787 update

UPDATE (7:30PM EDT): Found out that hydraulic testing is on at 11 PM tonight and prep work in for those tests are on going.

Jon Ostrower just Tweeted that it appears that hydraulic testing on ZA001 is getting under way.
I do believe that ZA001 is still all alone at the fuel dock which I believe that first engine start is very close to taking place over the next couple of days. There probably won't be any other aircraft around when that happens (Boeing acting out of an abundance of caution).

Short update on 787 testing

Looks like there may not be a hyrdaulic test today. Not sure why but also it looks like they moved ZA002 away from the fuel dock. There was a picture on Matt Cawby's web site for a Delta 777 (taken today) and in the background you could only see ZA001 no other aircraft at the fuel dock. Perhaps they moved the other airplanes in advance of the engine tests? Not sure where ZA002 went.

Matt Cawby's picture today (look in the background)

Guy Norris: Hydraulics sytems activation may start soon; paves way for first engine tests

According to Aviation Week's Guy Norris, Boeing may activate the hydraulic systems on Dreamliner 1 as early as tonight which will pave the way for the first engine tests of the Trent 1000 and the start of intermediate gauntlet testing.


There has been a flurry of activity with the first APU start and now the hydraulic systems tests. We will know in the next few days if the engines are on...Look for white smoke to come out of the Trent 1000s when they're spooled up for the first time.

Guy's latest posting.

Dreamliner 2 Rollout

Dreamliner Two Rollout from Liz Matzelle on Vimeo.

Special thanks to Liz Matzelle for permission to embed her video.

Everett spotter Liz Matzelle got great video of the rollout of Dreamliner 2 out of the paint hangar to the Boeing Everett flight line (fuel dock). This is the first Dreamliner to be painted in a customer scheme and it looks fantastic. Looking closely at this video, it appears that the aircraft doesn't have it's engine nacelles on but rather the engines looked to be protected by some sort of plastic overwrap.

Matt Cawby also got a picture of Dreamliner 2 at the fuel dock near Dreamliner 1.

Fuel dock picture with the 787s.

This all follows Dreamliner 1 first APU start yesterday where it ran for 15 minutes.

UPDATE: Here are a couple of pics of ZA002 after it rolled out of the paint hangar. ZA002 has since been rolled into building 40-25 (767 final assembly) and ZA001 is all alone at the fuel dock. Special thanks to Chris Fotos for his help.

All photos courtesy of Boeing

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

Go Atlantis!

Yesterday Atlantis lifted off for the 5th and final mission to service the Hubble space telescope. Here's a wonderful video of yesterdays spectacular liftoff.

ZA001 finally fueled up.

Flightblogger reports that Dreamliner 1 has been fully fueled for the first time. No word on if there were any issues but test are continuing on the fuel distribution system.

ZA001 first fueling.

Detective Flightblogger: 25 787s are from Royal Bank of Scotland

Jon Ostrower put on his detective hat and figured out the customer who had cancelled the order for 25 787-8 on April 30th. It was Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

Read it below:
Jon's Detective Work

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

Boeing losses another 25 787 orders

Boeing released it's weekly order update and the news isn't good. There was a cancellation of 25 787s in the past week. It is not known whom the order(s) are from but I will try to find out.

See Boeing's Weekly order update here.

This is more shocking than learning that Manny Ramirez is taking 'roids.

UPDATE: ok I got more information. Apparently, the customer who placed an order for 23 787 in January 2008 (and for an earlier two in July 2006). This customer may not be an airline customer. This customer is in a bit of trouble which is leading to speculation that it could be ILFC.

UPDATE 2: I got a message from a very knowledgable industry source that it is NOT ILFC who cancelled the order.

UPDATE 3: Jon Ostrower is reporting that the customer who had cancelled the 25 787-8s was quite possibly an unidentified customer when the order was originally placed. Read Jon posting.

Guy Norris: Fueling tests to start soon; Flightblogger: fuel lines hooked up

Guy Norris, in a posting last night, said that the fueling tests should late tonight but that the schedule is slipping. An industry watcher told me that the fueling tests schedule is starting to slip again and may not occur until tomorrow.

Also Guy writes that General Electric is developing a new low pressure turbine for the GEnx 787 engine (GEnx-1b) to bring its specific fuel consumption (sfc) back into line with what was promised to customers. Right now the GEnx sfc is about 2 to 5 percent over what was promised. The Trent 1000 engines are about 5 percent over and Rolls Royce is also developing a new low pressure turbine to bring the sfc back into spec.

Rolls Royce new LP turbine is expected to be delivered this fall and fitted on ZA004 (I don't know if its also going to be on the first 787s to be delivered though). GE's LP turbine should be ready for delivery starting in the 1st quarter of 2011.

You can read Guy's article here.

UPDATE (May 6, 2009; 3:40pm) Jon Ostrower that fuel trucks are parked next to Dreamliner 1 with fuel lines attached to both fuel panels on either side of the airplane. Boeing will also pump in nitrogen to test the fuel inerting system which was designed into the 787. Fill 'er up!

That fat bloated feeling

After all the positive news about the 787 including rollout to the flightline, Bernstein Research issued a report out on Friday which threw a little cold water on the fire. Their main conclusions are as follows:

1. Weight issues on the first few 787s will limit the range on those aircraft by as much as 15%
2. First delivery won't occur to ANA in 1st quarter 2010 (indication of Boeing being overconfident in their certification schedule)
3. Boeing won't be able to ramp up to a production rate of 10/month until mid 2013 at the earliest. Boeing has said they plan to be at that rate by the end of 2012.

