FAA, EASA Certification of Boeing 787 Dreamliner Leaves Some Questions Unanswered
Boeing’s announcement of the 787 Dreamliner’s type cer
At a ceremony at Paine Field in Everett, Wash., today, Boeing announced that it has received type certification of its 787 Dreamliner. (Photo: Evan Sweetman)

Boeing’s announcement of the 787 Dreamliner’s type certification came with hesitant responses about further schedules or dates from both the company’s CEO of commercial airplanes and the head of the 787 program. Boeing received both FAA and EASA type certification and FAA production certification at a ceremony held on the flightline of Paine Field in Everett, Wash., today.  “I’m not sure what the production schedule will look like,” Jim Albaugh, president and CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes told AIN at the ceremony. “Currently, we are working on two a month.” “We will increase the rate of production as soon as we’re ready,” Scott Fancher, Boeing vice president for the 787 program, told AIN. The company hasn’t committed to an official delivery schedule, either, but remains positive it will meet its planned September delivery of the first aircraft to ANA. “I can’t comment on delivery schedule at the moment,” Francher said. “I can only say we’ll get them to the customers as fast as we can. We need to certify the interior and complete customer testing before we can deliver to [ANA].” Franchersaid he believes that regardless of the delivery schedule, the aircraft will remain a success with passengers. “When we took the airplane over during the Fourth of July weekend, we had hundreds of people turning out to look at the airplane,” he said. “When people see the passenger environment, they love it. The fact that we can show them a plane-full of people storing their carry-on luggage with enough space for everyone has gotten them really excited.”