Boeing announces delay in delivery of 747-8

Boeing said Friday that it is pushing out deliveries of the 747-8, the newest version of its jumbo jet, by about nine months because of design changes that required extra work, limited engineering resources and the eight-week Machinists strike.

Separately, first delivery of the freighter version of the 777 has been pushed into next year by the strike.

The freighter version of the 747-8 will be delivered in the third quarter of 2010, instead of in late 2009 as previously planned. The first passenger versions will be delivered in the second quarter of 2011, rather than in late 2010.

Boeing mechanics in Everett began to assemble the wing of the first 747-8 just before the Machinists strike. First flight of that airplane is now expected late in 2009.

The delays affect nine freighter customers, one airline customer — Lufthansa — and seven undisclosed individual customers that ordered VIP versions of the jet, said Boeing spokesman Tim Bader.

The freighter customers are Cargolux, Nippon Cargo Airlines, Atlas Air, Guggenheim, Emirates SkyCargo, AirBridgeCargo, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise.

Bader said production had been slowed by supply-chain delays caused by necessary design changes to the airplane after the wing was extensively redesigned.

That extra engineering work and provision of new tooling has added considerable cost to the program, but Bader said the business case remains viable.

Another issue, Bader said, was that engineers who had been expected to transfer to work on the 747-8 from the 787 Dreamliner program were not able to do so because of the delays on the 787.

The two-month Machinist strike that just ended extended the delays a further two months.

Boeing said it consulted with suppliers in revising the production and delivery schedule for the 747-8, which was launched in late 2005.

Boeing said the strike also caused delivery of the first 777 freighter to Air France to slide from late this year into the first quarter of 2009.

The 777 freighter flight-test program continued through the strike though at a reduced pace. Flight tests using the first two aircraft are now expected to be completed by year end.

In addition to the delays on the 787, the 747-8 and the 777 freighter, Boeing said Thursday that resumption of deliveries of 737s — the company's high-production-rate narrow-body jets — may be slowed because it must replace supplier-provided connecting parts called nutplates that lacked a required anti-corrosion coating.

Airlines that have taken deliveries will have to inspect some 737s in service.

Information from The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and Seattle Times aerospace reporter Dominic Gates is included in this report.