BOEING'S new carbon-composite 787 Dreamliner plane may turn out to be unsafe and could lead to more deaths in crashes, according to a report by veteran journalist Dan Rather to be broadcast in the US today.

The new plane, which is mostly made from brittle carbon compounds rather than flexible aluminum, is more likely to shatter on impact and may emit poisonous chemicals when ignited, Rather will report based on interviews with a former Boeing engineer and various industry experts, according to a tran of the show.

"The problem is all the unknowns that are being introduced and then explained away as if there is no problem,'' said Vince Weldon, a former Boeing engineer, in an interview to be broadcast as part of Rather's report.

Mr Weldon compares a recent crash in a standard aluminum plane where the dented but intact fuselage kept fire at bay and allowed the passengers to leave the plane alive.

"With a composite airframe, the fuselage would not crumple, it would shatter ... that shattered hole would be there for the fire that's going into the airplane,'' Mr Weldon says in the interview.

"Instead of everyone getting out, it would be a far less positive result.''

Mr Weldon says he was fired by Boeing after a 46-year career because of his persistent complaints about the design of the 787.

He claims he represents the view of others at Boeing who were afraid to speak out.

Boeing, which did not provide officials for on-camera interviews in Rather's report, said today that Weldon's claims were not valid and the plane would not fly if it was not safe.

"We've looked at Mr Weldon's claims. We've had technical committees review them. We do an exceptional amount of testing,'' said Lori Gunter, a spokeswoman for Boeing's commercial plane unit.

"Absolutely, these materials are safe. They are tested, they will be certified.''

She said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) must find the 787 to be as crashworthy as aluminum planes, and the plane was doing well in those tests so far. She declined to comment on the circumstances of Mr Weldon's departure from Boeing.

Boeing's lightweight, fuel-efficient 787, which has become its most successful plane launch ever, is set for its first test flight between mid-November and mid-December after a three month delay due to a shortage of bolts and problems programming the flight control software.

The first 787 is due to be delivered to Japan's All Nippon Airways in May next year, meaning it will have at most six months of flight tests, much shorter than previous jetliner programs.

Boeing's rival Airbus, owned by European aerospace company EADS, is also working on a composite fuselage for its new A350 jet, but it is some years behind Boeing in the design and production process.

In Rather's report, Mr Weldon and other experts also argue that the carbon-composite fuselage would not survive a lightning strike as well as aluminum, would emit toxic fumes when burning, and could easily be damaged without any visible sign.

Mr Weldon says Boeing is misrepresenting to airlines the ease of maintenance on carbon fuselage planes.

The report cites experts referring to Airbus planes that had carbon parts with problems that were not easily visible.

Rather's report also includes aviation experts who see little or no problem with the 787.

"I'm excited to ride on the 787. I'm excited to fly in composite aircraft,'' says Joseph Rakow, an engineer at consulting company Exponent, in an interview in the report.

Todd Wissing, a commercial pilot, says he would fly the 787 as long as the composite materials are rigorously tested.

"We put safety as our top priority,'' says Mr Wissing in the report.

"We use the 21st century inspection methods with these new materials. Then we have complete confidence that we can get in that airplane with our passengers and go fly because that's what we can do.''

The report by former CBS News anchor Dan Rather is the latest edition of Dan Rather Reports, broadcast on HDNet, a subion-only television channel that about four million Americans are able to view.

Last year Rather left CBS after a scandal over his reporting on President George W. Bush's military record.
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A former Boeing engineer claims the 787 Dreamliner is unsafe, and that in the event of a crash its innovative composite material fuselage would "shatter too easily and burn with toxic fumes", the Seattle Times reports.

Vince Weldon was sacked in July 2006 from his post as senior aerospace engineer at Boeing's Phantom Works research unit for "disputed reasons". He argues that "without years of further research, Boeing shouldn't build the Dreamliner and that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) shouldn't certify the jet to fly".

