Resumption of 787 test flights...my take

Boeing is expected to announce the resumption of 787 test flights but Susanna Ray at Bloomberg is reporting that these are only company test flights and not FAA certification test flights. There is no information on when certification test flights with FAA personnel aboard will resume.

Boeing, in my opinion got FAA approval, to resume test flights with Boeing personnel in order to collect data on the fixes that needed to be made in light of the November 9th fire on ZA002. Boeing has to prove out the hardware and software changes in order to give the FAA satisfaction that there won't be a recurrence of the problems that lead to the fire and the resulting loss of power which necessitated the deployment of the RAT (Ram Air Turbine) to provide power to critical systems while the aircraft was landing in Laredo. Once Boeing has collected the data analyzed it and presented it, then the resumption of Certification test flights will hinge on if the FAA has comfort in Boeing's analysis.