By Reuters Staff Writer
February 22, 2012 1:52 PM EST
(Reuters) - About 55 Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner jets may have a recently discovered flaw in the fuselage, the company said on Wednesday, while reiterating that the world's first carbon-plastic passenger plane is safe to fly.
The news bolsters a growing perception in the aviation world that the plane-maker will not be able to accomplish its plan to increase production on the airplane to 10 per month by the end of next year, although the company stands by its forecast.
Shares of Boeing traded slightly higher, with analysts noting that they have long expected Boeing to miss its production rate target and are not surprised by the latest news.
"Most people expected something like that. If it really is a
relatively simple fix, it's probably not going to be what derails the production plan. Something else will derail the production plan, but not this," said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace consultant at Teal Group.
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"It's tough to put it in isolation with everything else," he said. "It's emblematic of a broader problem on concurrency --making design changes and learning how to build something, while simultaneously building it in volume."
In the latest in a series of glitches in developing the revolutionary jet, Boeing earlier this month reported signs of "delamination" on a support structure in the rear fuselage. Delamination occurs when repeated stress causes laminated composite materials to begin to separate.
The company is examining a backlog of assembled Dreamliners to see whether they show similar signs of stress, which it has blamed on incorrect "shimming" -- a process planemakers use to fill tiny gaps when aircraft are built.
"All the airplanes that were built up to plane 55 have the potential for the shimming issue," James Albaugh, chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told reporters during a media roundtable in Singapore.
Albaugh said the problem is "very fixable."
Boeing has made 55 Dreamliners, so far, but has delivered only five -- all to Japan's All Nippon Airways Co Ltd, ANA.
"We are in the process of fixing the airplanes that are in the (production) flow," Albaugh said. "There is no safety or flight issue on the airplanes that we have delivered."
Although composite parts have been in use for years, the 787 is the first airliner built mainly out of the new materials, which help airlines save fuel by reducing aircraft weight.
Albaugh said the inspections might affect delivery of the aircraft to customers in the short term, but Boeing still expects to meet its target for this year.
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