Structural flaws on Boeing 787’s fuselage sections revealed
14 Aug 2009
Chicago: Bad news surrounding Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner continues to pile up with the company now confessing that Italian supplier, Alenia Aeronautica, ceased production on two sections of the futuristic aircraft in June after structural flaws were found on fuselages.
Company spokeswoman, Loretta Gunter, said Alenia halted production because of wrinkles in the fuselage skin caused by flaws in subcomponents of the one-piece composite barrel.
Boeing shares tanked 4 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange even though the Chicago-headquartered company stressed that the latest revelation would not affect the timetable for its first 787 test flight, or deliveries of the aircraft.
Flaws were found on 23 airplanes, starting with the seventh in production, the spokeswoman said. She said a solution has been designed and patches will be applied to all the planes built so far.
"They're continuing to work on the barrels that they have already fabricated," Loretta Gunter said.
"As we implement this change, we are not going to produce any new barrels until there is an engineering change that will keep the subsequent units from needing to be modified," she said.
