Boeing says flaw could affect 55 Dreamliners - Reuters

[Joey]

Boeing says flaw could affect 55 Dreamliners - Reuters

By Harry Suhartono

SINGAPORE |
Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:01am EST

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - About 55 of Boeing Co's (BA.N) 787 Dreamliner jets could 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.

Boeing earlier this month reported signs of "delamination" on a support structure in the rear fuselage, the latest in a series of glitches in developing the revolutionary jet.

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 was "very fixable."

"We are in the process of fixing the airplanes that are in the (production) flow," he 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 to save fuel by reducing aircraft weight.

Albaugh said the inspections might affect delivery of the aircraft to customers in the short term, but the company still expects to meet its target


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