Brake software latest threat to Boeing 787

By Bill Rigby and Tim Hepher

FARNBOROUGH (Reuters) - Verifying software in the brake control system of Boeing's (BA.N) 787 Dreamliner is the latest problem holding back the new plane's first test flight, the troubled program's chief said.

The first of the 787s, originally meant to fly last summer, has been held back by three major production delays due to parts shortages and incomplete work from suppliers arriving at its assembly plant near Seattle.

The plane is still on track for a first flight in the fourth quarter -- in line with the last schedule announced in April -- but the newest "air bubble" in the timetable is in the brake systems, Pat Shanahan, general manager of the 787 program, said at a briefing at Farnborough Airshow on Tuesday.

"We need to push harder on the brake system," he said.

If all had gone to plan in production, the sleek, fuel-efficient airliner would have been one the stars of the world's largest air show after being delivered to its first Japanese customer in May.

Shanahan confirmed the plane is still on track for first delivery in the third quarter of 2009, Boeing's latest target.

The carbon-composite aircraft, promising 20 percent fuel savings, has been a huge success with airlines which have ordered 896 planes worth nearly $150 billion at list prices.

But Boeing has suffered parts shortages and problems with incomplete work by suppliers, resulting in delivery delays resembling the two-year lag encountered by Airbus on its A380 superjumbo, which entered service last October.

In the latest hitch, there have been delays getting the software in the 787's brake control system verified to meet stringent certification requirements, said Shanahan, who has led the 787 program since October last year.

The work on the brake control and monitoring system is being done by Hydro-Aire, part of U.S. engineering company Crane Co (CR.N), which was in turn subcontracted by General Electric Co's (GE.N) Smiths aerospace unit.

"It's not that the brakes don't work, it's the traceability of the software," Shanahan said, explaining that Crane had to go back and rewrite certain parts of the brake control software to verify it for the certification process.

"I'm confident it will be done. It's General Electric," Shanahan said.

Crane officials at the show declined to comment. The company's official spokeswoman was not immediately available.

The French company providing wheels and other parts of the braking system, as well as the carbon brakes themselves, said it had nothing to do with any of the problems cited by Boeing.

The wheels and brakes are provided by Messier-Bugatti, a unit of French conglomerate Safran (SAF.PA). A sister company, Sagem Defense and Security, provides an electrical braking system known as the EBAC.