Boeing Will Reap Benefits of 787 Technology for a Generation
Boeing's delays and the unanticipated complications that arose from its attempt at a to supply-chain management with the 787 program.
ANA launched regularly scheduled service with its first 787 on November 1.
ANA launched regularly scheduled service with its first 787 on November 1.

In terms of raw dollars and cents, few outside of Boeing would argue against the proposition that the company has and will absorb a serious financial hit from the three years of delays and the unanticipated complications that arose from its attempt at a new approach to supply-chain management with the 787 program. In fact, some financial analysts wonder whether the program will ever recoup it development cost, no matter how many airplanes Boeing eventually sells.

While Boeing executives scoff at such assertions, it seems clear that cost overruns totaled billions of dollars. Still, according to 787 program manager Scott Fancher, the return will manifest itself not only in the profits the Dreamliner manages to yield in the not-so-immediate future, but in the value all the new technologies developed for the 787 bring to future projects.