Boeing Resumes Test Flights of Less-Flammable 787 Dreamliner

Just over a year ago, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off on its maiden test flight. Without taking anything away from that accomplishment, it's sobering to note that only today has Boeing has announced 787 test flights will resume, following a month's grounding when a test plane's electrical panel caught fire. 

Media have been investigating the 787 program, and the analysis shows that Boeing placed a large bet on an aggressive production timeline, discounting heavily to fill the sales pipeline. As neither the production timeline nor the test flight schedule have cooperated, Boeing finds itself in a tricky situation, reports FlightBlogger: "[T]he cost to build each 787 has skyrocketed from its original foundations built upon dramatically lower and more predictable production costs, say company insiders."

The Seattle Times' Dominic Gates wrote a major story on Boeing's precarious position, "Dreamliners' woes pile up." A sidebar is devoted to "What's wrong with the 787 Dreamliner," and Gates ventures to put a price on the debacle:

With the Dreamliner nearly three years overdue — and a postponement of the mid-February target for first delivery expected to be announced by Christmas — analysts estimate Boeing's cost overruns at a staggering $12 billion or more.

Can things get worse? Yes. Gates mentions that "John Hickey, the FAA's deputy associate administrator for aviation safety, visited Seattle and warned 787 executives that in the current state of the program, the jet cannot be certified for long-distance transocean and transpolar flights." 

It seems like the only good news to come Boeing's way is that Airbus has been earning their share of grim headlines, as well.