[Thermalseeker]

It’s easy to make a little prop two-seater out of composites, but quite a bit harder for a large airliner.

Not really, it just hasn't been tried with airliners. Ever seen a B-2? That's a big old carbon fiber airframe and it's been flying for more than 20 years. I work with composites every day and they scale up very nicely, especially carbon. Certainly more involved just by the nature of the size, but there isn't anything magical about scaling up to this size with composites. What you are reading is all fluff put out by Boeing to sell stock. Take a look at Aviation Week sometime and you'll see what I mean. It surprises me that it took them this long to seriously consider the use of composites.....

[antiRepublicrat]

Ever seen a B-2? That's a big old carbon fiber airframe and it's been flying for more than 20 years.

This would have to be made relatively cheaply, and it appears that Boeing finally found a way.

It surprises me that it took them this long to seriously consider the use of composites.....

It's not surprising in a time when you have to attract investors to a technology untried in that setting and worry about multi-billion lawsuits if something goes wrong. Even as it is a lot of detractors said it was too soon to try it in a commercial airliner, so kudos to Boeing for taking the chance.

In any case, Boeing was already working on such massive use of composites for the Sonic Cruiser in the 90s, and applied that research to the 787. It's kind of sad that hub-and-spoke killer never took off.

[GBA]

I think it's partly due to getting an all composite anything through the powers that be’s hoops with their stamp of approval. The first few to do it blaze some expensive trails. I've heard Beech spent a bunch getting the Starship certified. Something like an airliner, carrying a lot of passengers in this litigious day and age, must have gone through a very tight and costly wringer.