

Boeing says 'immature' technology behind 787 delay - vinsan
http://en.news.maktoob.com/20090000551272/Boeing_says_immature_technology_behind_787_delay/Article.htm

======
jws
_An electrical fire during a test flight in November forced an emergency
landing and ground Dreamliner tests to a halt. … resumed … after the company
said it had updated the power systems software and conducted rigorous reviews
to confirm flight readiness._

And this is why I'm happy not to be writing airplane code. If the article is
correct, the plane's software can cause electrical fires.

"Halt and Catch Fire" rears its head again:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire>

------
vinsan
What could be this immature technology which causes a 3 year delay? Anyone has
an insight?

~~~
owyn
From the article: "The company has encountered numerous difficulties in
bringing the plane to market due to a new engineering strategy that uses
composite materials and integrates production from several international
sites."

Various parts of the plane are built in different countries and then
reassembled in Seattle using new materials that have never been used in a
commercial airplane. IIRC, the first few didn't fit together right (don't
worry, none of them were meant for customers, they're test planes) and
required a lot of in-the-factory engineering to complete. One lesson could be:
don't outsource your core competency. Also keep in mind that it's not just
simple assembly problems, but all the other production processes that are
being developed at the same time (repair manuals, tooling, software, training,
etc).

