Boeing is looking at another potential issue with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The manufacturer is testing whether the flight deck windows are up to par with its standards.
The company is looking at the 787 flight deck windows after a supplier changed its windows manufacturing process, according to sources familiar with the matter, as reported by Bloomberg. Boeing is making sure that the flight deck windows are still up to par with the company’s standards following the change. The added layer of scrutiny should not affect deliveries of the aircraft, according to the source who spoke to the publication.
Boeing’s last new delivery of the 787 Dreamliner came in October 2020, when the manufacturer delivered a fresh wide-body to Etihad Airways, according to planespotters.net data. In total, Boeing delivered four 787s in Q4 2020, all four deliveries took place in October. The manufacturer has stored around 80 Boeing 787s in order to check for a variety of issues.
“Based on what we know today, we expect 787 deliveries to resume later this quarter. However, it will be back-end loaded with no delivery this month and most likely very few, if any, in February,” stated the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President of Boeing, David Calhoun, during the company’s Q4 2020 earnings call on January 27, 2021.
Throughout 2020, various production issues have shown their face on the 787 program. In August 2020, it was revealed that the Dreamliner inner skin of the fuselage was too rough, in addition to some improperly manufactured shims, which are used to fill gaps during the assembly of various fuselage sections. Combined, the two issues presented a risk whereupon the fuselage would not be able to withstand the loads during the flight phase. As a result, Boeing was forced to ground eight 787s at the time.
In September 2020, the aircraft vertical tail fin and the horizontal stabilizer were also under scrutiny, in addition to a potential problem with the autopilot, as revealed in a special bulletin by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during the same month.
Boeing potentially faces billions of extra costs to fix 787 Dreamliner issues