Temporary Fasteners Causing Major Problems for 787 Program

flightblogger | September 4, 2007 | Jon Ostrower

[skeptoid]

According to sources with direct knowledge at both ends of the major sub-assembly supply chain, temporary parts, including fasteners, are causing significant slow downs in the 787 program.

The source of the slowdown in progress on Dreamliner One originated in the rush to meet the July 8th roll out. The push to achieve this milestone forced supply chain partners to use over-the-counter parts and prevented assembly teams from being able to document the location of these temporary fasteners on the first 787.

[skeptoid]

I was blocked using the source url of THE ARTICLE because it is at blogspot, but this is news.
Jon has established a very good reputation as a source of exclusive Dreamliner news the past couple of months.

[taxed2death]

No Cleco’s?

[VOA]

Temporary Fasteners Causing Major Problems for 787 Program

Well, if this causes Boeing to pull back maybe $10/share, that's
good: another buying opportunity!

[SmithL]

Why isn’t this in Breaking News?

Oh wait, it is.

[paul51]

They can use duct tape

[lesser_satan]

Those things are awesome. A friend of mine just redid the trunk in his ‘65 Chevelle and he said they probably saved him several days’ worth of time.

[sam_paine]

The 787 Dreamliner should be built by the best the aerospace industry has to offer. What seems to have happened here is that Boeing has built a house starting from the roof down. Any time you build anything as complicated as the 787 you need to build a good base and work up from there.

Ignorant analogy. You frame a house, then roof it, then finish it out. Otherwise, it rains on ya!

What I expect from a good Boeing design is the engineering over-design that allows targets to be met even with Ace Hardware fasteners!

Because eventually, in 30 years when these things are flying in Belize Airways inventory, that's what they're going to be maintained with!

[longtermmemmory]

airbus must be cheering.

[BJClinton]

A blog in breaking news? Outstanding.

[skeptoid]

Nope. .... lots of harware store substitute fasteners for the rollout and it looked GOOD. But theyre having difficulty finding and replacing them with the real thing.
The whole program is so innovative and uses so many new materials, metnods of manufacture, outsourcing (maybe remote prefabbing is the right term) and risk sharing that delays almost seem inevitable.
It's certainly a big learning process, but the customers aren't at all timid!

I just wonder if making the magic 07/08/07 rollout was the best thing to do.

[bigfootbob]

This is another example of how the unions have ruined American manufacturing. Boeing is having all sorts of issues trying to build these planes in Everett with all the outsourced parts! I don’t think I’d like to fly on the first dozen or so of these big planes.

[nina0113]

That’s what happens when you try to put a plane together with pop-rivets.

[skeptoid]

I know ... have I acutally sinned?

I considered this a scoop, but I had to work around.

[PAR35]

but this is news.

But certainly not breaking news to anyone but Airbus.

[pacelvi]

I complained before about blog URLs being banned for news... as if the AP is the only source of news.

Why is AP sainted and real individual journalists banished from Free Republic News?

Stupid policy I think

[skeptoid]

Read the whole post at flightblogger

[pacelvi]

It’s breaking news to me.

Speak for yourself.

[PAR35]

Well, if the Duncan Hunter campaign appearance merited breaking news, why not a blog entry about the 787.

[PAR35]

It’s breaking news to me.

Not so long as the fasteners don't fail.

Stories like this make you wonder who is shorting the stock.

[Shots]

Don’t go blaming the Unions, if they had their way the parts would not be outsourced.