One thing making life difficult for 747-8 engineers is the 40-year gap between the traditional engineering drawings used when the jumbo jet was created and modern computer-aided design.
As a result, Boeing has found itself "trying to bridge the gap between 1969 and 2009", says a veteran engineer based at one of Boeing's 747-8 suppliers.
For example, the new wing design and enlarged empennage were designed using Dassault Systems Catia v5 software, while a portion of the internal fuselage structure and other parts of the aircraft were built using legacy engineering drawings.
Tolerance control has thus been difficult. Any gaps in the structure are typically addressed with structural shims, but developing these for the 747-8 has been slow owing to the shortage of engineering resources, say programme engineers.
Source: Flight International