Retserof_Mada

As an A&P, and flight inspector I couldn't agree more. Your comment need to be UV'd and seen by everyone.

I worked on the 787 program as a contractor in both Charleston and Everett for 3 years.

The vertical stab assembly and forward and aft cargo doors coming in from Italy were so fucked up that the only thing I did for three years was tear down, refit, and reassemble them.

The first door we took apart because no one could verify a fay seal between the doors actuator mounts and the surrounding structure. When we got it apart we found 45 holes (give or take 5) that were 2nd oversize but were filled with sealer and had nominal fasteners installed on each actuator, and another 50 or so that had 2nd oversize fasteners, but no squawks or any other engineering approved paperwork to cover the oversized holes. I did 5 more units with the same bullshit work before I left.

The horizontal stabilizer was a similar story, but in top of all the fucked up fasteners, the composite layup was so bad we had to remove ALL of the elevator mounts, left and right, shim them up so they would fit right and reinstall them. I did around 20 units, a buddy of mine was there for a year before I got there, it's the only job he did.

Now, my question would be, has Boeing done anything to remedy the complete giving of no fucks about the quality of work that Alenia puts out? Or are we going to see a catastrophic failure of a 787 in the next year or so?

EDIT: Didn't realize you haven't worked for Boeing for some 15 years or so. You wouldn't have knowledge of the 787 stuff.

On a side note, as someone who has spent a considerable amount of time in two different Boeing plants in the last few years, the number alcohol and drug addicts building planes that he's talking about has been reduced significantly.

EDIT 2: There was a comment about the batteries and Japan that got deleted, here is my response.

Yeah, most of the plane is built in sub-asssemblies by companies other than Boeing, overseas, and by the lowest bidder. Then put together in Everett. My take on the overall problem is that with all the sub-contractors building these parts, Boeing has lost their in-house quality control. Which is mainly why they bought out Global Aeronautica and it's now call Boeing Charleston.

The battery thing is scary because they've probably know there was some type of problem for a while. One of the prototypes caught fire a few years ago in the same compartment as the batteries, I have no idea if it's related though.

As an A&P mechanic that also spent alot of time doing assembly work I can answer this.

Whenever someone calls you with a clearance problem, do not pull it up in CATIA or whatever 3D modeling program your using, and procede to tell them that "It fits on my computer."

Get off your asses and go find out what the problem is. The average Joe Blow on the assembly line may not know where the tolerance build up is coming from that is causing the problem.

Judging by most of the OPs answers he was most likely Factory MT (basically an assembly mechanic), and has had no "real world" mechanic experience. He seems to be judging the entire industry on what he saw with one employer on an assembly line, doing the same job everyday for 7 years.

I've been doing this for 15 years.

I've worked for Boeing, Global Aeronautica, Hawker, Cessna, and several small FBO's. What I'm getting from this guy is "I got fired/layed off, and I'm butthurt about it."

EDIT: I hate to sound like an asshole... But also, if after seven years in the industry at a large manufacturer like Boeing, you switch to driving a bakery truck, it's most likely because Boeing HR folks are not total asshats, and you were not re-hired for a reason.

I was thinking about doing one sometime. I've done it all from assembly lines to A&P mechanic at FBO's. Between layoffs I've been with a general aviation manufacturers experimental department for almost 13 years as a mechanic, and currently a flight inspector. We do some cool shit.