I work for Boeing and I happen to work on the 787 currently. I am not on the design team even though I am a structures designer. As has been noted, the 787 concept is truly ground breaking in many ways. There is an unspeakable amount of engineering that is involved in a project like this, mind boggling actually, with some very talented people involved. I happen to be extremely confident in our ability to get the airplanes delivered, but not until they are safe and ready, completely, for passenger operations. If the original schedule had been pushed further out, we probably would have extended beyond that as well. In my years of experience, tight schedules are a good thing, as it will keep the work focused and driven. And as Pcad noted, we have a HUGE backorder of airplanes. Our customers know us as one of the most capable and experienced engineering and manufacturing outfits in the entire world. I am looking forward to the delivery of our 1st 787 and watching the stock take off.
As a side note, the (small) fire that occurred on one of our test airplanes is regarded as a good thing ironically. It helped us find something that was obviously an issue and it proved the functionality of the emergency equipment in an uncontrolled environment. Blessed are the failures, as we learn 10x more that we do from success.