Boeing's Headache or Miracle: Dreamliner 787

Aug. 17, 2009— -- Boeing once promised fliers that its new 787 Dreamliner would link small cities around the world, making it efficient for airlines to provide non-stop service from, say, Oklahoma City to Istanbul.

But that dream is now looking more and more like that: just a dream.

The turbulent ride to get the Dreamliner in the air hit another bump last week when Boeing confirmed it has halted production of new fuselages at a plant in Italy while it redesigns part of the plane.

It's the latest setback for a project that is now more than two years behind schedule and has become a repeated public-relations nightmare for the Chicago-based company. Boeing's stock fell 3.75 percent Friday.

The company said this problem would not further delay the project but provided little reassurance that the plane would soon be flying.

"It's a continuation of a bad situation," independent airline analyst Robert Mann said. "They've been relying on assurances after assurances from Boeing and now it appears the aircraft has further production issues. We're reaching a point where not only airlines, but consumers, are starting to question the program."

That said, when the 787 does finally fly, it could dramatically change air travel forever.

The 787 will be the first jetliner with composite-material primary structures. The main material will be graphite combined with a toughened epoxy resin. The wing will also use TiGr, a titanium/graphite composite. It will be a lighter, smaller twin-aisle airplane that could make it cost-effective for airlines to serve smaller markets directly, especially given further international airline deregulation.