2nd JAL 787 suffers another incident, NTSB releases 787 fire preliminary findings

Another eventful day for Boeing and the 787.  In a surreal twist from yesterday's events, another JAL 787 in Boston experienced a fuel leak mishap as it was taxiing to the departure runaway for the return flight to Tokyo.  According to news reports, the aircraft leaked about 40 gallons of fuel by the time it returned to the terminal.  Maintenance crews inspected the aircraft and JAL 007 then departed at around 4pm for Tokyo after a delay of 4 hours.

The aircraft from yesterday's incident (ZA183) is still in Boston as the NTSB assigned two more investigators to team looking into the event from yesterday.  The team said that the lithium ion battery fire did cause extensive damage in the battery pack area and the damage was confined to no more than 20 inches away from the source.  These batteries are used to start the APU.  Boeing in a separate statement that this incident is not related to the other electrical issues that the 787 has faced.

However, Jon Ostrower reported that United Airlines, while inspecting the lithium ion batteries in one of their 787s, found that the wiring to the batteries were incorrectly connected.  This does not mean that the same condition existed in ZA183 or caused the fire but it may it disturbing nonetheless and would be looked into as a possible cause of the fire by the NTSB.  The battery fire may be a design issue with the battery, a one off manufacturing flaw, or incorrect installation or maintenance of the battery among the many root causes that the investigators have to examine. Despite the two incidents in two days, 787s are still in use by customers around the world and Boeing flew ZA430 (LN 73, B-2728) flew a function check flight. Though Boeing is still working with Chinese regulators to certify the 787 for use by that country's airlines.  China Southern is still expecting it's first 787 in March though it is unknown if the fire will set back those plans.

Flightblogger: ZA001 has APU start!

Jon Ostrower is reporting that Everett area photographer Matt Cawby has gotten pictures of Dreamliner 1's APU stat. If so this is another major milestone taken on the road to first flight.

ZA001 APU start.

Matt Cawby's report

Guy Norris: Fueling test to start very early Friday Morning (May 8)

According to Guy Norris, Boeing engineers will start the fuel pad tests, which were delayed from early this week, during the wee early hours of Friday (around 1am local time). If successfully completed the tests will pave the way for APU and engine run tests prior to the start of the intermediate gauntlet. Boeing had hoped to have started the intermediate gauntlet by now but I think it will be pushed to late next week.

Also Guy has reported that the ITV is getting quite a workout by the Boeing test flight team preparing for first flight of ZA001 and the test to be undertaken by the crew of ZA006.

Guy's Road to Flight First part 12

The Road Ahead

Now that the 787 is out on the flightline ready for fueling test, what is the road ahead for the 787 and first flight. I talked to a leading industry journalist and we speculated as to what is ahead and how long it will take to get through the tests. All this assumes that the 787 passes each test and gauntlet. This is a best case scenario and there is a good chance that this scenario is too good to be true.

We all know that fueling tests should occur later this week, perhaps by Tuesday, May 5th (Happy Cinqo de Mayo). Assuming that there are no issues with the fueling and calibration tests, the 787 should be ready for APU and engine run up tests to take place possibly sometime between May 6th and May 8th. This will lead to intermediate gauntlet testing, possibly as early as this weekend (May 9th or 10th). Lastly, final gauntlet could take place by around mid May which would take a little bit more than a week which would lead to taxi and braking tests around late May and first flight soon thereafter.

Please be reminded this is all speculative and all this assumes no show stoppers or need for retests. Is it possible, yes but as we saw with the landing gear swing tests, there is plenty of potential for glitches or unknown unknowns to show up.

Major 787 Update

With Boeing briefing the media over the last couple of days regarding the 787, there has been a lot of information coming out of Everett.

First Jon Ostrower got an amazing amount of pictures especially of Dreamliner 1 in the paint hanger at Everett. Check out his Flickr page here and scroll through photos he took this past week which includes the 747-8 final assembly as well as the 787.

Also there is a nice video from the Seattle Times of the 787:

Now on to the meat. Dreamliner 1 is still in the paint hanger after having it's fuel tanks under go the aqueous wash to remove the dirt and debris. Technicians are now installing the final test flight instrumentation and wiring as well as closing up access panels they needed to remove in order to wash the tanks.

During the day today (Friday, May 1st) Boeing will rerun electrical systems tests to make sure the glitch that showed up last weekend doesn't reoccur. All this work is expected to be completed today.

It is expected that Dreamliner 1 will be towed to the fuel dock just outside the paint hanger on Saturday where the fuel loading instrumentation will be tested and calibrated and the first load of fuel is pumped into the 787s three large tanks (one in each wing and one in the center wing box).

