Boeing says it now expects to deliver the first customer 787 in the “third quarter” of this year, after it has finalised assessing the impact on the 787’s certification and production program following last November’s inflight electrical fire on test aircraft ZA002.
“This revised timeline for first delivery accommodates the work we believe remains to be done to complete testing and certification of the 787,” Scott Fancher, Boeing Commercial Airplane’s VP and GM of the 787 program. “We’ve also restored some margin in the schedule to allow for any additional time that may be needed to complete certification activities.”
Boeing says the first delivery in the third quarter timeframe gives it “the time required to produce, install and test updated software and new electrical power distribution panels in the flight test and production airplanes”.
Four 787 test aircraft have now resumed flight test duties after being modified with interim software and hardware changes following the November fire in one of ZA002’s power distribution panels. The last two 787 test aircraft will resume test flying “in the days ahead”, Boeing says.
