after having worked for the Big Blue, I have seen that the 787 may be just a Big Pig!!

With a solid Carbon Fiber fuselage, it is definitely heavier than a conventional plane its size. some reports have it at 50,000 lbs heavier than expected. Their is added Titanium reinforcement in the Mid body over the center fuel tanks that adds also to the weight.

Also, the beefed up wings made in Japan have a total of 40 carbon I-Beam stringers, with what appears to be a Titanium Landing Gear beam attaching to the rear Spar.

the skin thickness on the wings where it attaches to the Mid-body wing box might be as thick as 1-2 inches.

Technical reports have the wings and mid-body at 58,000lbs empty. The engines at 33000lbs, with nacelles and pylons, landing gear at 18,0000lbs,fixed equipment at 70,000 lbs, V fin at 2000, H-Stab at 5000, for a total empty mass of 236,000 lbs, 32,000 gals of fuel and 40,000 lbs of payload for a Takeoff weight of 476,000 lbs.

this is conservative, because Boeing lists the Takeoff weight as 550,000 lbs.

Note a B777 has a takeoff weight of just over 600,000 lbs with 100 more passengers and a little more fuel. goes 8000 plus Nautical miles.

Flying with the new 11 to 1 Bypass engines, which take off little bleed air, adds to the fuel efficiency , however think what a Boeing 777 would be able to do redesigned with these new engines!!

Boeing management would not listen to past engineers, and still today from what I have seen, still don't listen.

Airbus builds planes with real Stringers and Frames(ribs) still attached together as in conventional metal planes. they use composite panels, I believe made from A Boron/Lithium/Aluminum Stack up or Matrix.

Still it is a no brainer!!, this type plane will be easier to repair and a lot less headaches than the Boeing.

Boeing believes that the solid Autoclave fuselage is stronger, which it may be, the solid construction acts as a Monococe where there are no real Stringers, however there are the usual Frame sections and some Longerons attached for added strength around Door Sections.


My conclusion from what I have seen, is that even with all the automation used in assembling the fuselage, it still takes too much time to build, can be NDT time consuming and expensive, a pain to repair, and in essence no better than a conventional aluminum plane.

A Big PIG on Steroids!!