Boeing: 787 on track for delivery in 2008

CHICAGO, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. aerospace and defense giant Boeing Co. is on track to deliver its first 787 Dreamliner jet to its first customer in a year, an executive said Tuesday.

Parts shortages are declining and fasteners needed to assemble the aircraft are in greater supply, Boeing Commercial Aircraft President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Carson said in a quarterly 787 update.

"We are not risk free, but better informed in how to knock those risks down," he said.

Boeing expects to test-fly its first 787 by March and deliver the plane to first customer All Nippon Airways Co. by the end of 2008, Carson said.

Many analysts believe that Boeing's production plans are too ambitious and that the plane maker will be forced to announce further delivery delays next year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Boeing touts the midsize, wide-body, twin-engine jet -- made mostly with carbon-fiber plastic instead of aluminum and featuring newly designed engines -- as being more fuel-efficient than earlier Boeing jets, saving 20 percent on both fuel and air pollution.

So far, Boeing has 762 orders for the aircraft, worth more than $120 billion, from 52 customers.

The Chicago company said Oct. 10 it would delay initial plane deliveries by six months, to November or December 2008 instead of May, because of parts shortages and other supply-chain problems.