To put that number in perspective, recall the huge engineering effort necessary, not to mention the flight test program needed to get a commercial airline EIS c

To put that number in perspective, recall the huge engineering effort necessary, not to mention the flight test program needed to get a commercial airline EIS certification. The 787 was designed for 44,000 takeoff/landings [1], with mere minutes turn around time, while carrying 400+ people in comfort. Add to that target 99% dispatch availability (i.e. does not break down). To do that, you've got to think hard about every single nut and bolt and how that bolt will break in 30 years, and how hard it will be to detect the broken bolt, and how cheaply the bolt can be replaced (easy wrench access, need to pull out seats?). Extrapolate that to the millions of parts in the airframe. Add to that Billions for production tooling for mass production. Remember, 495 Boeing 737 were build last year[2]. That's one finished plane every 16 hours. [1] http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/boeing-begins-analysis-787-fatigue-tests http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/boeing-begins-an... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737#Total_production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737#Total_production