Tuesday, April 20, 2010

ZA001 to ZA004, what's happening

The 787 test flight fleet seems to be taking a break from flying...at least a few of the airplanes.

ZA001 - is in a pre-certification layup where it is also getting the Wedge 5.5 software upgrade which is already loaded on ZA004 and ZA002. So far it is not scheduled for any flights in the next three weeks.

ZA002 - also in a lay up but I'm not sure for what.

ZA003 - is curently being frozen into an ice cube in warm and sunny Florida.

ZA004 - will continue flying though I'm not sure when it is scheduled to go up next.

Still no word on the TIA though I'm hearing a rumor that it will issued this week.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

TIA this week? We've been hearing that for over a month...still, I hope it's true and there isn;t an underlying problem to the slow pace of flight testing..

Uresh said...

Like I said...it's a rumor. Boeing says soon.

Gianfranco said...

"Slow pace".... they don't even fly anymore !!! I don't understand what they do (or what they hide.....)

Uresh said...

There are going to be periods of lay ups for the airplanes so they can perform extended maintenance and/or upgrades. For example, later in the program ZA004 will be switching out it current Rolls Royce Trent 1000 package "A" engines for the improved package "B" engines which would need to be ground tested before taken airborne by ZA004. ZA001 is going through a software upgrade becasue when the certification flights start it wold need to be with the service ready software package loaded.