So is this a big deal? Boeing finds another 787 manufacturing problem
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Posted 2/6/2012 4:04 pm
Boeing has discovered a manufacturing error causing delamination in the plastic-composite aft fuselage section of some 787 Dreamliners, according to a person with knowledge of the problem.
Boeing is inspecting all the airplanes already built to find the extent of the issue.
In a brief statement Sunday, Boeing said, "We have the issue well defined and are making progress on the repair plan. There is no short-term safety concern."
Boeing's statement didn't acknowledge the issue involves delamination.
It said unspecified damage resulted from "incorrect shimming performed on support structure on the aft fuselage of some 787s."
Mechanics install shims, or spacers, to fill small gaps that occur between parts that don't fit together exactly.
An earlier problem arose in 2010 with faulty shimming by mechanics working for Alenia building the 787's horizontal tail in Italy. They had applied too much torque when tightening fasteners, and the consequent compression of the shims degraded the composite material.
At that time, those manufacturing quality issues with the horizontal tails added months of delays to the jet program. Many airplanes had to have their tails extensively reworked.
This time, the delamination is happening in a section of the aft fuselage near where the horizontal tail is joined.
Boeing has completed assembly of about 50 Dreamliners to date, and has delivered five, to launch customer All Nippon Airways of Japan. The plane entered service in 2011 after more than three years of delays.
Flightglobal, the website for Flight International magazine, reported Saturday that structural stiffening rods, which had been hardened together with the fuselage skin in massive ovens, had partially separated from the skins.
The Dreamliner's aft fuselage section is manufactured in Charleston, S.C., at the former Vought plant that Boeing took over in 2009.
On Sunday, Boeing played down the problem, saying that "repairs, should they be needed, will be implemented in the most efficient manner possible."
However, if the fuselage repairs are needed in a large number of planes, that could further slow the already slothlike pace of Dreamliner deliveries.
According to the person with knowledge of the issue, any plane in which this fault has been discovered is not allowed to operate beyond "limit load," the term for the maximum load projected in normal service.
However, the planes must be certified to sustain 1.5 times th
Posted 2/6/2012 4:10 pm
instead of building most the plane in-house with their highly skilled and experienced labor force as they have for 70 years, they outsourced all over the fucking world, shopping lowest price... and now all those parts don't fit together???
Posted 2/6/2012 4:10 pm
Great, image these huge bohiemeths delaminating in mid-air over a major American city, bodies splattering everywhere, like flattened motorcycles stuck in the mud...
If you mean "Did they forego quality in order to reap bigger corporate profits?" then yes. After all, this is what outsourcing all the parts of the plane was all about.
LET'S CONCENTRATE ON WHAT WE DO BEST, MMMKAY, WHICH IS TO DESIGN THE PLANE. LET OTHERS ACTUALLY BUILD IT.
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This was already going on in the early 2000's with the 737NG fiasco. The frame was outsourced to big defense contractor Ducommun and instead of being made on CNC machines they just hired a bunch of illegal aliens with magic markers and hacksaws to make the parts, which subsequently didn't fit and had to be hammered or otherwise modified by the assembly line to make them fit. I guess they never learned their lesson...
The tendency to outsource, globalize and compartmentalize has basically eliminated any incentives to put out quality products. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out, either. We're just getting dumber and dumber as a species.
Posted 2/6/2012 4:34 pm
You can see this ineptness of management in areas all around us. We got new management at our public transit. Well of course they thought they were genius's, they had degree's !, not in common sense of course, and merrily went on their way changing this and that, all for the worse. It now takes 3 bus rides with 2 transfers(pay each time-no free transfers anymore) to get places where 1 bus ride would do the job.That is just 1 of their brilliant ideas. I talk to other bus riders and they are disgusted how the service has gone downhill , but management is deaf, staying the course like the captain on the Titanic.
Posted 2/6/2012 4:37 pm
Boeing has close to 100 years working with metal planes, so much hard gained institutional knowledge and they throw it all away to build a composite plane?
I am in the Seattle area. Mostly whites, plney who are happy to forgo the expense of a car and parking , etc. , not to mention the stress of driving in heavy traffic.
Uhhh, they have orders for close to 1000 of them from airlines around the world. If it had been designed and built wholly in Seattle, but it's experienced Union workforce, it would have been flying 3 years ago without anywhere near the problems it is having now. Outsourcing, another great MBA idea.
and 
airlines anyway.