Boeing this week resumed deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner, which had been suspended since February to carry out an additional analysis of a fuselage component.
German airline Lufthansa has already taken delivery of the first aircraft, which took off Wednesday afternoon from Paine Field, home to Boeing’s Everett factory, the plant where the wide-body airplanes are assembled. The aircraft landed in Frankfurt the following morning.
Deliveries of the Boeing 787 had been suspended since February
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a halt to deliveries on 23 February due to an error in the analysis of data related to the forward pressure bulkhead, a structural component that separates the pressurised and unpressurised space at the ends of the aircraft.
Boeing itself had found the error after analysing certification records and reported it to the government agency in charge of regulating civil aviation in the United States. On Friday, 10 March, the regulator authorised the manufacturer to resume deliveries after finding that the problems had been resolved.
According to Boeing, the data analysis error that led to the suspension was unrelated to previous quality problems and continued production of the 787 while it made revisions. Deliveries of the model have already been halted twice in recent years.
Previous delivery stoppages
The 787 Dreamliner had already experienced similar difficulties due to production defects initially discovered in 2020 and other problems that arose from extensive testing of the aircraft. As a result, Boeing had to slow the pace of production.
Deliveries were halted between November 2020 and March 2021, and suspended again between May 2021 and August 2022.
The manufacturer said it is working with its customers on delivery schedules for new airplanes. Boeing had said that while deliveries would be affected in the short term, it did not anticipate changes to the annual production projection. The company aims to produce ten aircraft per month by the end of 2026.
