Comparing the delays that have affected two major aircraft programmes:

Airbus’s A380 and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. The “chaos” that led to delays to the A380 superjumbo emerged from much intricate assembly of the plane’s wiring. Above all, the programme was plagued by faults in communication between the group’s various plants in different European countries. Indeed, problems in Germany were not immediately communicated to France, recalls the newspaper. In addition, the Hamburg factory did not use the same software than its cabling colleagues in France. To minimise damage, Airbus has now temporarily returned to manual cabling. In Boeing’s case, the new production system put in place has been called into question. The manufacturer outsources some 70 % of the 787’s production to external suppliers spread across the world. Besides, the plane in itself represents a technological breakthrough: more than half of its frame is made of composite materials. Handelsblatt