Exec Recap:
The 787's problems are many and serious. Senior engineers are calling the management system for quality control on the outsourced components "totally broken" and "a perfect manufacturing hell." The 20 or so jets on the flight line are so screwed up that Boeing may side step their completion and move further down the delivery chain to try again. Alenia's work is so inconsistent no two parts are the same.
- The RR engines are blowing up. Problems in the compressor, turbine and accessory drive. FAA has not signed off on the fix.
- The electrical system had a downright scary failure ... no news on the fix ... jets grounded until system can be redesigned
- ETOPS Certification ... see above
- Fuel cell design problems
- Wing center box attach problems (fixed?)
- Tail design problems
- Quality control inconsistencies which now tally over 100,000 tasks which will be laboriously re-worked on the line
- Supply chain ... stopped
- Total cost over runs ... around 12 Billion
Boeing's decision to let labor costs drive the management of the program into outsourcing on the cheap, has been anything but. Here's coverage in the home town paper:
Business & Technology | Dreamliner's woes pile up | Seattle Times Newspaper
Sound Economy with Jon Talton | Boeing, Boeing ... gone? | Seattle Times Newspaper
What interests me is that Boeing admits that it might just have to build the airplane itself. The tail can be built in a already standing factory in Seattle by American workers ... they simply await the management decision to start work.