I guess Boeing could have evaded the blame if they had moved forward more aggressively, and by that showing more control about their own program (now it seems that if you want to know about the B787, you either ask Airbus or your glass sphere). This quarterly delay announcement is now getting kind of familiar, let’s look what we’ll hear end of 1st quarter ’09.

Just how long time was left till first flight in August 2007?

The “greatness” is already sold and marketed, so Boeing has to live up to its own high promises. Current estimates on empty weight speak a different language. The real issue will be the -9, and its schedule will tell us if problems are bad or generally manageable.

To really make an assessment of an aircraft, it needs some time in service. With the A380, we are now getting closer to have a real picture. However, I wouldn’t really finalize it before at least a dozen operate on a regular basis.

11 have been delivered. One more to be delivered and then enter regular service… when?

But there are other things. All the A380 frames delivered so far have had custom wires. When shall A380 arrive with standard wires?

While B787-9 has formal orders, as has 787-3, A380-800Passenger is the sole A380 model with orders. A380F is offered, but currently with orderbook of zero. A380-900, A380-800R, A380-700 and A380-1000 are not now on offer.

If B787-9 is more important than B787-8, how important is A380-900?

I thought all those gas guzzlers were baking in the Mojave sunshine

Qatar has sunshine too. And they own the oil, so they are the ones who can afford oil guzzlers. A pity that they did not buy the pointy nosed ones…

But do they get the performance they promised? That is currently not the question, but will be the more interesting one. How is Dreamliner supposed to reduce seat mile costs?
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[*] Lower weight (currently 6% overweight, that would be 16t if the B787 was the size of an A380)

A better benchmark would be A330, because this is the closest match in terms of MTOW, wingspan, cross-section, size… and selling like hot cakes.

As A330 has about 123 t OEW, 6% overweight would be 7,4 t.

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If so, we could truly see some cancellations.

I don’t doubt the B787 looks like a commercial success so far, but do not mix “promised USD for pormised jet” with “actual USD for actual jet”. To this date the B787 has made no single USD of profit for Boeing.

Remember that there also are actual USD for promised jets. Depending on the contract terms, the airlines that cancel might not see their deposits back, while Boeing sells off the whitetails.

The American launch customer of 787, the recently bankrupt Primaris, cancelled their 787 orders long time ago. Did they get their deposits back?

This has to be the most delayed airliner Boeing have ever produced?

Have they “produced” it? If you mean “produced” as in “flown”, they haven´t done that yet at all. If you mean “produced” as in “rolled out and called it a plane”, perhaps. But if you mean “produced” as in, cut metal or plastic or wood with intent to incorporate it into an airframe that should fly, then just how much was Boeing 2707 delayed as of May 1971?

So, now it is possible to fly JFK-LHR by A380 (with the huge detour through DXB)?

Sadly, with only one other major airframe manufacturer, prospective customers have few alternatives.

But at least there is one…and I suspect some carriers are seriously looking at the alternative.

What is the order backlog of A330? And how many A330-s have been ordered since B787 was delayed (September 2007)?

Do the new A330 customers include any with outstanding (and unmet) B787 orders?

And there is one minor airframe manufacturer. Has Il-96 scored any recent orders?

Then let us compute the currency requirements.

A pilot cannot fly over 1000 hours per year:
http://www.risingup.com/fars/info/part121-503-FAR.shtml

Which means 250 hours in 3 months on average.

With 16 hour legs, it means 15 flights in 3 months.

Between a crew of 4, each of them needs 3 landings in 90 days: 12 total in 90 days.

But a 4 pilot crew cannot possibly fly over 16 hours. I cannot find flight time restrictions for a crew of 5 pilots.