Boeing chief under pressure to fix 'black eye" from Dreamliner incident The head of America's largest aerospace company will be pressed on Wednesday by shareholders anxious to learn how long it will take, and how much it will cost, to get the company's flagship plane flying again. US regulators" decision earlier this month to ground the 787 after two battery fires will overshadow this week's fourth-quarter results, which are expected to show profits declining 10pc to $900 (£570m). "There is pressure to restore the company's commercial lustre," said Rick Whittington, an analyst at Drexel Hamilton. This is a real black eye. The grounding of 50 Dreamliners currently in service is one of three headaches confronting Mr McNerney, who has led Boeing since 2005. More than 20,000 of Boeing's engineers may strike next month, while sweeping cuts to the US defence budget are expected to be finalised by Congress in March. However, it is the 787 that presents the Boeing chief executive and the rest of the board with the most pressing problem. Boeing has invested more than $20bn in developing the 787, touting it as the future of aviation because of the new materials used to design a plane that is more fuel efficient than rivals. Amerca's National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating why a lithium-ion battery on a 787 sitting at Boston Airport burst into flames on January 7, raised the prospect of a lengthy investigation last week after admitting it is no closer to understanding why the incident happened. Japanese regulators are investigating a similar incident that occurred on January 16 on a 787 operated by All Nippon Airways. While industry experts say that all new aircraft experience teething problems, anxiety over when the planes will be able to fly again is growing.