According to an article by Guy Norris in Aviation Week, the gear box issue is holding up deliveries of the Trent 1000 powered aircraft as Boeing needs replacement gear boxes from Hamilton Sundstrand. There are numerous 787s on the Boeing flightline waiting to be delivered. Of the 9 airplanes that I have listed as in final preps for delivery at Everett, 5 are equipped with the Trent 1000 engine. According to Guy Norris' report, 17 Trents in total are affected by the gear box issue of which nine are on undelivered 787s that are earmarked for ANA. Boeing and Rolls Royce are waiting for replacement gear boxes from Hamilton Sundstrand. Of the other 4 787s at Everett/Ft. Worth that are waiting to be delivered, one is in paint (ZA262), one for JAL (ZA182) just emerge from the paint hangar and will robably start pre-flight work soon, the one for Qatar Airways is still finishing up interior IFE work (ZA461) and another 787 that just appeared at the Boeing fuel dock, looks to be United Airlines first 787 (ZA288) and still has to go through painting before moving on the pre-flight. All these are equipped with the GEnx engines.
So it appears the bottleneck may be with the gear box issue with the Trent 1000 engines as each of the 5 Trent 1000 aircraft are all at different point in the pre-flight timeline. Each aircraft has to wait it turn while the aircraft that is further along must clear each pre-flight milestone before the B-1 flight.
In the meantime, the Trent 1000 gear box issue is likely a minor problem that affects a very small portion of the 787s in service but it's an issue that has attracted significant attention because it is the 787.
Lastly, LAN says it is expected to take delivery of its first 787 (ZA536) in late August or early September.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
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12 comments:
Thanks for the update. Maybe im missing something here. If its only affecting the Trent 1000, how come the GEnx are not flying ie Qatar or have they and I just dont know or do they have to wait in the que and not jump ahead? Or are they still doing work on them?
Again the GEnx powered airplanes are at a different point in the cycle. The Qatar airplane has alrady flown, many times, and is currently having some IFE equipment being installed. The JAL aircraft has just coe out of paint and is going to take its place in the pre-delivery line, The Ethiopian plane is still in Ft. Worth getting painted and has already flown. The United 787 just came out of change incorporation and still has to go through paint and other pre-flight testing before first flight. It's all in there in my post.
I guess the four 787's in Charleston are held up to legal reasons.
By legal you mean the GoI review of the compensation agreement then yes. Hopefully it'll be done by the end of next week.
The delay is not the gearbox only it is the slow production of Trent1000B engines from RR. I dont know if it is the same shortage of GE engines.
It is really a shortage of RR engines hampering deliveries what I could read. Good thing the 787 has two engine options.
We might see GE engined frames deliver faster going forward.
Quote from the articel:
"Boeing, meanwhile, says, “We don’t expect the timing of any deliveries to be affected by this. If there are any customers who may be affected within the year, we will work with them privately.”
R-R adds that the overall slowdown in the rate of 787 deliveries to
ANA “is a separate issue” to the gearbox problem. The delivery rate issue is more concerned with the company’s slower-than-anticipated production ramp-up of Trent 1000 Package B standard engines, which replaced the earlier Package A version on the initial delivery aircraft, he adds."
Al the planes have engines on the wings so the production of the trent engines can't be the reason that de delivery rate has gone down right?
It's availability of the replacement gear boxes according to the AvWrrk article that is pacing the deliveries. All the ready to deliver '87s on the Flightline have engines on them so lack of engines is not slowing down the deliveries of Dreamliners that are in pre-flight.
Again there are 5 Trent powered '87s that have engines on them so a slowdown in engine deliveries is not preventing their test flights and pre-delivery activities, it's the lack of replacement gear boxes. It says so in Guy's article.
No i says just the opposite that is why i asked:P:
R-R adds that the overall slowdown in the rate of 787 deliveries to
ANA “is a separate issue” to the gearbox problem. The delivery rate issue is more concerned with the company’s slower-than-anticipated production ramp-up of Trent 1000 Package B standard engines, which replaced the earlier Package A version on the initial delivery aircraft, he adds."
but on the air india front there is finally a bit of progress:
http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1343220858.html
But not there yet.
A 787 flight plan has been filed for Wednesday, July 25 morning from Ft.Worth to KPAE. Must be the Ethiopian.
Flight plan has been filed for a 787 from Ft.Worth to KPAE Wednesday morning July 25. Must be the Ethiopian.
Ok so LN7 will have its B1 today, any chance to se any of the LN66-LN70 deliver in august?
It would be agood thing IMO to see one of the EMC free birds fly soon.
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