Something I've wanted to mention to you guys back in Oz for a while during the board outage ..... I can't see power on being as currently anticipated. I was up at PAE the other day and saw the first three frames. There is a lot of work yet to be done, pieces lying all around the aircraft, and at the time I was there not a whole lot of people working on it (could have been shift change and it was a FRI). The factory floor is a sight to be seen. Unlike the conventional factory floor with a couple of small stations I would estimate around 500 small cubicles and stations each with a laptop or desktop and hundreds of employees working out in the open. There were panels missing, cowlings off, and the paint looked a little sad after its roll out ceremony. The second and third frames on the line (non-airworthy test) looked in better shape and seemed to have more attention on them.
Looks can be deceiving and I'm sure another update from Boeing (read possible delay) may be around the corner.
I wouldn't put much emphasis on 'changing the design/specs' articles as it's well known they are trying to reduce weight issues and that also falls under this category.
Scott.
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