787 First Flight, Deliveries Delayed Six Months
Continuing “challenges” involving the assembly of the first Boeing 787 prototype have forced the company to delay first flight and certification by at leas

Continuing “challenges” involving the assembly of the first Boeing 787 prototype have forced the company to delay first flight and certification by at least six months, Boeing said today. It now expects to fly the airplane for the first time by the end of next year’s first quarter and start deliveries in either late November or December 2008.

“While we have made some progress over the past several weeks completing work on our early production airplanes and improving parts availability across the production system, the pace of that progress has not been sufficient to support our previous plans for first delivery or first flight,” said Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Scott Carson. “We deeply regret the impact these delays will have on our customers, and we are committed to working with them to minimize any disruption to their plans.”