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WICHITA, Kan. — Almost a year ago in Everett, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner No. 1 rolled out with an impressive exterior but completely empty inside. At the sprawling Spirit AeroSystems plant here Thursday, the cockpit door inside the 42-foot-long front section of Dreamliner No. 4 opened to reveal a finished flight deck. Though it's only the front of the plane, it seemed almost ready for takeoff.

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - Boeing Co. faces further delays in the delivery of its B787 Dreamliner because it is unlikely to get clearance from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on time, German weekly Focus reported, citing sources at the FAA. The so-called 'Type Certification' will not be granted before the end of 2009, possibly early 2010, and not in the third quarter of 2009 as initially projected, delaying delivery to the first customer All Nippon Airways. Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) plans to publish the new schedule next month, the magazine said in an excerpt of an...

The largest customer for Boeing's 787 is predicting another six-month slip in deliveries and has for the first time raised the specter that the new passenger jet's troubles extend beyond production delays to design problems. International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) Chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy told a JPMorgan investor conference that structural design changes have to be made to the 787's center wing box, a move that would require retrofits of the first two flight-test airplanes that are being produced. Calling the state of the program "not pretty," Udvar-Hazy said he doesn't see the 787 making its first flight until this fall...

MUMBAI: US aircraft manufacturer Boeing on Wednesday said it would compensate Air India for the delay in the delivery of Dreamliner 787 aircraft to the Indian carrier. "We will compensate Air India for the delay in the delivery of Dreamliners," Boeing Senior Vice-President Dinesh Keskar told reporters on the sidelines of an aviation summit. In 2005, the national carrier had placed orders with Boeing for 68 aircraft costing $11.6 billion. Of the 68 aircraft, 27 are Dreamliners. The first Dreamliner was scheduled to be delivered by end-this year, but the deliveries are now expected to be delayed. "There have been...

British Airways has placed a massive order of 790 planes for the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner which is yet to be launched. This is a move that should exalt the aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, and place it well beyond its European competitor, Airbus. Boeing hopes to test the 787 Dreamliner before March next year and expects to start delivering planes in December, the same year. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a mid-sized, wide-body, twin engine jet airliner currently in production by Boeing Commercial Airplanes and scheduled to enter service in November 2008. It will carry between 210 and 330 passengers depending...

Has the 787 flown yet, does anyone know?

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Boeing Co. said Wednesday it would delay first deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner by six months after running into assembly problems, confirming recent speculation that its ultratight testing phase would make scheduled deliveries impossible.

The Boeing Co. is delaying initial deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner by six months due to continued challenges in completing assembly of the first airplanes, the company said Wednesday. Boeing said deliveries that had been scheduled to begin next May will be pushed back to late November or December 2008. The first flight, already pushed back once from the initial target of earlier this fall, now is anticipated around the end of the first quarter of 2008.

Former CBS newsman and anchor Dan Rather, now with HDNet, will have a special report on the 787 that airs Tuesday, Sept. 18. The subject is whether new composite jets like the 787 are safe. Boeing recently completed a test in which a section of the 787 composite fuselage was dropped from a height of 15 feet to simulate a crash landing. Boeing has said the test was a success. This is part of the Associated Press story the P-I ran about that test: The Boeing Co. said Thursday that results from a recent test on a 787 fuselage section...

According to sources with direct knowledge at both ends of the major sub-assembly supply chain, temporary parts, including fasteners, are causing significant slow downs in the 787 program. The source of the slowdown in progress on Dreamliner One originated in the rush to meet the July 8th roll out. The push to achieve this milestone forced supply chain partners to use over-the-counter parts and prevented assembly teams from being able to document the location of these temporary fasteners on the first 787.

Korean Air has taken the Dreamliner Premiere to new heights. They’ve wrapped their entire headquarters building in Seoul with a giant image of a 787 taking off – in Korean Air blue – along with the words, “787 Dreamliner, Special Expectations.” And that’s no stretch. Korean Air’s headquarters will remain “wrapped” in the 787 Dreamliner through the end of the month. The wrapping project took eight days - with 20 to 30 men working each day, attaching more than 300 pieces of film onto the building’s surface. They tell me that all the pieces lined up together would stretch 2.8...

