Rolls Royce 'powers' Boeing

Already more than two years behind its delivery schedule and Boeing has yet again announced its 787 Dreamliner will be further delayed until mid-February.

In an official statement, Boeing said the postponement, the latest in a string of delays, stems from Rolls-Royce Group's inability to supply an engine for flight tests.

"The delivery date revision follows an assessment of the availability of an engine needed for the final phases of flight test this fall," the statement read.

"While Boeing works closely with Rolls-Royce to expedite engine availability, flight testing across the test fleet continues as planned."

Last month Boeing had estimated the first delivery of the 787 Dreamliner, while beleaguered by a series of issues, would take place in the first few weeks of 2011.

The date was pushed further back due to "a delay in engine availability".

Neither Boeing nor Rolls-Royce commented on speculation that the delay was due to the "uncontained failure" of a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 test engine while on a ground-test earlier this month, Bloomberg reported.

Due to the delay, Kenya Airways might have to cancel its Boeing order for nine 787s and buy Airbus A330s instead, Kenya Airways Chief Executive Titus Naikuni told Air Transport World.