This is bad news in the very competitive commercial airliner industry. Boeing had a hit on its hands, but the delivery date keeps getting pushed back.

Boeing has confirmed that the 787 Dreamliner jet will not be available for commercial service until 2010, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.In a news release Thursday, the company announced an updated schedule for the plane that moves the commercial jet's first flight into the second quarter of 2009 and first delivery into the first quarter of 2010.

Maybe the machinists union is expecting Democrats to bail them out too, just as all of us are going to be forced to bail out the United Auto Workers Union.


I predict that Boeing will soon move its manufacturing to a southern state. Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Mississippi are counting on it.

"If I was a Boeing executive, I'd look at the state of Alabama and see there's a qualified work force ... I'd take a look at the assets we have," said Stephen Nodine, president of the Mobile County Commission, whose offices are in Mobile, Ala.

This is not to say Boeing Commercial Airplanes has any immediate plans to do anything other than getting its Everett and Renton assembly plants fully running again, and sending delayed aircraft of nearly every model into the air.

But sometime in the next decade Boeing may launch a high-tech successor to the 737, its most popular plane; the company also may upgrade its 777 model or develop a second 787 production line.

In a recent interview, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Scott Carson said Boeing isn't actively looking at any other sites for plants. But he doesn't rule out the possibility it could.

"Clearly there's frustration over the labor situation in Washington, and frustration about being able to be held hostage by a single bargaining unit," he said. "Will it increase pressure to find another place to do manufacturing in the future? Perhaps."