After a bizarre scare in Australia where a B 737 narrowly escaped taking off with a nose wheel missing comes a report of further wheel trouble for the Giant company and another report which will not do the 787 any good.
Boeing was not inclined to immediately respond to requests for clarification and in the light of recent behaviour this presumably means the spin masters have yet to issue their decree.
CHICAGO -A contractor on Boeing Co.’s (BA) delayed 787 aircraft program said new software for the plane’s braking system has yet to be completed amid a disagreement over who should pay for the work.
Crane Co. (CR) has already been forced to redesign the brake-control system for the yet-to-fly plane, in partnership with a unit of General Electric Co. ( GE).
The spat highlights strains in the extended supply chain for the 787, and extra work required to perfect new technology. That has put Boeing under pressure to provide financial support for partners affected by multiple delays to the project and has left the plane manufacturer sitting on almost $8 billion in inventory.
Boeing identified problems with software for the electronic brake controls more than a year ago, and in February Crane said it would revamp the system, but it has yet to agree with GE Aviation on who should pay.
Tim MacCarrick, Crane’s chief financial officer, said during a conference call Tuesday that the redesign stemmed from “aircraft level changes” and “factors out of our control.”
“Our view is that we’re a long-time supplier to Boeing and we’d be happy to do [the work],” he said.
“We just expect to be paid for it. At this point, there’s been really no further progress in those discussions [with GE].”
A spokesperson for GE Aviation said brake-control monitoring hardware and software products on the first of the 787’s have passed flight-safety qualifications and are ready for the first flight. “We are not introducing changes that would require re-qualification,” said Jennifer Villarreal. She said the changes mentioned by Crane will be made in the future, and phased into later production. “We won’t disclose specific actions or details tied to our agreements with our suppliers or customers,” she added.
Boeing couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, but has a similar policy not to disclose contract details.
“We have a pretty good idea” of what Boeing’s new requirements will be,” Crane’s MacCarrick said, but a final plan hasn’t been worked out yet. He didn’t say how much he believed the changes would cost.
Crane, a diversified industrial manufacturer, counts the work on the 787 as a major part of its aerospace business. Along with other companies, Crane has seen commercial-aerospace sales nosedive this year as the airline industry copes with a global recession.
In partnership with GE, Crane is working on the first all-electric, rather than hydraulic, braking system for a commercial aircraft. Crane supplies software for digital brake monitoring. Other companies make the brakes.
Boeing has struggled with game-changing technology for the 787, with most of the problems related to the use of composite materials to replace aluminum on the body and wings of the aircraft.
But last year, Boeing said a problem with the brake system was holding up plans for the first flight of the 787.
While the problem appeared to have been solved, Crane told analysts in February that it was seeing cost overruns on the 787.
Crane Chief Executive Eric Fast said spending “clearly far exceeds anything that we originally contemplated…and I can say that, universally among the supply-chain community for this airplane, we are not alone and unfortunately [ are] exceeding our original targets.”
Boeing and other suppliers have said they have discussed compensation for delays -not necessarily design changes – to the 787, which is now more than two years behind schedule. A recently discovered structural flaw caused Boeing in June to again delay the first flight of the aircraft.
Boeing said it plans during this quarter to provide a new schedule for production and delivery, and to explain added costs it expects to incur.
See http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles