Al Jazeera Investigates - Broken Dreams: The Boeing 787

“Broken Dreams: The Boeing 787” is likely to attract a lot of eyeballs both here and in South Carolina, where workers at the North Charleston plant — recorded without their knowledge — express some disturbing opinions about the plane.

Boeing will surely launch a scorched-earth investigation to nail down these commenters, as well as the employee who interviewed them.

787 gets harsh scrutiny on Al Jazeera

this will be interesting to watch and to watch it play out at Boeing

you can watch it online wednesday here www.aljazeera.com...

What is this?...A commercial?

a reply to: minkmouse

huh?

Just being sarcastic It will be interesting for sure and I aim to partake in the viewing. I think the dreamliner will eventually wash the smutt of its back and go on to be one of the future icons of aviation. Then again, I'm a total aviation whore. I'll be paying close attention to how certain posters here asses the vid.

it was a cluster f to begin with, you don't outsource nearly everything like they did and the one key piece you never build out of house is the wing, yet Boeing did just that.

the battery fix weighs the same as the ni-cad system it was supposed to replace

Hmmm..

The elaborately produced 49-minute piece tells this story well, albeit with a clear critical agenda and a lack of technical specifics. If you’ve never seen a lithium ion battery get penetrated in slow motion by a bullet and burst into flames, this is your chance. It’s great TV, but viewers may wonder if it’s relevant — only the man who did that test suggests it is

I think that says something right there about the validity of the Al Jazeera peice.

As for the SC plant issues, Boeing went there to get away from the unions here. It bit them in the rear end as the learning curve for building a top shelf jetliner is rather steep and the union workers in Everett have been doing it for a very long time.
Why do you think Boeing waited so long to get the contract for the 777x wings to stay in Everett, when at any point they could have farmed that work out to another firm?

Kind of interesting that an expose'/documentary comes from Al Jazeera of Qatar.

I wonder if they will address the advanced composite, advanced alloy and Russian titanium issues.

Qatar Air has a bunch of 787's with more on order among intermittent threats to cancel because of ongoing problems.

There's really not a lot of choice left - globally - for commercial jets. Boeing and Airbus are about it.

Real question is: why is the mainstream media running this story?

The Dreamliner has become as good or even better than the 777, which is already one of the best commercial aircraft ever. Dispatch rates for the worldwide fleet are in the 99% range, with all but one or two operators seeing 96+%. And those are barely below that.

Operators are seeing such a huge fuel burn improvement over even the Triple Seven, and such good reliability rates that the new problem Boeing has is that the only time that airlines want to turn them over for software updates or minor fixes is the few times they're parked overnight.

originally posted by: luxordelphi
Kind of interesting that an expose'/documentary comes from Al Jazeera of Qatar.

I don't think this has anything to do with the aircraft.

It so happens that with the rise of ISIS, more and more countries in the region and the USA have been become more pissed off with Qatar. They didn't directly aid ISIS, but they did aid the most radical-but-not-quite-ISIS rebels and the Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas. Story in the New York Times about the heat coming into Qatar. Al-Jazeera is turning out to be less of the fearless and independent Arab news media and more of the "Russia Today" of Qatar. They've been sympathizing with up to inciting radicalism in their Arabic broadcasts.

Qatar being naughty

a reply to: luxordelphi

The Russian titanium isn't an issue for the 787 or any other commercial aircraft.

What problems? Every operator of the Dreamliner, including Qatar has nothing but good things to say about it at this point. You should get more up to date sources.

originally posted by: mbkennel

originally posted by: luxordelphi
Kind of interesting that an expose'/documentary comes from Al Jazeera of Qatar.

I don't think this has anything to do with the aircraft.

It so happens that with the rise of ISIS, more and more countries in the region and the USA have been become more pissed off with Qatar. They didn't directly aid ISIS, but they did aid the most radical-but-not-quite-ISIS rebels and the Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas. Story in the New York Times about the heat coming into Qatar. Al-Jazeera is turning out to be less of the fearless and independent Arab news media and more of the "Russia Today" of Qatar. They've been sympathizing with up to inciting radicalism in their Arabic broadcasts.

Qatar being naughty

That's interesting but am having a hard time matching that rhetoric to action. In mid-July, Hagel & Biden were selling

Apache helicopters and Patriot and Javelin defense systems worth $11 billion

to Qatar.

US strikes $11bn arms deal with Qatar

On the other hand, it's hard for me to believe that Al Jazeera would interest themselves in our union problems and workplace drug addiction issues. I don't think they really even know what scab labor is.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: luxordelphi

The Russian titanium isn't an issue for the 787 or any other commercial aircraft.

What problems? Every operator of the Dreamliner, including Qatar has nothing but good things to say about it at this point. You should get more up to date sources.

Are you talking alternate reality?

Airline incidents for aircraft type Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner

Russia Sanctions Spread Pain From Putin to Halliburton

a reply to: luxordelphi

Oh my god, they better ground them, along with every other plane that has ever, or is currently flying. I mean its not like those problems have never happened to any other plane that has ever flown.

You managed to find problems that plague every other plane ever built, but since its the Dreamliner that means that it has horrible problems and is a worthless piece of crap. Give me a break.

You should tell the operators that are madly in love with it because they're saving millions in fuel now every month.

As for the titanium there is both an inventory built up, and American suppliers.

Did you even bother to TRY to look into some of those, or just automatically jump to "Dreamliner! Its a horrible airplane!"

The engine issues were caused when gearboxes were improperly manufactured. Forty plus gear boxes were found to be defective, but only one aircraft had faulty gearboxes in both engines, so they were allowed to fly, but had to be changed within a certain timeframe. The one with both engines was grounded and the engines changed.

The system alerts is a minor software problem that has a patch, but Boeing can't get the aircraft long enough to do it, unless they have planned down time. The airlines won't take them out of service.

Windscreens crack. Its a normal effect of of the fuselage expansion and contraction, as well as the heat inside and freezing air outside. I don't know how many I changed and saw changed over the years.

a reply to: luxordelphi

Well, that's $11B of oil money to Congressional Districts after all. And more jihad = more contracts.

Carrot and sticks?

So far Qatar isn't sending Apache's for ISIS to use or anything like that, they're not yet that crazy, and they are opposed to Iran who does have a substantial conventional military capability.

a reply to: bigx001

Just finished watching the video (it's Wednesday here) and it's absolutely startling. Thank you for putting it up. I actually learned some things I didn't know including who Boeing's inside man at the FAA was and that the roll-out in 2007 was a prop.

Al Jazeera did a bang-up job and, even though my safety concerns for this plane were not addressed, the ones that were addressed are outrageous.

a reply to: luxordelphi

Yes, there are so many safety concerns with it. That's why they've already flown thousands of flights, with more added every day, without a major incident happening in flight.

This has been a better introduction than some aircraft had that went on to serve for many years and are considered great planes.

a reply to: luxordelphi

It was no secret that the first roll out was an empty aircraft. We knew that before they rolled out for crying out loud.

most of the revelations are not new. it is common knowledge that the work from SC is poor. it continues to be that way.

most people think that Boeing bought MD, but really it was a reverse takeover MD used Boeing money to finance the takeover. that should have been pointed out better

The interesting fact is the memo stating that quality should be downgraded to meet schedule.

a reply to: bigx001

The problems with SC started long before Boeing moved in. That was one reason they took Spirit over and put their own people in place.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: luxordelphi

Yes, there are so many safety concerns with it. That's why they've already flown thousands of flights, with more added every day, without a major incident happening in flight.

that's not true, the battery did catch fire during flight. but even more so we see what happens when the battery is punctured. of course we have seen that when tesla cars have their batteries punctured.

Everett does correct the poor workmanship on the assemblies when they arrive and before they are sent out the door on a complete airframe. so what happens on the complete airframes when they are sent out the door in SC