Plane maker can’t deliver enough 787 Dreamliners after sanctions disrupted production of heat exchangers
 
Boeing has more parts trouble, but this time it doesn’t stem from manufacturing snafus or the 737 jet. The blame goes to Russia sanctions still rippling through the jet maker’s supply chain.

In the opening days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a maker of a temperature-regulating part for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner ceased its Russian operations and shifted production west. At the time, Boeing was building so few of the jets that the supplier, RTX RTX 0.05%increase; green up pointing triangle, was able to keep up with demand.

But now the jet maker is trying to increase production of the wide-bodies, and RTX’s new factory lines in the U.S. and U.K. aren’t making enough.

“When the invasion happened, it got moved, and the capacity of that supplier has not kept pace with us,” Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said this past month. 

In a demonstration of how relatively simple glitches can reverberate through a global supply chain, Boeing’s inability to secure enough heat exchangers, a critical but relatively basic part akin to a radiator, in part led it to warn investors that it won’t deliver as many of the Dreamliner jets as anticipated this year.

The slowdown will sap the company’s already strained cash flow, with fallout extending to airlines and the flying public. 

American Airlines last week blamed Dreamliner delays in announcing moves to trim some international and long-haul routes this year and next. The airline, while not ending service to any destinations, will cut back on fall and winter flights on certain routes to Europe, South America and Hawaii and is ending some summer seasonal routes earlier than planned.

Heat exchangers pull in cool air from the outside to prevent overheating. Each plane has several, which are used on a number of systems. The heat exchangers affected by the shortage help regulate the temperature of electronics on the plane, and for its environmental control system, which runs air conditioning and cabin pressurization. Jet engines also rely on heat exchangers, but those components aren’t affected by the delays.  

Excerpt from WSJ
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