Weldon's allegations are detailed in a letter to the FAA, which claims:

__The brittleness of the plastic material from which the 787 fuselage is built would create a more severe impact shock to passengers than an aluminum plane, which absorbs impact in a crash by crumpling. A crash also could shatter the plastic fuselage, creating a hole that would allow smoke and toxic fumes to fill the passenger cabin.
After such a crash landing, the composite plastic material burning in a jet-fuel fire would create "highly toxic smoke and tiny inhalable carbon slivers" that "would likely seriously incapacitate or kill passengers". __
The recently conducted crashworthiness tests — in which Boeing dropped partial fuselage sections from a height of about 15 feet at a test site in Mesa, Ariz. — are inadequate and do not match the stringency of comparable tests conducted on a 737 fuselage section in 2000.
The conductive metal mesh embedded in the 787's fuselage surface to conduct away lightning is too light and vulnerable to hail damage, and is little better than a "Band-Aid."
In a "whistle-blower complaint" filed with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Weldon claimed that his firing was "retaliation for raising concerns throughout the last two years of his employment about the crashworthiness of the 787".

Boeing, however, told the OSHA he was "dismissed for threatening a supervisor, specifically for stating he wanted to hang the African-American executive 'on a meat hook' and that he 'wouldn't mind' seeing a noose around the executive's neck", the Seattle Times reports.

OSHA dismissed Weldon's claim, denying him whistle-blower status "largely on the grounds that Boeing's 787 design does not violate any FAA regulations or standards".

FAA spokesman Mike Fergus confirmed earlier this week the 787 will "not be certified unless it meets all the FAA's criteria, including a specific requirement that Boeing prove passengers will have at least as good a chance of surviving a crash landing as they would in current metal airliners".

A Boeing spokeswoman assured the Seattle Times: "We have to demonstrate to the FAA comparable crashworthiness to today's airplanes. We are doing that."

She elaborated that recent crash tests were "successful but are only the beginning of a process that relies on computer modeling to cover every possible crash scenario". The tests also demonstrated that "shards of composite material released in a crash are not a shape that is easily inhaled", and that "the smoke produced by composites in a jet-fuel fire is no more toxic than the smoke from the crash of an aluminum plane".

Finally, she confirmed the Dreamliner's lightning protection "will meet FAA requirements".

Weldon's serious allegations come as Boeing is struggling to keep the Dreamliner to its original launch schedule. It planned the aircraft's maiden flight for August, now put back to mid-November to mid-December due to a "critical shortage of aerospace fasteners to hold the airplane together", as the Wall Street Journal explains.

Company execs have, nonetheless, declared Boeing will deliver the first example in May 2008, despite industry pundits and "a number of the plane's suppliers" describing this feat as "the aerospace equivalent of hitting a hole in one on a golf course".

Indeed, if the 787 took to the air in mid-November, Boeing would have just six months to complete the flight test and certification program - compared to 11 months for the 777.

Boeing has secured 684 Dreamliner orders from 47 customers. All-Nippon Airways will be the first to get its hands on the controls, and is reportedly pretty relaxed about any potential delivery delay since it will deploy the airliner to replace its 767 fleet, and can continue to operate the latter were it necessary. ®

Further info
For the planespotters among you, here are some vital stats from Boeing:

The 787-8 Dreamliner will carry 210 - 250 passengers on routes of 7,650 to 8,200 nautical miles (14,200 to 15,200 kilometers), while the 787-9 Dreamliner will carry 250 - 290 passengers on routes of 8,000 to 8,500 nautical miles (14,800 to 15,750 kilometers). A third 787 family member, the 787-3 Dreamliner, will accommodate 290 - 330 passengers and be optimized for routes of 2,500 to 3,050 nautical miles (4,600 to 5,650 kilometers).

In addition to bringing big-jet ranges to mid-size airplanes, the 787 will provide airlines with unmatched fuel efficiency, resulting in exceptional environmental performance. The airplane will use 20 percent less fuel for comparable missions than today's similarly sized airplane. It will also travel at speeds similar to today's fastest wide bodies, Mach 0.85. Airlines will enjoy more cargo revenue capacity.

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Boeing is put a lot on this new model. And with Airbus with the new A380 and the future A350, Boeing needs this model to be a success if wants to survive. too much is been placed but at same time and too much new things are being used on this revolutionary model

Recent planes have been facing problems, like the Osprey that have a score in killing people in tests. like F-22 with a software failure, that does not permit a pilot to eject

Shuttles blow up in the sky and let's see what the future will tell for the new boeing.

The 787 have a lot of new features and as everything that is new, brings new problems, so when a i see a model like this one, having at least for now 3 months of delays for the first flight, a former engineer saying that there are problems and is fired and cutting the test phase to 6 months, i can only think that this plane heading for very very wrong way

US is slowly going down, US economy is melting, is the future of the new boeing to be a reflection of the US future?

Don't waste time, run to buy a ticket on the new US flying coffin.

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