Boeing says 'immature' technology behind 787 delay
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Boeing says 'immature' technology behind 787 delay
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Re: Boeing says 'immature' technology behind 787 delay
#2What could be this immature technology which causes a 3 year delay? Anyone has an insight?
Re: Boeing says 'immature' technology behind 787 delay
#3An electrical fire during a test flight in November forced an emergency landing and ground Dreamliner tests to a halt.
… resumed … after the company said it had updated the power systems software and conducted rigorous reviews to confirm flight readiness.
And this is why I'm happy not to be writing airplane code. If the article is correct, the plane's software can cause electrical fires.
"Halt and Catch Fire" rears its head again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire
Re: Boeing says 'immature' technology behind 787 delay
#4What could be this immature technology which causes a 3 year delay? Anyone has an insight?
From the article: "The company has encountered numerous difficulties in bringing the plane to market due to a new engineering strategy that uses composite materials and integrates production from several international sites."
Various parts of the plane are built in different countries and then reassembled in Seattle using new materials that have never been used in a commercial airplane. IIRC, the first few didn't fit together right (don't worry, none of them were meant for customers, they're test planes) and required a lot of in-the-factory engineering to complete. One lesson could be: don't outsource your core competency. Also keep in mind that it's not just simple assembly problems, but all the other production processes that are being developed at the same time (repair manuals, tooling, software, training, etc).