(Kevin P. Casey/Bloomberg)

Associated Press | Boeing Co. is putting its new 787 through an aggressive flight-testing
schedule, with the fourth plane set to begin test flights on Sunday.

Boeing is aiming to deliver the plane to its first customer by the end
of this year. By midyear it is aiming to fly six planes a total of 90
hours per week, Jim Albaugh, chief executive of Boeing’s commercial
airplane division, told analysts on Tuesday.

Albaugh said the testing so far has included more than 100 stalls, some
practice with an engine off, and a dive that brought it to Mach .97,
close to the speed of sound.

He said the testing program got off to a slow start after the plane first flew in December. But there’s one month to six weeks extra built into the testing schedule in case of other delays, he said.

Boeing also plans to do more testing on each flight.

By the end of March it expects to have the government approval it needs to bring engineers and officials from the Federal Aviation Administration on the test flights, he said.

“Everybody felt very euphoric over the first flight, and it did retire a significant amount of technical risk,” he said, “but we’ve got a very aggressive flight test program in front of us.”

Boeing needs to produce 787s faster than it has any other large plane. Albaugh said its peak for large plane production was 92 of its then-new 747 in 1970. By 2013 it hopes to make 120 787s per year, or 10 per month. Right now Boeing is making two per month, and should be up to two-and-a-half by August, Albaugh said.

Boeing’s workhorse, the 737, faces increased competition. Right now Boeing basically has a duopoly with Airbus for planes that seat 126 to 149 people. But Bombardier, which mostly makes smaller jets, is developing a new plane called the CS300 which will seat 138 people as configured by Republic Airways in an order last month. That’s comparable to the 737.

Albaugh said Boeing is thinking about putting a new engine on the 737 to make it competitive with newer planes. He said he expects a decision on that near the end of the year.

Albaugh also said airline traffic is beginning to improve. “We think we’ll see the airlines come back into the market in 2012,” he said.

Boeing shares rose 96 cents to $68.20 in afternoon trading.