Boeing is deep into preparations for its first “green” 787 BBJ delivery in 2012 and is confident it can avoid the myriad early completion problems that plagued the first 737-based BBJs more than a decade ago.
“We’ve seen that movie,” said BBJ president Steve Taylor, referring to the difficulties completion centers had with initial BBJs during the late 1990s. Those problems caused substantial cost overruns and millions of dollars in losses for the centers and delivery delays for frustrated end users.
Taylor said Boeing is already meeting with likely completion centers for the 787 and is developing data packages required to facilitate outfitting of the new, all-composite aircraft. Boeing has orders for between 12 and 16 787s destined for private completions, Taylor said; however, the first “signed” private 787 has yet to be formally announced.
Nevertheless, a few completion centers have already shared their preliminary 787 interior designs with Boeing, and in January the OEM held a week-long symposium for all licensed widebody completion centers to discuss the various 787 data packages and their release schedule. “We’re starting the dance already,” Taylor said.
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