39 Facts About Boeing 787

Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Boeing 787 would go on to use both the Everett and South Carolina plants to deliver the Dreamliner.

Boeing stated the 787 would be approximately 20 percent more fuel-efficient than the 767, with approximately 40 percent of the efficiency gain from the engines, plus gains from aerodynamic improvements, increased use of lighter-weight composite materials, and advanced systems.

Boeing 787 assigned global subcontractors to do more assembly work, delivering completed subassemblies to Boeing 787 for final assembly.

The Boeing 787 was unprofitable for some subcontractors; Alenia's parent company, Finmeccanica, had a total loss of €750 million on the project.

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The Boeing 787 had 677 orders at this time, which is more orders from launch to roll-out than any previous wide-body airliner.

In September 2007, Boeing 787 announced a three-month delay, blaming a shortage of fasteners as well as incomplete software.

Secondary factor in the delays faced by the Boeing 787 program was the lack of detailed specifications provided to partners and suppliers.

In previous programs Boeing had supplied high level design data, but for the 787, decided to provide broad level specifications only, on the assumption that relevant partners had the competencies to perform the design and integration work with the limited data.

The Boeing 787 meets the FAA's requirement that passengers have at least as good a chance of surviving a crash landing as they would with current metal airliners.

Boeing 787 expected to have the weight issues addressed by the 21st production model.

That same month, a Boeing 787 experienced its first in-flight lightning strike; inspections found no damage.

In December 2019, it was reported that Boeing 787 had removed the copper foil that formed part of the protection against lightning strikes to the wings of the aircraft; it then worked with the FAA to override concerns raised.

That same month, Boeing 787 faced compensation claims from airlines owing to ongoing delivery delays.

In January 2011, the first Boeing 787 delivery was rescheduled to the third quarter of 2011 due to software and electrical updates following the in-flight fire.

Certification cleared the way for deliveries and in 2011, Boeing prepared to increase 787 production rates from two to ten aircraft per month at assembly lines in Everett and Charleston over two years.

Boeing 787 assumed a faster improvement than on previous programs which had not happened.

Boeing 787 had planned to refurbish and sell them but instead wrote them off as research and development expense.

Early in 2020 Boeing engineers complained about depressions in the 787's vertical tail fin, affecting hundreds of planes or the vast majority of the fleet.

In late August 2020, Boeing grounded eight 787s due to such improper fuselage shimming and inner skin surfacing issues—issues which proved to have been discovered in August 2019 at Boeing South Carolina.

The FAA then began to inquire into the company's Quality Management System, which Boeing 787 had previously argued justified a reduction of 900 quality inspectors, but which had failed to detect either the shim or skin surface issues.

At this point Boeing expected a one-time inspection during regularly scheduled maintenance to address the issues and expected merely to slow 787 deliveries "in the near term".

Questions were asked about the inspection process used to check the work, and Boeing worked with the FAA to fix the problem, which was said to pose "no immediate threat to flight safety" and did not require 787s already in service to be grounded.

The new problems and the extension of the 13 month long disruption to 787 deliveries led to anger from buyers; a slide in the company's stock price; and demands by a subcommittee of the U S House of Representatives for a review of the FAA's oversight of the plane.

In late March Boeing 787 began sounding out suppliers about their ability to support the production of up to seven aircraft a month by late 2023.

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Vistara, which had been expecting delivery of four Dreamliners in 2022, indicated a lack of confidence in Boeing 787 meeting its delivery aims by arranging to lease aircraft instead.

The FAA rejected portions of the package as incomplete and returned it to Boeing 787, indicating a further delay before the resumption of deliveries.

In January 2008, FAA concerns were reported regarding possible passenger access to the 787's computer networks; Boeing has stated that various protective hardware and software solutions are employed, including air gaps to physically separate the networks, and firewalls for software separation.

Boeing 787 is the first commercial aircraft to have an airframe majority made of carbon fiber reinforced polymer, applied in: the empennage, fuselage, wings, doors, and in most other main components.

Boeing 787 is designing and testing composite hardware so inspections are mainly visual.

Boeing 787 is powered by two engines, which use all-electrical bleedless systems taken from the Sonic Cruiser, eliminating the superheated air conduits normally used for aircraft power, de-icing, and other functions.

In 2006, Boeing addressed reports of an extended change period by stating that the 787 engine swap was intended to take 24 hours.

The Boeing 787 interior was designed to better accommodate persons with mobility, sensory, and cognitive disabilities.

The Dreamliner then continued eastbound from Dhaka to return to Boeing 787 Field, setting a world-circling speed record of 42 hours, 27 minutes.

In December 2011, Boeing started a six-month promotion 787 world tour, visiting various cities in China, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, United States, and others.

However, Boeing 787 did not expect this problem to affect the overall delivery schedule, even if some airplanes were delivered late.

In September 2011, the Boeing 787 was first officially delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airways.

Boeing 787 planned to lease an Airbus A340 for its long-haul operations while the 787 is returned to Boeing for repair.

Industry experts disagreed on consequences of the grounding: Airbus was confident that Boeing 787 would resolve the issue and that no airlines will switch plane type, while other experts saw the problem as "costly" and "could take upwards of a year".