Six-month delay for Boeing's Dreamliner

Boeing has delayed deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner jet by six months, the US aerospace company has announced.

Hype has surrounded the plane, which its makers say will fly faster and further than any other medium-sized jet, use 20% less fuel and offer increased cabin comfort.

Boeing said the delays were due to the schedule being disrupted by early problems assembling the first 787.

Instead of next May, the first deliveries are now targeted for late November or December 2008.

The first test flight, already pushed back once from the initial target of early this autumn, is now not anticipated until around the end of the first quarter of 2008.

Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney expressed disappointment over the delays but said the problems relate to the company’s supply chain, not to any structural or design problems.

The 787, Boeing’s first newly designed jet since airlines started flying the 777 in 1995, will be the world’s first large commercial aeroplane made mostly of carbon-fibre composites, which are lighter, more durable and less prone to corrosion than more traditional aluminium.