Factors Influencing Time and Cost Overruns in Aircraft Projects

by Jörg Bellmann, Andreas Knorr and Rahel Schomaker

All recent major civil as well as military aircraft projects – A380, B787, A400M – have suffered from massive cost overruns and substantial entry-in-service delays of at least two years. In our paper, we intend to overview the press coverage of the aircraft programs of Boeing’s new long-haul wide-body model, the 787 Dreamliner, and the military transport aircraft A400M, designed by European manufacturer Airbus. Using causal mapping, based on a content analysis, we summarize the project events reported in the press that triggered off the chains of causality, which inevitably led to cost overruns and time delays.

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