BOEING AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY

Boeing’s announcement, a few days ago, on the postponement of the first 787 delivery from May 2008 to the end of that year is anything but surprising. What’s more natural in our days than a mega-project that can not meet its own declared dead-lines? Of course, the first example that comes to mind is the two year delay in the deliveries of the Airbus 380 – the first one is being delivered to Singapore Airlines today, October 15, 2007 – but the truth is that there are few if any examples of big projects that actually made their own schedules without any delays. Think of any such project, from every possible field: building airports and sea ports, building bridges, developing new technologies, constructing mass transportation systems, etc. the bottom line is that man kind have been developing in many aspects, but predicting a realistic schedule is not one of them.

And as for Boeing? My estimation is that the first 787 customer is not going to see it in 2008.