????將飛機制造業務外包已經成為一種行業趨勢。過去幾年里，建造飛機變得更像拼拼圖，而不是由一家公司從無到有進行生產。到了現在，這些拼圖里更是包含著非常復雜的電子元件。咨詢機構蒂爾集團（Teal Group）的副總裁理查德?阿布拉菲亞說：“我最喜歡的例子就是原來做剎車的那幫人，他們現在做的是‘飛機制動管理系統’。”

????各大公司引入了新技術之后，生產飛機變得更加復雜了。聯邦航空管理局負責人邁克爾?赫爾塔在2012年的一次演講中說：“聯邦航空管理局在對787客機進行技術認證的過程中記錄的技術工作時間長達20萬小時。而且我們的運輸飛機理事會（Transport Airplane Directorate）還制定了15項特殊條款——也就是對新設計的監管條款，以解決現有條款無法充分覆蓋的問題。”換句話說，夢想飛機采用的技術太新奇了，以至于飛機一邊研發，監管機構要一邊為它制定法規。

????波音公司的高管一度認為，787客機的研發和生產可以比實際上早一點完成。卡奧指出：“他們知道，提高公司股價最好的方法就是設定目標，然后實現目標。波音設定了一個保守的目標，卻還是沒能實現這個目標。”

????就目前而言，波音787夢想飛機的故障雖然讓許多人感到憤怒，但它們或許還不至于葬送了夢想飛機。每家航空公司都在尋找降低燃油價格風險敞口的辦法，而波音是唯一兩家有能力生產燃油經濟型客機的公司中的一家。除此之外沒人能做到這一點。

????那么，波音現在應該做些什么？摩根大通公司（JP Morgan）1月17日的一份分析報告中寫道：“過去兩周以來，我們認為787客機的電池故障是非常嚴重的問題。但我們相信，最有可能的結果是，波音找到問題根源，修復了故障，問題將在下幾周或最多幾個月內得到徹底解決。”

????目前，全球各地的航空公司已經預訂了800多架夢想飛機。按每架飛機約2億美元計算，它意味著將有大量現金流向波音和它的投資者。作為乘客來講，當他們登上一架拉風的新飛機時，肯定不希望飛機的電池突然冒煙。然而現實情況與此相反，令人不安。波音必須把當前遇到的問題放在大環境下考慮，一勞永逸地解決它。萊維克公司危機公關顧問兼執行副總裁基尼?格拉保斯基說：“他們正處在一個不尋常的局面，因為現在出現了一種不尋常的對于坐飛機的恐懼。正因為有這種不尋常的恐懼，必須要有不尋常的努力去解決這個問題。”

????無論多少光環，也不能掩蓋一架飛機的瑕疵。投資者們最終會忘記飛機下線時間的推遲——只要推遲的時間不長。大多數乘客也會忘記飛機駕駛艙里冒出的煙霧——只要它永遠不會再次發生。

????波音應該能夠安然度過這次危機，除非夢想飛機再次出現故障，或者有人發現它存在重大缺陷。阿布拉菲亞說：“如果燃油價格下降，融資成本上漲，波音才會出現問題。”但現在，各大航空公司需要省油的新飛機，而波音賣的就是這樣的飛機。夢想飛機的面世過程雖然有些混亂，甚至有點嚇人，但它似乎已經是目前市場能提供的最好的飛機了。

????譯者：樸成奎

????Outsourcing construction is an industry trend. Over the years, building an aircraft has become more about assembling a puzzle than building a product from scratch. And those puzzle pieces have complicated digital components, these days. "My favorite example is that the guys who make brakes now do the 'aircraft stop management system,'" says Richard Aboulafia, vice president of consulting firm Teal Group.

????Building a plane becomes even more complicated when companies introduce novel technology. "The FAA logged 200,000 hours of technical work on the 787 type certification," said Federal Aviation Administration administrator Michael Huerta in a 2012 speech touting the Dreamliner. "And our Transport Airplane Directorate developed 15 special conditions -- essentially new design regulations to address innovations that existing rules don't fully cover." In other words, the Dreamliner has features so fancy that regulators had to write rules as the aircraft was being developed.

????Boeing executives thought they could have wrapped up the Dreamliner much sooner. "They know that the best way to increase a share price is to set the targets and hit them," Chao says. "And they set those conservatively, and they still can't hit them."

????As of now, those misses have ticked people off, but they probably haven't sunk the Dreamliner. Every airline is looking for ways to decrease exposure to unpredictable fuel prices, and Boeing is one of the two companies that can make new fuel-efficient commercial models. No one else can do it.

????What should Boeing do now? "We take the battery failures on the 787 over the past two weeks very seriously," says a January 17 JP Morgan analyst report. "But we believe the most likely outcome is that Boeing identifies and fixes the problem and we move past this issue over the next several weeks or months at most."

????Airlines all over the world have collectively ordered more than 800 Dreamliners. At roughly $200 million per plane, that's a lot of potential cash coming to Boeing and its investors.

????Passengers, reasonably, expect that when they board a cool new plane the battery will not combust. Evidence to the contrary is unnerving. Boeing needs to put its current problems in context and then fix them for good. "They're in an unusual, if not unique, position because there's an inordinate fear of flying," says Gene Grabowski, crisis communications consultant and executive vice president at Levick. "Because there's an inordinate fear, there has to be an inordinate effort to put things into context."

????No amount of gloss will cover a defective plane. But investors will forgive a rollout delay, if it's short, and (most) passengers will forgive smoke in the cockpit if it never happens again.

????Barring another glitch or the discovery that the Dreamliners are fundamentally flawed, Boeing should be fine. "If fuel prices drop and financing costs rise, then you've got trouble," says Aboulafia. But for now, buyers want new fuel-efficient planes and Boeing has them. Releasing the Dreamliner has been a messy, clunky, and sometimes terrifying process. But it looks like it's the best the market can provide.