AVIATION

'Immature' technology behind 787 delay

Boeing said on last week that the use of "immature" technology caused delays in the delivery of its 787 Dreamliner passenger jet, a project almost three years behind schedule.

"Some of the technology was not as mature as it should have been and we put a global supply chain together without thinking through some of the consequences," Boeing Commercial Airplanes, President and Chief Executive Jim Albaugh, said at a forum in the Saudi capital.

"When you put immature technology in your supply chain and don't supply adequate oversight, you have issues and that is what we had," he added at the annual Global Competitiveness Forum. But he expressed confidence in the aircraft even if production is nearly three years behind schedule.

"It is going to be a magnificent airplane and will be 20 percent more efficient than the airplanes it is replacing," he said.

Boeing said recently it would delay the delivery of its first 787 unit from February to the third quarter of 2011. The postponement came after a string of technical mishaps and delays slowed the testing program for the jets, heralded as a new generation of highly fuel-efficient, mid-sized aircraft.

The company has encountered numerous difficulties in bringing the plane to market due to a new engineering strategy that uses composite materials and integrates production from several international sites. An electrical fire during a test flight in November forced an emergency landing and ground Dreamliner tests to a halt.

But these resumed in December after the company said it had updated the power systems software and conducted rigorous reviews to confirm flight readiness. AFP

GECAS buys 12 additional A330s

GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), a unit of US conglomerate General Electric, has signed a contract to buy 12 A330 wide-body airliners with a list price of $ 2.67 billion, Airbus said last week.

GECAS "has signed a contract with a firm order for 12 more A330-300 long-haul carriers. This new deal brings the total number of A330s ordered by GECAS to 32 units," Airbus said in a statement.

"The new order from GECAS underlines the fact that A330 remains the aircraft of choice for clients and underscores the strong market demand, notably for the A330-300," Airbus Commercial Director John Leahy said in a statement.

Last July, GECAS ordered 100 planes from Airbus and its US rival Boeing for a total of $ 7.5 billion at the Farnborough airshow in England. AFP