Boeing Company said Tuesday it has pushed back the first delivery of the long-delayed 787 Dreamliner to the third quarter from the first quarter following an electrical fire on a test flight in November. The revolutionary jetliner has been delayed several times already. Boeing said extra time has been built into the new schedule in case anything else goes wrong. The airplane needs to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before it can be delivered, and flight testing for the certification resumed on Monday. Many industry experts had long expected the delay of 787 deliveries to the first customer, Japan's All Nippon Airways, but opinions differed on how long it might be. Boeing said the new delivery date reflected the impact of the November fire and the time required to produce, install, and test updated software and new electrical power distribution panels in the flight test and production airplanes. "This revised timeline for first delivery accommodates the work we believe remains to be done to complete testing and certification of the 787," Boeing vice president and 787 program manager Scott Fancher said in a statement. The 787 repeatedly has been delayed because of problems in the supply chain and a labor stoppage. Boeing last revised the Dreamliner delivery schedule in September due to a delay in the availability of a Rolls-Royce engine needed for the final phases of flight testing.
