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By Dave Demerjian December 03, 2008 | 7:58:03 PMCategories: Business
European aviation giant Airbus has compiled a surprisingly comprehensive dossier detailing every aspect of arch-rival Boeing's work on the 787 Dreamliner, using information gleaned from Boeing's own suppliers and proprietary documentation to assemble a sweeping critique of the ambitious but troubled aircraft.
The 46-page document titled Boeing 787 Lessons Learnt broadly examines the aircraft's development, including its many design, certification and production issues, to a degree rarely seen. It raises questions about Airbus' industrial intelligence-gathering methods.
There's no question the document compiled by Burkhard Domke, head of engineering intelligence at Airbus, and presented internally on Oct. 20 digs deeply into Boeing's development process. It examines nearly all parts of the 787 program, including the design of the aircraft's wings, fuselage and engines. It provides succinct summaries of the program's parts shortages, fastener issues, quality-control concerns and other production woes. Even seemingly mundane issues like the plane's in-flight entertainment system are chewed over.
Flightblogger broke the story Wednesday after writer Jon Ostrower, who has made a name for himself reporting on the inner workings of Boeing, obtained a copy of the report from a source he declined to identify. Ostrower told us shortly after posting the dossier (.pdf) that it is unprecedented in scope.
"To my knowledge, there has never been a comprehensive analysis of an airliner like this," he said. "It looks at every angle of the program, and analyzes it on a very granular level."
The breadth of the report is so impressive partly because Boeing is still developing the 787. How did Airbus get its hands on so much data about a plane relatively few have seen and no one has flown? Ostrower says Airbus obtained proprietary data and quizzed sources throughout Boeing's global-supply chain.
"One page explicitly cites Spirit Aerosystems, which makes the 787 nose, as the source of information about material laydown rates," Ostrower told us, adding that Spirit claims to have no idea how Airbus got its hands on the information. Ostrower is even more intrigued by what appear to be seven slides marked "Boeing Proprietary" and written in a format used in Boeing's internal presentations. "How did they get those?" he asks. "That's a big deal."
Boeing is keeping mum until it sees the Airbus dossier, Ostrower writes in his post, and Airbus told him the presentation and its intelligence-gathering methods are perfectly legal.
Ostrower says the Airbus report will force Boeing to take a hard look at the non-disclosure agreements it has with suppliers and examine the security of its information networks. But in the grand scheme of things, he says, the Airbus report is good news for Boeing.
"Sure, short term there are going to be some questions about how the information was obtained," he told us. "But take a look at the document. Nowhere does it say that the program isn't going to work or that the plane isn't going to fly. At the end of the day, the report is a vindication of the program."
You can read Ostrower's report here.
POST UPDATED 9:30 a.m. PST Dec. 4.
