Boeing Commercial Airplanes faced some familiar scrutiny over the fidelity of its program timelines again this month, when, no more than six weeks after 747-8 program head Mo Yahyavi portrayed the project as a virtual model of efficiency during an interview with AIN, the company announced that it would take a
pre-tax charge against third-quarter results of approximately $1 billion “due to increased production costs and the difficult market conditions” associated with the program. In fact, rather than flying three prototypes of the model’s cargo version by the end of this year, as Yahyavi had predicted in late August, the company now says it won’t fly the first airplane until early next year. Schedules now call for first delivery in the fourth quarter of next year, rather than the third, as last anticipated, although first delivery of the passenger version remains slated for the fourth quarter of 2011.
Notwithstanding Boeing’s official explanation, the October 6 announcement left many wondering what had changed in the month and a half since Yahyavi issued glowing reviews of the program’s progress. “At the time we really thought we were on track,” said a Boeing spokesman. “It’s just that once you get into production…you find out about late engineering issues.”
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