Boeing Reschedules Initial 787 Dreamliner Deliveries and First Flight

Boeing press release snipped

Personally, I think that this is the right move to make if there is a
design problem with the wing box. That is the most critical
structural area on the airplane, and an in-flight failure of the wing
box would be a complete disaster. This is the first all-composite
commercial airliner ever designed and built. It absolutely needs to
be done right.

I'm sure that the structural engineers took their best shot at the
initial design, but then realized after testing the initial units that
were produced that something was inadequate and needed to be fixed.
If engineering was easy and could be done without a degree of trial
and error, anybody with a high school diploma could do it!

On a development program like this, every group is racing to get their
stuff done on time, and at the very least ahead of the slowest group.
You never want to be the part of the effort that causes the delay,
it's not fun! It's like the old joke about hikers running from a
grizzly bear. They can't outrun the bear, but they only need to
outrun the slowest hiker...

Fortunately on the 777, we managed to pull everything together on
time. The 787 is more challenging than the 777 for a number of
reasons, and unfortunately they are behind schedule. I guarantee that
there will be a "lessons learned" document that come out after this
project that is pretty hefty.

Dean