Boeing Discovers New Defect on 787 Dreamliners
Boeing said Tuesday it has discovered yet another manufacturing issue on the 787 Dreamliner. This time the problem is an attachment fitting on the horizontal tail, referred to as the stabilizer.
The newly-found production hiccup does not pose a flight safety concern, but it will delay deliveries of the jet as mechanics work to fix the defect on current inventory.
“We are inspecting 787s in our inventory for a nonconforming condition related to a fitting on the horizontal stabilizer,” Boeing said in a statement. “The inspections and required rework will affect timing of near-term 787 deliveries.”
The statement that was first reported by CNBC, added that the defect in the tail is “not an immediate safety of flight issue and the in-service fleet may continue to operate.”
The defect is a small, paper-thin gap in the attachment, Boeing said. Such gaps are typically plugged using a filler known as a shim. The shims in the attachment were incorrectly sized so that the gap exceeded the five-thousandths of an inch allowable in the specification.
“Airplanes found to have a nonconforming condition will be reworked prior to ticket and delivery,” Boeing said. “We have notified the FAA and our customers and are keeping them informed of our progress.”
Boeing had paused deliveries of the planes for several weeks in February of this year because of a separate problem on a fuselage component. But they have had multiple issues in previous years as well.
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The real reason is simple; Due to their desperate desire to cut costs, they moved all 787 production to South Carolina. Being built by non union, non aero builders, presenting a clear and present danger to all people flying on this type aircraft. All planes built in south Carolina need to be grounded immediately. So much for cost cutting….
Boeing just can not seem to get out of its own way the past 5 or so years. A once proud airplane manufacture is really number two at best in the world. Sad reflection on the US as a country.
Boeing lost its way when it was “reverse takeovered” by McDonnell Douglas. The MD executives moved all the leadership to Chicago where no manufacturing was done and intentionally isolated the management from the engineers. Boeing, like Hewlett-Packard, was run by engineers. When the MBAs took over the leadership of these companies they quit making products so great that people HAD to by them. The failure is not the country’s but the bean counters.