787 Traveled Work: How much time is needed?

The issues in Charleston has forced Boeing to carve out more time to prepare the 787s currently coming out of final assembly.  Thus far it is unclear how much more time is needed to finish all the traveled work in this posting I'll try to take a stab at determining how much more time is needed.

Usually, Boeing send the aircraft straight from final assembly to the paint hangar with perhaps a couple of days outside.  With the current situation, Boeing is now sending airplanes directly to the EMC to finish assembly activities before they are painted. 

Using my data along with Matt Cawby's Tweets of 787 movements out of the paint hangar, I was able to get an idea of time from roll out from final assembly through painting.  Matt Cawby has been tweeting when 787s exit final assembly as well as when they come out of the paint hangar.  For the last few 787s I've created a table that explores the additional time that is needed to finish these aircraft.  I am assuming that when the aircraft is transferred from the EMC (Everett Modification Center) to the flightline or the paint hangar, that it is completed all necessary travelled work and is now resuming the normal production sequence to prepare it for first flight and eventual delivery to the customer.



According to the data, the average time between roll out of the aircraft fro final assembly to the time it is taken out of the paint hangar or is observed on the flightline is about 15 days. Painting itself would take anywhere from 4 to 7 days depending on the complexity of the scheme being applied and the customer's satisfaction with the paint job. 

Using these assumptions along with observed data, it is reasonable to assume that the aircraft spends anywhere from 10 to 12 days at the EMC to finish off the traveled work resulting from the problems at Charleston.  I do expect that this should go down as the number of contracted workers increase and reduce the number of jobs over the next few months.

The most interesting question is will Boeing need to hire these contracted employees on a permanent basis in South Carolina in order to stay at rate (not to mention to assist when they increase to 12 and eventually 14 aircraft per month)?  If so, one has to wonder what this would cost Boeing and the 787 program in terms of profitability.

Хоккей pic.twitter.com/h3OgFC9yg8
— Йополис (@YopolisNews) February 19, 2014

Czarina Putin contemplating the effect of traveled work on the 787 program.

Another correction, JAL took delivery of the 100th Dreamliner (seriously this time)

There has been plenty of confusion as to who received the 100th Dreamliner but thanks to Greg, an eagle eyed reader of this blog we might be able to finally declare who the winner is:

Japan Airlines received the 100th 787.  It was ZA175 (LN 20, JA821J)

this aircraft was seen by Matt Cawby at the Everett Delivery Center on Nov. 5th and a Flightwaware alert popped up showing that this aircraft was to leave that evening for Tokyo.  The aircraft never left and was ultimately towed back to the flightline at Everett.

Since then Hainan Airlines took delivery of a 787, ZA434 (LN 85, B-2730) at Charleston and flew it to China so that left many assuming that this aircraft was number 100.

Then Greg found a posting on Boeing's New Airplane Flight tracker web site.  Boeing has delivered 101 787 as of November 8, 2013.  This can only mean that ZA175 was delivered as not other 787 except for ZA434 has been seen at the Everett Delivery Center or the Charleston Delivery Center.  Since ZA175 was at the EDC on Sept. 5 and ZA434 showed up at the CDC on Nov. 8th it should follow that ZA175 was delivered before ZA434.

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Second 787-9 takes flight, Boeing delivers 100th 787 (for real this time)

 

Boeing Photos

Ok so I have to backtrack a little bit.  Last week ZA175 (LN 20, JA821J)for Japan Airlines appeared at the Everett Delivery Center and later in the day Flightaware.com showed a delivery flight planned for that aircraft to Tokyo.  This was, I assumed, the 100^th delivery of a 787 to a customer and I reported it as such. However, the flight plan timed out and a couple of days later the aircraft was towed back to a flightline stall.  Now the aircraft may have been contractually delivered but I am not sure.  Right now it seems that ZA434 for Hainan Airlines (LN 85, B-2730) looks to be the 100^th delivered 787.

Given the high level of interest in the 787 I would have expected that Boeing would have made some comment about the delivery but as of yet there hasn’t been any communication about it even after I’ve made an inquiry about it.  Boeing is being very quiet about this which seems to suggest that there might be some sort of behind the scenes issue with who is the actual recipient of 787 #100 or Boeing is waiting to make a very big splash about it at some later date.

As far as production goes, Boeing is still making very good progress in ramping up the rate in the factory.  November has been slow in terms of production testing after last month’s flurry of flight test activity.  There are still 4 aircraft including the aforementioned ZA175 waiting to be delivered.  Boeing has delivered 2 aircraft through the first 10 days of this month though I still see Boeing able to deliver at least 6 more aircraft this month.  They will have to start moving planes out of the flightline and into customer hands if they’re to increase the rate and avoid have a glut of 787s crowding the Everett and Charleston ramps.  This week will probably be critical in terms of determining the progress in delivering these Dreamliners.  Boeing will need to get a few (about 4) more aircraft up doing their B-1 as well as have the 6 airplanes that have already started production testing flying their customer flights.

Last week ZB002 (LN 133, N789FT), the second 78-9 test aircraft, flew for the first time in a 4 hour and 18 minute test flight.  The following day, ZB001 (LN 126, N789EX) resumed test flights after spending a week at Everett.  No reason was given for the 1 week layover but I suspect it was to fine tune the aircraft and possibly change out some flight test equipment.  ZB021 (LN 139, N789ZB) had its GEnx engines run for the first time and I suspect will join the test flight program sometime around mid-December.  In the meantime, Boeing is continuing production work on the first 787-9.  ZB197 (LN 146) is destined for ANA and will be used for some of the final testing activities that the FAA mandated to be done on a production standard aircraft. I expect that this aircraft should roll out by late November but I don’t expect that it will be needed for any test flights until February at the earliest.  I still expect that the first 787-9 should deliver to Air New Zealand around April, 2014.

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Boeing delivers 100th 787 to Japan Airlines

While I have no official confirmation nor any word from Boeing, it appears that the 100th 787 to be delivered went to Japan Airlines this afternoon.  There was a flightplan just filed on Flightaware.com.  The aircraft is ZA175 (LN 20, JA821J) which is one of the early buiild 787s that had to go throughthe long process of change incorporation.  So far I have not heard of any aircraft being delivered from Charleston as of yet.  ZA175 is currently at the Everett Delivery Center.

Boeing has delivered 51 787s in 2013, and 100 aircraft since the start of deliveries in September 2011.


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Boeing delivers 75th 787 to Air India

According to Matt Cawby, a local Everett photographer, ZA242 (LN 90, VT-ANN) is at the Everett Delivery Center.  This indicates that this particular aircraft has been delivered by Boeing.  I expect that the aircraft will fly away to India later tonight or tomorrow.  Boeing has now delivered 75 787s since deliveries began almost 2 years ago. This delivery is Air India's 8th 787 and should allow them to start the planned Australia routes.

Air India 787 VT-ANN is at the Everett Delivery Center this afternoon
— Paine Airport (@mattcawby) August 15, 2013

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