Boeing faces a new Dreamliner production problem

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A new production issue has emerged with Boeing’s BA -0.54% 787 Dreamliner, which could delay delivery of the wide-body aircraft, people familiar with the matter said.

Boeing expects the newly discovered flaw to take at least three weeks to address, according to some of these people. This means that its customers may not get new Dreamliners during most of the traditionally busy summer travel season.

Boeing halted delivery of its Dreamliners to airlines in late May, after federal air safety regulators refused to approve a proposed method for the plane maker to check planes for production defects previously disclosed. This was the second hiatus last year.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the current delivery halt would affect Boeing Dreamliner production, but a person familiar with the matter said the company is expected to slow its previously disclosed monthly production of five planes as it addresses quality issues.

Boeing declined to comment.

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The FAA said the newly discovered quality issue does not pose an immediate safety threat. While the agency will determine whether to order modifications to existing 787s, the FAA said, “Boeing has committed to repairing these planes before resuming deliveries.”

The current Dreamliner delivery halt follows a five-month delivery pause from last fall through this spring. This resulted in a stockpile of about 100 aircraft by the end of April, many of which Boeing hopes to deliver by the end of the year.

The delivery halt was another setback for the space giant, which has been plagued by various problems with its commercial, defense and space programs in recent years. It is also choking off a major source of cash as Boeing tries to weather the twin crises caused by two fatal 737 MAX crashes in late 2018 and early 2019, and the Covid-19 pandemic’s blow to aircraft demand.

The new problem appeared on a part of the plane known as the forward pressure bulkhead in the front of the plane, people familiar with the matter said. One of those people said it had something to do with the skin of the plane and was similar to a Dreamliner problem previously revealed found elsewhere on planes. This person said it appeared as part of an FAA review of Boeing’s quality checks on newly produced aircraft that had not yet been delivered.

People familiar with the matter said the new problem did not raise any immediate safety concerns, but engineers at Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration are trying to understand the defect’s ability to cause early fatigue of a key part of the airframe.

In late May, Boeing halted Dreamliner deliveries again after the FAA refused to approve the plane’s maker’s proposed method using a combination of analysis and physical checks to check new Dreamliner products for quality problems. The agency requested more data to support Boeing’s proposal.

The last Boeing 787 production problems surfaced last year. A combination of flaws prompted Boeing to voluntarily ground eight aircraft in service. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has launched a broad review of the manufacturer’s plant operations. Boeing expanded inspections and eventually resumed deliveries in late March.

Before it recently halted Dreamliner deliveries, the aircraft manufacturer has delivered a total of 12 Dreamliners this year as of late May, according to flight data company Ascend by Cirium.

Write to Andrew Tangel at [email protected]

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It appeared on July 13, 2021, in print as “Boeing discovers defect on 787.”

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