Soon after the fueling, Boeing will start up the APU and the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines for the first time and kicking off the intermediate gauntlet. The intermediate gauntlet should kick off sometime next week. Part of the intermediate gauntlet testing is to replicate the factory gauntlet tests but instead of being hooked up to an external power cart power will be provided by the 787's engines and APU. This will be key test to make sure that the 787 will be able to generate all the power it needs for flight.

Meanwhile work is continuing on the other 5 test flight airplanes with Dreamliner 2 finishing up ground vibration tests yesterday. One person there told me that Dreamliner 2 looks fantastic. Dreamliner 3 still needs some work and the engines have yet to put on Dreamliner 4 through 6 and are still in varying stages of work. It is expected that Dreamliner 2 will be flying within three weeks of Dreamliner 1 though it is not known yet when the other 4 test flight airplanes will be ready to fly or in what order.

As far as intangibles, people I've talked to feel that there is a huge amount of optimism at Everett with the 787. One very knowledgeable industry watcher told me:

"Yes, there’s an optimism there I haven’t seen since 777 days again – no
doubt about it. Now they’ve started to discover the 787’s “little ways” (ie –
how different it is to test an aircraft with fully-integrated avionics/systems),
I think they’re feeling a lot better."

There are several sources for all this information so here are the link and enjoy the very informative read:

Guy Norris' 8th report

Guy Norris' 9th report

Flightblogger report

Seattle Times Report

Airwise Report

Seattle Post Intelligencer

Flightblogger: Factory gauntlet begins at 6:30AM PT on April 20th

UPDATE (April 20, 2009, 3:16PM): Boeing has confirmed to Flightblogger that the factory gauntlet has indeed started and should finish by tomorrow morning. An external computer has been hooked up to Dreamliner 1 to test how the airplane "flies." Read Jon's post here.


According to Jon Ostrower, ZA001 will start the first of three gauntlet tests this morning at around 6:30 AM PT. It is expected that this gauntlet should be done by early morning on April 21st thus paving the way for ZA001 to be moved to the flightline.

Jon also confirmed that the flight test wiring is mostly connected and all the external panels have been reinstalled.

Boeing is also getting an accurate measurement of the 787 OEW (operating empty weight) by removing the ballast and weighing the aircraft. It's not known what the result was but it is widely expected to be over the contractual weight.

Jon also reported that the rear fuselage section that was just delivered for ZA100 (Dreamliner 7) was 96% complete. Read Jon's post here.

As I reported on this blog earlier, it is expected that all traveled work in the 787 program will be eliminated starting with Dreamliner 8 (ZA101).

Lastly, Matt Cawby on his photoblog reported that Dreamliner 1 completed engine and APU fire protection systems tests in both the ground and air modes. See Matt's posting here.

Flightblogger: Remaining Milestones until First Flight

UPDATE: I got this description from Boeing:

Gauntlet tests in general are focused on integrated system integrity and functionality (hardware and software). The purpose of the factory gauntlet is to test most of the airplanes systems (not the engines or the APU) integrated on the airplane in a simulated flying environment. The intermediate and final gauntlet tests are more thorough and include engines and the APU. The engines will be run at various power settings during gauntlet testing. However, the pre-flight engine testing is a separate activity. We have not assigned specific time periods for these tests.

Jon Ostrower posted an article regarding the remaining series of tests and checkouts to be done before first flight of the 787. Jon cautions that it may not be a complete guide to the remaining work but it does give us an idea of the work yet to be done.

In short the remaining testing will utilize the static test frame (ZY997), Dreamliner 1 (ZA001) and Dreamliner 2 (ZA002).

Please read Jon's post here. I've summarize some of the salient points below.

Two of the required three static load tests have been completed on the static test frame. Te remaining test to be done is the wing load limit test.

Ground Vibration Test is to be performed on ZA002. This airplane will be towed to building 40-24 where this test will be undertaken. So far my estimate is that it will take place in the latter half of April assuming that Dreamliner 1 conducts factory gauntlet inside 40-24 on April 10th and is then towed out to the flightline on April 13th from building 40-24.

Gauntlet Testing - first is factory gauntlet which takes place indoors (presumably in 40-24) where the aircraft is getting power from an external cart and batteries. Most of the systems are powered and tested but not all. The APU and engines are not turned on here. The second is the intermediate gauntlet which takes place out on the flightline. Here the APU and the engines are started for the first time and some of the systems are run on internal power for the first time. The aircraft is fueled up for the first time here. Lastly the final gauntlet is where the aircraft systems are powered for eight days straight and put through simulations to test the software.

Final testing will comprise of three phases. First is the Hot Test where the engines are run up to 100%. There will also be engines runs at different power settings. Second is the slow and medium speed taxi tests. Lastly there will be the high speed taxi test followed by first flight.

I don't have dates yet but the last I heard is that factory gauntlet testing should start on April 10th followed by the move outside on April 13th. We'll see if this schedule keeps.