Plastic plane pain

It's a fine idea that as well as lowering the impact on the environment of air travel, would help cut costs for an airline industry in a bit of a financial pickle at the moment.

But even the brightest notions can be extinguished.

Back in 2008 Boeing found the section where the wings attached to the body was not strong enough and had to use metal girders to solve the problem - putting back the plane's first flight by 18 months.

Now things have got even worse.

Further stress tests have stumbled across another 18 weak spots which need to be reinforced by alumunium.

The plane was set to be up in the air next spring but now the company doesn't seem to know when it will take-off.

You'd think the designers would be for the chop but in their defence it has proved to very difficult to predict how composites react in such a large structure.

We should be grateful they decided to test the aircraft out before seeing the wings drop off their baby on her maiden flight.

The 787 has a long history and was once called 7E7 and boasted a much more radical design as shown below.

The two-year delay of the Dreamliner has seen many airlines backing out of orders to go with Boeing's arch rival Airbus, who have been busily working on their own plastic plane - the A350 - which is expected to arrive in 2013.

Weird Science Factoid: Apple seeds are poisonous. They contain cyanide - and that's why you should leave the core alone.

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