Brake Software Latest Threat to Boeing 787

FARNBOROUGH (Reuters) – Verifying software in the brake control system of Boeing’s (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 787 Dreamliner is the latest problem holding back the new plane’s first test flight, the troubled program’s chief said.

The first of the 787s, originally meant to fly last summer, has beenheld back by three major production delays due to parts shortages andincomplete work from suppliers arriving at its assembly plant nearSeattle.

The plane is still on track for a first flight in the fourth quarter– in line with the last schedule announced in April — but the newest"air bubble" in the timetable is in the brake systems, Pat Shanahan,general manager of the 787 program, said at a briefing at FarnboroughAirshow on Tuesday.

"We need to push harder on the brake system," he said.

If all had gone to plan in production, the sleek, fuel-efficientairliner would have been one the stars of the world’s largest air showafter being delivered to its first Japanese customer in May.

Shanahan confirmed the plane is still on track for first delivery in the third quarter of 2009, Boeing’s latest target.

The carbon-composite aircraft, promising 20 percent fuel savings,has been a huge success with airlines which have ordered 896 planesworth nearly $150 billion at list prices.

But Boeing has suffered parts shortages and problems with incompletework by suppliers, resulting in delivery delays resembling the two-yearlag encountered by Airbus on its A380 superjumbo, which entered servicelast October.

In the latest hitch, there have been delays getting the software inthe 787’s brake control system verified to meet stringent certificationrequirements, said Shanahan, who has led the 787 program since Octoberlast year.

The work on the brake control and monitoring system is being done byHydro-Aire, part of U.S. engineering company Crane Co (CR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which was in turn subcontracted by General Electric Co’s (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Smiths aerospace unit.

"It’s not that the brakes don’t work, it’s the traceability of thesoftware," Shanahan said, explaining that Crane had to go back andrewrite certain parts of the brake control software to verify it forthe certification process.

"I’m confident it will be done. It’s General Electric," Shanahan said.

Crane officials at the show declined to comment. The company’s official spokeswoman was not immediately available.

The French company providing wheels and other parts of the brakingsystem, as well as the carbon brakes themselves, said it had nothing todo with any of the problems cited by Boeing.

The wheels and brakes are provided by Messier-Bugatti, a unit of French conglomerate Safran (SAF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). A sister company, Sagem Defense and Security, provides an electrical braking system known as the EBAC.

"Our material has passed ‘Safety of Flight’ tests and has beendelivered in its entirety for the first flight. It also passed therecent ‘Power On’ tests on the 787," Messier-Bugatti PresidentJean-Christophe Corde told Reuters.

"Airplane One is in really good shape," said Shanahan, who replacedMike Bair, the original 787 chief, after the first major delay on theplane last year.

He conceded that along with the brake system problem, more workneeds to be done on the mid-body of the first plane and there werestill parts shortages on the wing.

Boeing’s next steps are putting hydraulics on the first plane andrunning the engines, as it moves toward first flight in the fourthquarter, Shanahan said.

However, Airplane 4, which will also be used for flight tests, couldpose the next problem. The main fuselage of that plane is still at theGlobal Aeronautica plant in South Carolina, two to three weeks after itwas due to be shipped to Seattle for final assembly.

That delay did not directly threaten the flight test timetable, butwas eating away at extra time built in to the schedule, said Shanahan."I’m eating margin I don’t want to eat."

Global Aeronautica, a joint venture between Boeing and Alenia, a unit of Italian aerospace company Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz),is putting together the main parts of the plane’s body’s fuselage at aspecially built facility in Charleston, South Carolina.

(Editing by Dan Lalor)