30 January 2008

Boeing "Guarded" on 787 during earnings call

According to FlightGlobal's Flightblogger blog (what a mouthful!) who listened in on the earnings call today - James Mcnerny was "guarded" And so he should be.

The 787 has a significant way to go before they will be ready to even turn that puppy on. So at this point unlike this time last year when the Boeing team was effusing about how many they would deliver in the first year... pride comes before fall.

One thing to note will be how many of the 787s end up in San Antonio and have to be "reworked..."

At the moment they are saying about 25. However I have private bet how many ultimately end up there in some form or another. My bet is a significant number higher than this. Why? The pipeline of parts could be as high as 100 shipsets or parts thereof. These parts will either have to be reworked or new ones built. Many of these have very long lead times.

There is of course a piece of good news. The back end supply of the raw materials for composite components now has more time to ramp up. Lets just hope there has been enough testing of these materials as to how they will stand up to ramp rash and JFK baggage handlers.

Good Luck Boeing... of course if you hadn't relocated to Chicago none of this would have happened.................

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