Boeing 787 : max range short fall?

[keesje]

Boeing until recently gave a range for the 787-9 over 8600nm up to 8800nm and the 787-8 a few hundred miles less. This was widely quoted and many predicted the 787 would open up new routes, LHR - west Autralia, US East coast - Asia etc.

http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2006/q2/060425a_nr.html (http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2006/q2/060425a_nr.html)
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/787-9prod.html (http://www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/787-9prod.html)

I'm increasingly seeing rumors saying the range is far below 8000nm with the given typical passenger loads due to higher then expected / hoped empty weight and other short falls..

The majority of 787 sales would have been concluded before the range shortfall became evident.

Now over 8000nm missions are few, but flights without cargo are also few. The usefull range with reasonable passenger and cargo loads would go down also and we are talking 5000nm flights here..

Boeing seems to be keeping tight lipped on this. Is there any info available on adjusted 787-8 and 787-9 ranges, e.g. recent official payload range diagrams? Boeing left them out of the most recent 787 Airplane Characteristics for Airport Planning (http://www.boeing.com/commercial/airports/acaps/787sec3.pdf), now it's empty pages : http://www.boeing.com/commercial/airports/acaps/787sec3.pdf (http://www.boeing.com/commercial/airports/acaps/787sec3.pdf)

Is there a specification shortfall? If so, I´m highly surprized there has been no media attention, or did I miss something?

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/photos/photos/6/4/5/1233546.jpg

[Flight Safety]

Maybe Boeing wants to update the documents from predicted data to actual flight test data (as soon as it's available).

[mutt]

We had the sales team here, i was surprised that the -800/-900 couldnt operate routes that are now operated by a low weight 777-200. It certainly wont allow us to start some of the routes that it was initially desired for.

Guess its back to Toulouse :):)

Mutt

[Torquelink]

Boeing website 17/01/2007: 787-8 range: 8,000 - 8,500 nm, 787-9: 8,600 - 8,800nm.

Boeing website 19/12/2007: 787-8 range: 7,650 - 8,200 nm, 787-9: 8,000 - 8,500 nm.

Seems to have lost 300 - 600 nm in range somewhere. . . oops :O

[FullWings]

Maybe the sales team got carried away first time round and quoted the range-to-empty with a glide-out at the end?