Air News On "Immature Technology To Blame For Dreamliner Delays" & Impact On South Africa Industry By Airbus

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Air News On "Immature Technology To Blame For Dreamliner Delays" & Impact On South Africa Industry By Airbus

Reports originating in Riyadh quote Boeings president and CEO,Jim Albaugh,as saying that "immature technology " was behind the 7877 Dream liners delay, a project almost three years behind schedule.

"Some of the technology was not as mature as it should have been and we put a global supply chain together without thinking through some of the consequences," Albaugh said at a forum in the Saudi capital. "When you put immature technology in your supply chain and don't supply adequate oversight, you have issues and that is what we had," he added at the annual Global Competitiveness Forum.

But he expressed confidence in the aircraft even if production was nearly three years behind schedule."It is going to be a magnificent airplane and will be 20 % more efficient than the airplanes it is replacing," he said.
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Boeing said earlier it would delay the delivery of its first 787 unit from February to the third quarter of 2011.The postponement came after a string of technical mishaps and delays slowed the testing programme for the jets, heralded as a new generation of highly fuel-efficient ,mid-sized aircraft.

The company has encountered numerous difficulties in bringing the aircraft to the market due to a new engineering strategy that uses composite materials and integrates production from several international sites. An electrical fire during a test flight in November forced an emergency landing and grounded the Dream liner test fleet.

But the flight tests resumed in December after the company said it had updated the power systems software and conducted rigorous reviews to confirm flight readiness

ETOPS For The 787

Boeings 787 certification focus was shifting from aircraft tests to qualification for long-range ETOPS at entry into-service in the aftermath of last Novembers electrical fire, said Boeing CEO, James McNerney

Despite the delays caused by the fire on ZA002, the 787 programme has completed 75% of the flight testing required for delivery, but the redesign of software prompted by the incident is threatening the timing of Boeings ETOPS qualification programme.

Without FAA approval for ETOPS at entry-into-service, early long-range operations by launch customer, All Nippon Airways (ANA), and others will be severely limited.

Speaking to analysts on a 2010 earnings call, McNerney added that as 787 flight hours passed the 2500 mark, qualification testing for ETOPS at entry-into-service was the growing priority.

"We have a clear view of what we need to do. The FAA has been working very closely with us. ETOPS is different this time around than it was on the 777.The FAA has a new way of doing it. It used to be cycle-based and now it is fault-based and condition-based. The question is what test points are applicable for each test point, and we have to do it right."

Commenting on development of the revised power distribution control software after the 787 electrical fire, and whether the chances of winning ETOPS clearance at entry-into-service have been endangered, McNerney said:"we are in agreement. We have a temporary fix, but we are going to implement a permanent fix before we go into ETOPS testing. But there is no misunderstanding between us and the FAA on what needs to be done, and on what timing."

Production of the 787 is holding at two per month, and Boeing remains confident the overall assembly rate will continue to grow to 10 per month by the end of 2013.

McNerney said the target was achievable, but would occur later in the year than originally planned because of the delivery slide to the -8 into the third quarter of 2011.

"We had a very conservative view and a significant amount of margin in our production ramp-up plans, and a lot of that has now been eaten up by the latest delay."

He explained:"Everything slid to the right-and that it offset by a contingency we had in 2013."

McNerney added that completion of recent assemblies into Everret had been at a "very high"level, suggesting that the company's supply chain was over the hump or rework levels and aiming for a smoother ride into the production ramp-up plan for 2011-2013.

On any thoughts of rate acceleration, McNerney was cautious."We're mindful of the supply chain, and we don't want to relive the experiences of 1997."

Commenting on the Boeing 747-8F programme, McNerney said the stretched freighter had also passed the 1700-flight-hour mark and, at roughly 650 flights, was about two-thirds of the way through its test programme.

With fixes for the aileron vibration and modal suppression issues discovered last year now completing flight test, Boeing remains confident of achieving first delivery around mid-2011.

Development of the 747-8I passenger variant, meanwhile, remains on track for first flight in late March, while both the first two aircraft have now achieved "power-on "in ground tests.

Airbus Impact On South Africa Industry

The recent world record for the largest number of jet airliners of one type scored by Airbus in a contract with Indias IndiGo low cost carrier, coupled with new orders worth US$ 84-billion and increase production rates by the European airframe manufacturer, is having a major positive impact on the South Africa aviation industry.

Information released by the company last month, shows that Airbus has already committed over R4-billion to industrial and related activity in South Africa over the next 10 years which includes work packages for design engineering, manufacturing and supply placed by Airbus and its primary sub-contractors with South African companies, such as Aerosud, based in Centurion, Denel-Saab Aero structures (Ekurhuleni) and Cobham-Omnipless (Cape Town).

It also includes work placed in South Africa for design engineering, manufacturing and supply placed by Airbus-accredited cabin interior equipment suppliers, such as Western Cape-based AAT Composites, which manufacturers aircraft seat and cabin furnishing component suppliers, and work and jobs up and down the local supply chains of South African companies engaged in the design, manufacturing and supply of aircraft components.

All this adds up to a steady flow of sustainable work. For example, Aerosud supplies a variety of components for A320 Family aircraft. Airbus will be increasing its rate of constructions of these aircraft during this year to 40 a month to meet its already hefty backlog and the additional 401 examples of the A320 Family ordered last year and already more this year.

Similarly, Aerosud and Denel-Saab Aero structure will ramp up their A400M-related activity in line with the start of series production on the turboprop military transport aircraft. Another example is Cobham-Omnipless, which is a supplier of satellite communications antennae for Airbus jetliners.
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Aerosud and Cobham-Omnipless are also working on the new Airbus A350XWB which is now at the initial manufacturing stage.Aerosud is manufacturing fuselage frame clips and wing flap track cans (borrowing on the knowledge it has built up on the A320 Family), while Cobham-Omnipless will provide sat-com systems.

These and many other benefits are resulting in sustained and created employment including opportunities for graduates and experienced engineers who might otherwise leave South Africa in pursuit of similar opportunities elsewhere; skills (retained and new ones acquired) ; improved technology and others which enable the South African industry to continually enhance its competitiveness in the global aero/hi-tech sector and support the Governments revised Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP2) ,which identifies aerospace as a strategic industry for development.

In addition, South Africa is also benefitting from combined Airbus, EU and local funding of ongoing technology research and development across an array of disciplines and projects involving several universities, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) ,the department of Science and Technology and the NATIONAL Aerospace Centre in partnerships with Airbus.

This is with a view to identifying and developing new efficient technologies and processes that could be applied to the entire life-cycle of an aircraft programme from inception, through to its eventual end-of-life.

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