I guess for people who don't understand the nuances of an electrical bus overload, or the beauty of smoothly functioning load management software, yammering on about “the schedule” makes them feel like they are part of the process.
Bottom line is that if this aircraft performs as promised and if it delivers the range, fuel savings, and cabin comfort it is designed for, then the long development time will be quickly forgotten. This plane is set to fundamentally change long distance air travel by directly linking city pairs across the world and I believe it will be a tremendous success.
However, if they deliver this plane and it does not perform as promised and it has electrical fires, then I'll get on board and say the program is in big trouble.
That is the best post on this subject. Ever.
If project planners presented realistic schedules and cost estimates at the outset, most projects would never be approved.
So, you need to inject a bit of ungrounded optimism into the process, and then feed in the bad news gradually. I know this from personal experience.
It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s fraud or mismanagement involved, or the project isn’t worth doing. It’s just a concession to the bean counters who, by their nature, have no vision or imagination.
Please don't talk down. The 787's original in-service date was May of 2008. It is now at least 3 years late, in what was supposed to be a four year program.
When an iPad is late, you shrug and say "we'll just sell them later than planned." When the Dreamliner is late, Boeing has violated their delivery contract and must make penalty payments to the people who have signed those contracts.
When an iPad doesn't meet the promised performance, you shrug and say "oh well, it's still very nice." When the Dreamliner doesn't meet it's promised performance, Boeing has violated their delivery contract, and even more penalty payments are due. The first 30 or so aircraft are going to be overweight, and will not make their originally promised fuel burn rate.
When you sell an iPad, you don't offer massive discounts to those who pre-order the unit. You may start a waiting list and set a target retail price, but if when the product comes out it cost you much more to develop than you originally planned, you can simply set a new price to whatever you wish, and people on the list can either pay the new price or decide not to buy.
The Dreamliner, by contrast, had not only it's retail price set before the airplane was even off the drawing boards, the Boeing sales team were offering some of the steepest discounts in the industry in order to rack up the impressive backlog of orders that they now enjoy. As a consequence, because the aircraft has cost over twice what was originally budgeted for development, those discounted prices do not cover costs, but because a signed contract is in place, Boeing cannot raise the price of those 847 aircraft already sold. You have to wait until aircraft number 848 before you can raise the price to make up your losses.
So yes, it will be a very nice aircraft, but Boeing is in the business to make money, not to make gorgeous planes at a loss.