BOEING 787 DREAMLINER ANALYSIS

The Boeing Dreamliner has been anything but dreamy for Boeing manufacturers. But this is not Boeing’s first go around with a newly designed aircraft running into what Boeing calls “teething” issues. Although the aircraft has come under serious scrutiny for a litany of issues, Boeing’s public relations have been quite calm. Instead of reacting dramatically to the media and contracted purchasers of the new 787, Boeing has kept very low key and suggests the problems are all completely fixable without a complete redesign. Whether or not this is the case, only the future will tell, but in the mean time it is reported that Boeing’s break-even target is 1,100 Dreamliners to be delivered over the next decade.

Some of the issues facing the Dreamliner include the Fuel tanks, which on two separate occasions started leaking, one flight was aborted the other was during a test flight.
Another issue has been the engines, which resulted in two incidences, an oil leak and the fan shaft failure, one during testing, one during a flight. Additionally a wrongly computer wrongly reported a brake issue that was enough to cancel a flight from Japan. The cockpit window cracked in another flight and four days later the smoke alert sensor caused another flight to require an emergency landing.

Last but not least, the issue that sparked the first causes of alarm, the electronics.
Electronics have been so problematic, that in just two months, five electronic issues have either ground a 787 or forced it to make an emergency landing.

It has been readily reported that early on during the design phase of the 787, regulators expressed concerns and insisted on a new specially drawn-up set of regulations to ensure battery safety. Experts say the problems with the batteries are unlikely to be of a fundamental nature that requires the plane to be