After Years of Delays, Boeing 787 Dreamliner gets FAA Certification

Seattle PI ^ | August 26, 2011 | Staff

[lbryce]

After years of setbacks and delays, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was certified Friday by the U.S. government as safe and ready to fly passengers.

The official FAA certification was announced at a ceremony at the Boeing site in Everett, just a few weeks before the first scheduled delivery of the airliner to Japan's All Nippon Airways on Sept. 28. The aircraft was also certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency.

[rlmorel]

Actually, the F-16 had that moniker as well.

[Bulwyf]

really? The F-16 could at least glide a little, there was so little wingspan on the F-101 whatever it’s called, that it was more a rocket than anything heh.

[Bulwyf]

Correction, it’s the F-104 I was thinking of. It’s what I think they designed the lawn dart game after heh.

[wolf78]

I’m guessing most of the delay and cost overruns were government induced.

Nope. The reasons for the delays mostly fell into two categories:

A.) Beancounters at Boeing HQ wanted to reduce the financial risk and financing costs for Boeing itself as much as possible. That's why they outsourced everything they could as to take advantage of subsidies in Japan or Italy and make their suppliers risk-sharing partners. That came back to bite them in the *ss when companies like Alenia couldn't deliver the first time.

B.) Boeing got overambitious because of experiences with the smooth 777 program. They promised not only a revolutionary plane but also one that relies on a completely new production method. And that in record time.

The reason why Boeing cancelled the 737 replacement recently and went for a re-engining instead was not because they couldn't come with new technology, but because they couldn't come up with a way to get the supply chain up and running in the desired timeframe.