I noticed that in your picture at the top of the page, you are no longer wearing glasses. Sporting contacts now? Lasik? Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see the 787 fly!

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Hi Mark,

You have a good eye. No pun intended. Yes we've just refreshed our banner at the top of the Journal. I hope you like it.

I'm sporting a type of contacts called monovision.

I've been wearing glasses since grade school and contact lenses since I turned a teenager. Over the last few years and as I've gotten a bit older, my reading vision has gone down hill - especially with my contacts in.

Well, the last few months, I've changed both my contacts and glasses and both are working great. So I split time between the two. I thought the "without" glasses photo might be nice for a change.

-- Randy Tinseth

Does Boeing have an guesstimate of how long they expect the repairs to take?

@mark
you had beaten me to the bell on noticing the change in Randy's profile pix.

Randy is probably showing his age due to the stresses that he has imposed on himself. Aircraft sales remain in the *dumps* this year, in trickling volumes. That smile of his is almost kinda imposed.

The lasik, the dyed hair, his probably sparkling teeth devoid of coffee / cigar / wine accumulated stains, maybe even a tuck-in here and there to refresh his look.

And as Veep of Marketing, he is the face of Boeing to many. He needs the million dollar look to compliment the millions of dollars worth in an aircraft that he contributes to selling.

@Randy
No offense above. Just merely speculative musings.

The appearance of the modification work in a temporary structure or in the Paint shop seems to indicate that a specialized production line is not required.

It also gives the impression that this is a simpler task than if it were surrounded by a lot of workers, machinery and planes.

Is this an accurate take on these choice locations? I remember one Boeing Executive saying it could be repaired "in situ". This is pretty close to that!

Snazzy looking structure is right. That structure doesn't look like any hangar structure I have seen before. Can't see any vertical or horizontal bracing and no rigid joints at the eve level. Is that a temporary structure? And where is it located?

That structure looks like a tent, or an open-ended pole barn. Is it planned for use with other planes as well?

Was the tent made specifically sized for the 787. It sure fits it well.

Sure hope that the "side of body" mod. is all it takes to change it from a full scale model airplane to an airplane.

Will the modifications affect anything other than weight?

The hanger looks somewhat like a hanger designed by the General Steel company. I remember seeing commercials some years ago from General Steel that showed structures that had the same design as seen here. I like it though.

Why do the 787s have serial numbers beginning with ZA?
To my knowledge Boeing has never done this before.