The Associated Press
EVERETT — Boeing Co. said this morning it has again delayed the first test flight of its long-awaited 787 jetliner, citing a need to reinforce part of the aircraft.
Its shares sank 7 percent on the news.
The flight initially had been planned for late 2007, but production problems and a labor strike have prompted several delays. Boeing Co. said it will not announce the new schedule for the first test flight and deliveries several weeks.
Shares of Boeing tumbled $3.30 to $43.60 in early trading.
The Chicago-based company said it identified a need to reinforce an area within the side-of-body section of the aircraft during recent tests on the first of the airplanes.
The 787 production team will continue testing the airplane, performing tests such as low-speed taxiing, Boeing said. Work also will continue on five other test planes and other 787s in the production system, it said.
The 787 is Boeing’s first new aircraft since the 777, which was introduced more than a decade ago. The new plane is built for fuel efficiency with lightweight carbon composite parts.
Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing’s commercial airplane division, said experts had identified potential solutions to the reinforcement problem, and that such modifications were not uncommon in the development of new airplanes.
“Consideration was given to a temporary solution that would allow us to fly as scheduled, but we ultimately concluded that the right thing was to develop, design, test and incorporate a permanent modification to the localized area requiring reinforcement,” he said in a statement.
