by expat » Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:31 am
Mic, I think personally they shouldn't give a date at all. I know airlines wouldn't be happy, but its better than saying, you'll be flying your shiny new aircraft in 3 years, then 5 years later they're still having problems.
Perfect idea....
Makes perfect since... 8-)
These dates have nothing to do with the company (s) as a whole. Any designer already knows full well that development will have teething problems. These dates are pushed out by the bean counters. Airlines have no option but to take the word of these people. Without orders, then the aircraft would not get of the ground in the first place. Also the lead in time for a new aircraft type for a company is huge. You have to start with crew training, technical training, spares acquisition, logistics, marketing, engineering, in many cases, new buildings and that is just a very small number of things that have to be ready
before the first aircraft arrives. My present employer a while back decided to operate a duel fleet. At the time we had 60-ish 737-800's and then added A320's to it. An off the shelf aircraft, the company lead in time was just under a year. Now plan to have the Dreamliner on your books, it is not so easy. The Dreamliner is the first newly designed aircraft in about 30 years. Everything else either uses standard technology or is a bastard child of another aircraft. Even the A380 has roots that where well established before production even started. The Dreamliner is the first aircraft to be built in the manner in which it is. Delay after delay was on the cards from the beginning, but the bean counters are all wearing blinkers and concentrating on a set finish date, even when they know it is not realistic. Unfortunately that have to because if they don't there would be no Boeing or Airbus because designers, like artists are never fully happy with what they produce and would spent way too much time faffing about.
Matt
"A bit of a pickle" - British translation: A catastrophically bad situation with potentially fatal consequences.
PETA

People Eating Tasty Animals.
B1 (Cat C) licenced engineer, Boeing 737NG 600/700/800/900 Airbus A318/19/20/21 and Dash8 Q-400
1. Captain, if the problem is not entered into the technical logbook.........then the aircraft does not have a problem.
2. And, if you have time to write the fault on a napkin and attach to it to the yoke.........you have time to write it in the tech log....see point 1.