.
Let me split the difference.
The failures happened above 100% certified load limit, but below the 150% required to certify the design. The alarming part of the problem is that Boeing's design software failed to catch the problem and that software was used to design nearly all the structure.
It's ugly. Some of the Experts quoted by Aviation Week are saying first flight may be 2011. Others saying early 2010.
Boeing is having problems engineering a fix that can be applied to the first airframes already produced since there are a lot of areas that are closed off and subsequently inaccessible in the structure.
There is talk that the first airplane's build costs are over $500,000,000 and that profitability will not be reached until production is over 220 (or so) units. This may actually put Boeing in a cash crunch since it will lose money on all the initial production.