As we said when Airbus was in the throes of its angst in regard to the A-380 delays — there was a good reason the guys at Boeing were not being too openly obnoxious about the ills of its competitor.
Today — the main reason reared its ugly head. Fact: new aircraft rarely meet original timetables for anything.
After assuring investors on the most recent earnings call that yes, the 787 was still going to roll out on schedule — despite was was becoming an ever-increasingly tight timeline — last month the company revised that estimate, saying that the first flight of the new bird had now been pushed back until at least October.
Today, Scott Carson, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said that Boeing’s new 787 jetliner will not begin flight testing until mid-November or mid-December, because it’s taking longer than anticipated to get the first plane ready.
For what it’s worth, Boeing also said that the 787 remains on track to deliver its first plane to ANA next May.
What’s the rush? I’d rather see Boeing take its time and do the flight-testing of the aircraft right — then with the now scheduled faster rate of flight testing the company now has on the books.