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Brake software latest threat to 787
By Bill Rigby and Tim Hepher
Tue Jul 15, 6:43 AM ET
FARNBOROUGH (Reuters) - Verifying software in the brake control system of Boeing's (BA.N) 787 Dreamliner is the latest problem holding back the new plane's first test flight, the troubled program's chief said.
The first of the 787s, originally meant to fly last summer, has been held back by three major production delays due to parts shortages and incomplete work from suppliers arriving at its assembly plant near Seattle.
The plane is still on track for a first flight in the fourth quarter -- in line with the last schedule announced in April -- but the newest "air bubble" in the timetable is in the brake systems, Pat Shanahan, general manager of the 787 program, said at a briefing at Farnborough Airshow on Tuesday.
"We need to push harder on the brake system," he said.
If all had gone to plan in production, the sleek, fuel-efficient airliner would have been one the stars of the world's largest air show after being delivered to its first Japanese customer in May.
But Boeing has suffered a series of parts shortages and incomplete work by suppliers, resulting in delivery delays resembling the two-year lag encountered by Airbus on its A380 superjumbo, which entered service last October.
Specifically, there have been delays getting the software in the 787's brake control system verified to meet stringent bcertification requirements, said Shanahan, who has led the 787 program since October last year.
The work on the brake control and monitoring system is being done by Hydro-Aire, part of U.S. engineering company Crane Co (CR.N), which was in turn subcontracted by General Electric Co's (GE.N) Smiths aerospace unit.
"It's not that the brakes don't work, it's the traceability of the software," Shanahan said, explaining that Crane had to go back and rewrite certain parts of the brake control software to verify it for the certification process.
"I'm confident it will be done," Shanahan said.
Crane officials at the show declined to comment. The company's official spokeswoman was not immediately available.
"Airplane One is in really good shape," said Shanahan, who replaced Mike Bair, the original 787 chief, after the first major delay on the plane last year.
The French company providing wheels and other parts of the braking system, as well as the carbon brakes themselves, said it had nothing to do with any of the problems cited by Boeing.
The wheels and brakes are provided by Messier-Bugatti, a unit of French conglomerate Safran (SAF.PA). A sister company, Sagem Defense and Security, provides an electrical braking system known as the EBAC.
"Our material has passed Safety of Flight tests and has been delivered in its entirety for the first flight. It also passed the recent 'Power On' tests on the 787," Messier-Bugatti President Jean-Christophe Corde told Reuters.
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