Originally Posted by Mesabah

From an engineering standpoint, the plastic plane is not a viable 100 seat product. The type of development on the 787 limits the plane to about 45,000 cycles max, this is reduced if the plane is damaged by ground workers. While 45,000 cycles on a long haul aircraft is acceptable, it is very limiting for a jet that does more than 3 legs in a day. That's why the 787-300 is a flop for the short haul market.

The 100 seat aircraft market will be decided by the capabilities of the engine. It's interesting that RA would say an engine that is still in development with no service history is unreliable, yet every manufacturer is considering putting it on their bread and butter aircraft(737, A320, C-series, MRJ, etc)......