INSTANT VIEW-Regulators say Boeing 787 is safe but needs review

Jan 11 (Reuters) - U.S. aviation regulators will launch

a comprehensive review of the Boeing 787 airplane, with a special focus on its electrical systems, following a series of recent safety incidents, the new head of the Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday.

"We believe this is a safe aircraft," Michael Huerta said at a press conference with officials including U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Boeing commercial airplanes chief Ray Conner.

Conner said the issues were not caused by outsourcing production or ramping up production too quickly.

Following are initial reactions of analysts and investors:

RUSSELL SOLOMON, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MOODY'S INVSTORS SERVICE, NEW YORK:

"There hasn't been a new airframe certification of this scale for quite some time."

"We're not expecting any major design changes or any significant financial impediments upon the company and as such we don't think it will affect the company's credit profile."

"Clearly (the investigation is) not a positive development but again, we don't think it's anything out of the ordinary. This is a very novel airframe that's been constructed and so you would naturally be inclined to think that there may be some new issues that would pop up. Unfortunately a lot of them are electrically related and they've happened in a fairly short timeframe."

"From our perspective, they are performing largely in accordance with the overall expectations of the company."

(Reporting By Karen Jacobs in Atlanta; Editing by Patricia Kranz)