Sunday, June 15, 2008

787 Dates to Watch For

Hi all fellow 787 watchers (if there is such a thing). Well a liitle while after watching Tiger make a run for the US Open title (I'll be watch the playoff tomorrow...should be real exciting), I heard of a few dates concerning the 787 program and a few milestones to watch out for now that power on has started:

6/19 - ZY998 will move from building 40-26 to 40-24 (the 767 line) and at the same time LN 2 will move up one spot in 40-26 to position 3 and LN 3 will move to position 2. Because:

6/20 - Final assembly will start on LN 4. We do know from Jon Ostrower's report that section 41 for this airplane will arrive on 6/19. Presumably the main fuselage section will arrive on or before the 19th as well.

7/20 - ZY998 will move to the fatigue tes tare for the start of the 3 year long fatigue tests. At the same time LN 1 will move out of building 40-26 and into building 40-24. My guess for the move to 40-24 is to finish up small items do more power on testing and pre ground test testing (testing flying surfaces, landing gear retractions, etc) while still making room for LN 5. This may mark the last time this airplane in on the 787 final assembly line. ZA001 being moved out of 40-26 will make room for ZA 005 the first Dreamliner to be fitted with the GEnx engines.

7/21 - ZA005 (LN 5) will start final assembly in position one and LN 2, LN 3 and LN 4 will be moved up one position respectively.

9/6 - ZA001 will be considered "shop complete" and moved out to the flight line for the start of ground tests.

Late October 2008 - First flight of ZA001, the first 787.

These are further milestones to look at in order to judge Boeing's success with the revised program schedule.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When do plane's own engines start to supply power during power-on process? Can this be done inside the hangar or is it accomplished outdoors? I would suppose that engine-power is supplied toward end of process.

Uresh said...

Reply:

Well From what I understnad the engines are not on yet and power is being supplied by the power supply units built by Hamilton Sundstrand. They also don't have hte Safety of Flight software in Dreamliner 1 yet which would allow the use of all systmes on the airplane including the engines. The process you're talking about is powering on the engines for the first time and that probably won't happen until the airplane is outside on the flight line (which will be around September). They can't turn those engines on while inside the hanger.