Boeing's 787 Dreamliner faces another nightmare engineering delay
Filed under: Company News, Boeing
Boeing (BA) is a big company with many different projects. But one of them, its 787 Dreamliner, has been delayed six times already. This 250- to 330-seat aircraft now has 840 orders (down from 850), which amounts to a $148 billion backlog. While I've reported on conversations with people who claim that the 787 has problems with its environmental control system and its electrical system, The Wall Street Journal on Friday offered another bombshell technical glitch.
Before going into detail about this latest problem, it's worth thinking about how Boeing got here. As I wrote in my book about the company, You Can't Order Change, Boeing decided to do two new things with the 787. First, it outsourced 60% of the design and manufacturing. In the past, Boeing had done all its design work itself and only outsourced some of its manufacturing.
Second, Boeing decided to use composite materials instead of aluminum, which helped it get all those orders. That's because composite materials are lighter and stronger -- leading to more fuel efficiency and greater passenger comfort.
But as the Journal notes, composite materials also have a negative feature. It's very difficult to design software that will predict accurately how they will behave in the real world. As a result, engineers try designs that appear sound in the computer models, only to discover problems when they try to fly the real aircraft. So far, there have been unpleasant surprises with so-called wrinkling on the wing and other problems where the wing attaches to the fuselage.
The latest snafu, Journal reports, is with metal bolts that were part of a fix developed to solve another problem in the area where the wing attaches to the fuselage. These metal bolts -- called freeze plugs -- cause the layers of composite material to crack in the area around them, according to a memo from Boeing engineers written last month.
Not Fit to Fly?
The engineers don't think the 787 should fly until the problem is fixed. The memo states: "Noted conditions are structurally and functionally acceptable to Engineering for GROUND TESTING ONLY," and adds, "NO FLIGHT TEST IS ALLOWED." But Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program, still thinks everything's on track. "Composites are the right material choice for the 787 Dreamliner. We are progressing well toward first flight and are on track to fly by the end of the year."
Boeing took a $2.5 billion charge last quarter for all the problems with this Nightmareliner and will pay hundreds of millions in penalty charges, according to the Journal.
One hopes that FAA inspectors will catch any additional problems before the 787 is certified to fly -- but what if problems develop after the aircraft is certified?
I'm not sure what's worse: the discovery of these problems by engineers so late in the game or management's full-steam-ahead determination. But since that $148 billion represents more than half of Boeing's declining $254 billion backlog, the financial pressure to succeed with the 787 is crushing.
Peter Cohan is a management consultant, Babson professor and author of eight books including, You Can't Order Change. Follow him on Twitter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
11-13-2009 @ 12:48PM
gumbo koontz said...
Why cannot we start experimenting compostie materials on smaller aircraft like cessna or gulfstream jet first to see how things goes and graduating our way up to passenger jets that seats hundreds of passengers.. Why risk too many passengers at first? What a bonehead !!
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11-13-2009 @ 1:43PM
Mike said...
Hundreds of types of small planes made of composite materials already. Maybe thousands.
11-13-2009 @ 11:41PM
neighbor said...
Boeing is just buying time and excuses so the CEO can have his way of moving all of it's R&D and corp. offices to China......the planes new name will be the BejingLiner! As much as boeings management is to blame, so is Wall Street and it's demands that once sound AMERICAN companies outsource overseas in order to meet profit expectations.
11-14-2009 @ 8:29AM
Flight Test Tango said...
Good point, Gumbo. Unfortunately, two (of many) problems rear up here:
1) Composites are cost-prohibitive on smaller aeroplanes which may not have the revenue-generating potential of commercial aircraft.
2) As aircraft get larger, the forces imposed on the airframe enter a new realm, not necessarily duplicated on smaller birds. R & D can only go so far in discovering the real deal. The only way to be sure is to "pull pitch" (actually fly the beast); that, to, is quite costly.
11-13-2009 @ 1:20PM
es said...
"I'm not sure what's worse: the discovery of these problems by engineers so late in the game or management's full-steam-ahead determination. But since that $148 billion represents more than half of Boeing's declining $254 billion backlog, the financial pressure to succeed with the 787 is crushing."
I would rather see boeing go out of business for poor product development than have a plane full of people fall out of the sky. Boeing's demise here is of its own making.
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11-14-2009 @ 8:30AM
Flight Test said...
This wouldn't be the first time a platform was sold to the operators on promises as yet unproven. FAA, regardless of Boeing's "influence", will have to keep a close eye on this.
11-14-2009 @ 8:45AM
enuff_is_enuff said...
Perhaps Prez Mr. O and Ms. MaBelle will be on the maiden flight - we can ONLY hope...
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11-13-2009 @ 2:15PM
richard fiorella said...
sounds like a greet plane for airforce one
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11-13-2009 @ 7:53PM
mif991 said...
Appropriate name: "Nightmareliner" Looked great on paper but it will cost them big once tried in the real world. Richard F., I agree with you.
11-13-2009 @ 5:04PM
bill said...
Why not just make the area around the problem bolts out of aluminum? Slightly more weight, but end of problem.
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11-13-2009 @ 10:54PM
Esd said...
You still need to fasten the composite o the aluminum.
11-14-2009 @ 8:31AM
Flt Test said...
Good idea, Bill. The concept sounds fine, however (as demonstrated in past similar occurances), fixes, such as the one you propose, often don't solve the problem. They simply tranfer the forces, which caused the problem in the first place, in a different direction, thereby replicating the original problem in a different area.
11-13-2009 @ 6:24PM
Joe said...
It looks like Boeing's all or nothing approach to building a new airliner with all composite, when all the wrinkles of how to work with composites had not been worked out, is going to cost them big.
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11-13-2009 @ 7:14PM
CVeloso said...
For now , make the body out of composite and the wings out of aluminum, should have no problems with the metal screws. Or for better just make the all section (tip to tip) of the wing out of composite and then attached the body to it this way there will be more surface area to secure both sections of the plane. What do I know!!!!
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11-13-2009 @ 7:20PM
Paul said...
Why not give one of the prototypes to Pelosi to test. She demands the biggest jet, so let's give it to her.
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11-13-2009 @ 7:36PM
Doc said...
Amazing comments from some of the Repubs and conservatives here! It seems true that they would rather have a major US company fail than to see it succeed under the present government. So much for love of country! It's not hard to see why things are getting so screwed up.
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11-14-2009 @ 4:41AM
AC said...
I agree with you. What are these "Patriots" thinking? They are still soooooo mad for losing to Obama they can't see or think straight.
11-13-2009 @ 7:48PM
Robert Gifford said...
Yes, they like to sit back like Monday morning quater backs
and complan. It's the same old thing they don't have a soluation but like to run the country down.
They don't have fix for the problem so they must be the reason for it.
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11-14-2009 @ 8:13AM
Bill said...
this might be the problem " First, it outsourced 60% of the design and manufacturing"
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11-13-2009 @ 8:15PM
rodemarz said...
Rolls-Royce had a similar problem 25 years ago and dumped carbon composites-Boeing wll end up doing the same..........predictive analysis just screws it up!
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