Delivery of the first Boeing Next Generation 737-700 to Southwest Airlines has been held up again, this time because of last-minute modifications to the lateral trim system.
The first aircraft was originally due to be handed over to launch customer Southwest in October, but this slipped to late November after problems caused by parts shortages and the late structural modifications which were made to the horizontal stabiliser. Boeing says: "We have some pre-delivery issues, but we expect to have solutions soon."
The problems are thought to centre on the fine tuning of the lateral trim system required by the US Federal Aviation Administration after a "first-of-model" acceptance flight test in one of the test aircraft. Although the aircraft was formally certificated by the FAA on 7 November, the agency will not release the aircraft into service until it has passed the final pre-delivery acceptance flight.
Meanwhile, Boeing test engineers are flying the YA002 on several sorties a day with various configurations of flap and trim settings to check for improvements.
The company has tentatively set 17 December as the next target date for the handover to Southwest, making it roughly two months behind schedule.
Source: Flight International
