About 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner deliveries might be delayed due to a production flaw discovered by Boeing. Boeing has further clarified that the flaw does not lead to any safety issue of the Dreamliners that are in service at present.
Boeing has already informed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the issue and has assured that the affected planes will be fixed prior to delivery.
The affected component in production is not produced by Boeing but rather by a supplier, Spirit AeroSystems. Spirit has been made aware that the manufacturer has since temporarily halted deliveries of the type as the investigation and resolution are adopted. The company said the attachment fitting is installed on the Dreamliner’s horizontal stabiliser at a Boeing facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. The horizontal stabiliser, essential to the appropriate balance of the aircraft’s aerodynamics, is located in the rear of the plane, just under the tail.
According to Reuters, Boeing discovered the attachment fitting had shimming that was not appropriately sized, which did not meet the required specifications. Shimming is a material that fills gaps between surfaces on aircraft. Aircraft that were set to be delivered, but were suspected of the issue, were stopped.
Although this slight hiccup will hamper deliveries of the 787 Dreamliners, Boeing is not expecting this error to hinder their expected delivery count of between 70 to 80 Dreamliners this financial year, as they have with this recent announcement as well.
About 90 Dreamliners currently in Boeing’s inventory will undergo an inspection before being delivered. Boeing expects that repairing the faulty stabilisers will take up to a couple of weeks for each affected aircraft, which would impact deliveries scheduled within the month.