Option Helps 787 Passengers Stay Clean As A Whistle Few things can make transatlantic travel more unpleasant than a dirty lavatory with a wet floor and bad odor. Remember that Continental flight last month? Two Japanese airlines will finally be getting the lavatory luxuries they've long requested that will, hopefully, eliminate some of that. Boeing and TOTO Ltd. of Japan, in a first in air travel, have developed a bidet-style toilet to be outfitted on new Boeing 787 Dreamliners for Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways. JAL will install them in lavatories only in premium seating areas while ANA said...

Watch the 787 rollout event live on 7/8/07 The rollout event for the 787 Dreamliner will be available for the world to view. In an unprecedented move, the event will be broadcast live via webcast in nine different languages at 3:30 p.m. PDT on Sunday, July 8 (7/8/07).

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co. (BA.N: Quote, Profile , Research) prepared to unveil the first carbon-composite 787 Dreamliner on Sunday amid a flurry of 55 new orders for the lightweight, fuel efficient plane. European, Middle Eastern and Australian carriers trumpeted new orders at various Boeing events in Seattle, as the U.S. plane maker got ready to host 15,000 or so employees, customers and suppliers at its nearby Everett, Washington, plant. All are waiting for the first glimpse of the mid-sized, long-range jetliner, which is the company's first all-new plane in 12 years. The jet will not look radically new...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- It won't have passenger seats, it won't fly -- in fact, it won't even motor itself down the runway. Still, when the 787 Dreamliner is unveiled at its Seattle-area factory on July 8, it will culminate an intense push by Boeing & Co. to stamp out fears its star aircraft is running into delays. The roll-out of the 787 on 07-08-07 -- billed a "premiere" by Boeing and to be hosted by former NBC journalist Tom Brokaw -- will show off the lightweight, long-range passenger aircraft with all the main parts snapped together, from carbon-fiber nose...

In what will be seen by many in the industry as a stinging rebuke for Airbus and its planned A350 jetliner, its biggest customer is expected to place an order for as many as 50 of The Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliners at next week's Paris Air Show, an industry source confirmed Tuesday night. ...SNIP.... ....Steve Udvar-Hazy, its founder and chief executive, told the P-I last week at an industry conference in Vancouver, B.C., that he has not been given enough details about the A350 to decide whether he wants the plane. Instead, Hazy will order additional 787s, the industry source...

Systems not installed. Workmanship issues with the horizontal stabilizer. Temporary fasteners that will have to be replaced. That's only some of what 787 workers at The Boeing Co.'s Everett plant face as the mad dash begins to get the first Dreamliner assembled and out the factory door by July 8. Judging by what one source described -- and has personally seen -- it's a good thing Boeing is prepared for the extra work that it will take to get that first plane finished on time. Boeing executives have stressed that the company has contingency plans to deal with any number...

Boeing and LOT Polish Airlines Finalize Order for One Additional 787 Dreamliner Monday February 19, 12:13 pm ET SEATTLE, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boeing (NYSE: BA - News) and LOT Polish Airlines announced today that the airline has increased its 787 Dreamliner order by one additional aircraft, bringing its total 787 order to eight airplanes. In 2005, LOT placed an order for seven 787s, with delivery positions beginning in 2008. Today's order, valued at $153 million at list prices, was booked previously on Boeing's Orders and Deliveries website, attributed to an unidentified customer. "We are delighted with the steady progress...

Boeing is sending engineering and manufacturing assistance to 787 partners Fuji Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan as well as to Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica to aid their structural work for the aircraft. During an earnings conference call yesterday to discuss the company’s 2006 results, Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney said Boeing is putting resources at all four manufacturers to mitigate scheduling and technical risk. “I think we’ve made good progress on them [the four companies], and obviously there are flare-ups in the others [suppliers] from time to time that we address quickly,” says McNerney. He...

Boeing completed assembly of its first 787 Wednesday, and all the pieces fit together marvelously — on computers. In a display of the powerful software tools it uses on the new jet program, Boeing showed digitally generated snippets of the production process to about 3,000 employees and more than 100 visiting airline representatives. The simulation incorporates accurate digital versions of the plane's myriad pieces, testing whether the major sections built by partners around the world will fit when they arrive in the Everett final-assembly plant. "We really don't have time for them not to fit," Mark Jenks, who leads the...