Boeing: 787 on track for first flight

CHICAGO, March 10 (UPI) -- Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is on track for its first flight by the middle of this year despite earlier problems with suppliers, a company executive said.

Crain's Chicago Business reported Tuesday that Scott Carson, president of Boeing's commercial planes unit, said the supply chain is now moving as expected.

"All of the fundamental design and technologies are working well, though we have struggled at times making the global production system function the way we intended," Carson was quoted by Crain's as saying.

Speaking to a JP Morgan aviation conference, Carson said the seventh 787 is about to enter production, and that the first flight remains on schedule for the second quarter of 2009.

"We have cleared all the equipment for first flight," he said.