I personally would like to think that the Boeing engineers had already thought these problems through with regard to fuselage integrity and the survivability of the aircraft to remain intact and airworthy if a fire took place in flight
As an retired Boeing Engineer I would like to agree with you, but sadly, few such engineers/techs had much to say about such design issues. In the name of cost savings, reduced research, and bucu outsourcing, the majority of those type of decisions were tempered by the faster- cheaper method. Thus we had the fubar non testing of batteries ( driving a nail thru one cell for example ), few system tests of an all up system, etc. NOT that those in charge deliberately looked the other way, but instead the working grunts either bailed out when able, or put self survivablity above pressing an unpopular with top brass questions or issues. Power point rangers rule the roost- thus we had the
PR team insist on rollout of an empty shell just to make a nice
pr date of 7-8-7.
Consider that the 747 was designed, built, flew, and a new factory was built in less time than the delays on the 787.
