(Photo by Mario J. Craig)
Boeing announced early Friday that it now expects the first delivery of a 787 to take place in the middle of the first quarter in 2011. The company had previously expected to deliver the first copy to launch customer ANA in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The Chicago-based aerospace giant blamed the delay partially on a lack of availability of the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine. Rolls Royce suffered a setback earlier this month when one of the engines suffered an uncontained failure during ground-based tests.
Boeing said that while problems with the 787’s Italian-built horizontal stabilizer and delays in instrumentation development might have delayed the first delivery into early 2011, the engine problem has pushed it back even more.
