World / Thu, 18 Apr 2024 Leeham News and Analysis

Boeing defends 787, 777 against whistleblower charges

The whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, is a Boeing engineer who worked on the 787. He claims he was moved off the program by Boeing in retaliation for raising safety concerns about the 787 and the 777. In October 2020, Boeing suspended delivery of the 787 for what would eventually be 20 months. Furthermore, inspections of the current in-service fleet revealed no fatigue or safety of flight issues, Boeing said. The 787 fleet flies an average of 600 cycles per year.

By Scott Hamilton

April 17, 2024, © Leeham News: A whistleblower appeared before the US Senate today recommending that the entire fleet of Boeing 787s be grounded until inspections can be performed to assure safety.

Salehpour went public with his safety charges a week ago. He focused on the small gaps between fuselage sections and other areas on the airplane that failed to meet Boeing’s own specifications. Production gaps, where parts of the airplane are mated, are common. Boeing and other manufacturers use shims to fill these gaps.

In 2020, Boeing revealed that in some cases, the gaps were greater than the 0.005 inches of its own specifications. Gaps of 0.008 inches were found. The gaps are the thickness of a piece of paper. Boeing initially grounded eight 787s for inspection.

In October 2020, Boeing suspended delivery of the 787 for what would eventually be 20 months. Deliveries already had been deferred by customers because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, Boeing has 110 787s parked that were completed. After a lengthy process with the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA approved Boeing’s fix. The fuselages of the 110 airplanes have to be inspected and measured. If repairs are necessary, it takes longer (5-6 months and in some extreme cases, 7-8 months) to complete than it does to assemble the airplanes in the first place. There are about 40 787s still awaiting rework.

Responses and testing

Boeing, in a media briefing on Monday, said its inspections and repairs resolved many of the problems claimed by Salehpour. Other issues he raised are “inaccurate,” Boeing claims. Furthermore, inspections of the current in-service fleet revealed no fatigue or safety of flight issues, Boeing said. Testing from 2010-2015 through the equivalent of 165,000 cycles (a takeoff and landing is one cycle) revealed no fatigue issues. The 787 fleet flies an average of 600 cycles per year.

Steve Chisholm, Vice President and Chief Engineer for Boeing Mechanical and Structural Engineering, said that of the more than 1,100 787s in service, 671 completed 6-year maintenance inspections; eight completed 12-year maintenance inspections; 10 had “intensive structural maintenance evaluations;” and “Through all of this, there’s been zero airframe fatigue findings on the 787 fleet, and all these results have been shared with the FAA.”

“Service actions [bulletins] issued for an airplane that’s in service are not unique to the 787 or to Boeing,” Chisholm said during the media briefing. “One could go look at airworthiness directives issued on any program for any OEM and find those on a regular basis.

“When we’re looking at the gap management journey, to date we haven’t identified anything that is safety. We have not closed all of those items. We’re still in that discussion with the FAA,” he said. “We expect to be done by the end of the year. We have not seen anything in service related to gap management that would indicate that there is an issue with the in-service fleet.”

Performing inspections

Separately, a Boeing spokesman—replying to a question from LNA—said, We have done extensive test and analysis to cover the entire fleet and at this time have found no need for in-service action to ensure structural integrity and longevity for composite structure related to gap management. The evaluation continues….”

Boeing divides the 787 into three groups:

Group 1: airplanes produced, delivered, and entered into service before join verification.

Group 2: airplanes inspected and delivered through Boeing’s join verification process.

Group 3: Airplanes produced and delivered since 2022 (planes that went into inventory).

Boeing said the third group was never found to be unsafe. “They did not conform, and we cannot deliver airplanes that do not conform – even if they are safe.”

The spokesman also said that “there is no work associated with gap management happening in the [in-service] fleet.”

777 claims

Salehpour, the whistleblower, in addition to urging the 787 in-service fleet be grounded for inspection, asserted that assembly procedures for the 777 violate standards. Boeing, noting the 777 has been in service for three decades, disputed the claims. “We are fully confident in the safety of the 777, which remains the most successful widebody airplane family in aviation history.”