Guy Norris wrote an excellent piece on these issues in an Aviation Week Article

Jon Ostrower posted an great bit of analysis of the weight problem on the 787 essentially verifying Bernsteins' conclusion on the range effect. Jon's 787 Weight Analysis

Lastly, Air Transport World reported on Boeing's response to all this whereby they maintain that the range on the 787-8 will be about 8000 nm rather than being under 7000 nm from Bernsteins' report. Read ATW's Boeing Response Article.

UPDATE: Jon Ostrower posted a great article on the 787 weight issues and Boeing's response:

787 weight/Boeing responds

Flightblogger: No gas yet and other musing.

Some real good information came from Jon Ostrower today regarding the progress of the 787 program.

Jon was able to post that Dreamliner 1 has not yet started fueling tests but that final checks are being done prior to the start of those tests.

Dreamliner 2 will be painted in ANA colors ('m wondering about the other 4 test airplanes now) and will be going back to the factory (building 40-24) around the middle of he month. It'll be super cool to se a Dreamliner is a customer livery!

Dreamliner 5 will have its GEnx engines hung soon. the engines were delivered last Friday. I saw a picture that Jon had posted showing Dreamliner 4, at the time without its engines but with a Trent 1000 behind the aircraft. I opining that those Trents are now hanging off Dreamliner 4 by now.

There should be a line move coming very soon allowing for Dreamliner 7 (ZA100) to begin final assembly once the two remaining fuselage sections arrive into Everett.

Jon's May 5th 787 Update.

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.

Boeing's recent 787 statements

Aside from the blogger and aviation journalists talking about the recent progress in the 787 program, Boeing obviously has something to say.

First off is a link to Boeing press release announcing that ZA001 is out at the fuel dock ready to proceed to the next round of tests.

Boeing Press Release

Next up is a couple of posting from Randy Tinseth first one is showing some photos of ZA001 in the paint hangar:

In the paint

and the last is Randy's posting on ZA001 coming out to the flight line at Everett:

Dream On

That's Boeing's recent words on their composite creation!

787 Rollout video

Dreamliner Rollout Full from Liz Matzelle on Vimeo.

Jon Ostrower has linked to Liz Matzelle's video of Dreamliner 1 rolling out to the fuel dock. Here it is and it's agreat video that last about nine and a half minutes. Enjoy!

More 787 movement

When it rains, it pours...I've been using that comment more often in the last few weeks for many reasons. The reason today in this posting is because Dreamliner 2 (ZA002) has left building 40-26 yesterday and made its way to the same paint hangar that Dreamliner 1 had until recently had occupied.

It's getting its paint job though I'm not sure what paint scheme it'll be painted in. There is also no word on where it will go after the paint job...it could go to the flight line, building 40-24 (767 line) or even back to 40-26. It will have to go through the same set of gauntlet tests that Dreamliner 1 is going through.

This also opens up a spot on the 787 (assuming it doesn't go back to 40-26) for Dreamliner 7 (ZA100). It's not known if Dreamliner 4 through 6 have move down one spot on the line or not though I do think that the last two sections for ZA100 should be in soon.

Charles Concklin is gracious enough to allow me to link to his pictures of Dreamliner 2 being rolled to the paint hangar.

ZA002 pic 1

ZA002 pic 2

ZA002 pic 3

ZA002 pic 4

ZA002 pic 5

ZA002 pic 6

ZA002 pic 7

Dreamliner 1 coming out today

Above three photos courtesy of Boeing

The next three photos are courtesy of Jon Ostrower of Flightblogger

Photos courtesy of Jon Ostrower at Flightblogger.

Well it finally looks like that Dreamliner 1 is leaving the paint hangar (that was for you Chris) and proceeding to the fueling dock. According to tweets from Jon, the door are wide open so Dreamliner should be out soon.

Further, Guy Norris just posted an update stating that fueling tests now won't start until May 5th (Tuesday). The dueling tests will be used to calibrate the fuel quantity indicating system and the fuel quantity data concentrators. There also maybe a a final round of hydraulics testing for later in the week which may explain the delay in the fueling tests. Read Guy's posting.

UPDATE: Guy has a second post regarding the roll out to the fuel dock as well as Boeing's statement. Read it here.

Read Boeing Press Release Below:

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Moves to Flight Line for Testing

EVERETT,
Wash., May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Boeing (NYSE: BA - News) 787 Dreamliner that will fly later this quarter has moved to the flight line. Fuel testing -- the first in the next phase of extensive checks the airplane must undergo -- will begin in the next few days.

"We are making great progress, and moving ever-closer to first flight," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 Dreamliner program. In recent weeks, the 787 (designated ZA001) completed a rigorous series of tests including build verification tests, structures and systems integration tests, landing gear swings and factory gauntlet, which is the full simulation of the first flight using the actual airplane. With Chief Pilot Mike Carriker at the controls, the simulation tested all flight controls, hardware and software. The simulation also included manual and automatic landings and an extensive suite of subsequent ground tests. "These results give us confidence in our ability to move into further gauntlet testing using either ground power or the airplane's engines or auxiliary power unit. This is a significant milestone on the path to first flight," Fancher said. All structural tests required on the static airframe prior to first flight also are complete. The final test occurred April 21 when the wing and trailing edges were subjected to their limit load -- the highest loads expected to be seen in service. The load is about the same as the airplane experiencing 2.5 times the force of gravity. "We continue to analyze the data, but the initial results are positive," Fancher said. On April 13, the leading edge of the wing was subjected to its limit load while the rest of the airplane was subjected to loads expected at cruise. And in September 2008, the "high blow" high-pressure test was completed on the static airframe. During that test, the airframe reached an internal pressure of 150 percent of the maximum levels expected to be seen in service -- 14.9 lbs. per square inch (1.05 kilograms per centimeter) gauge (psig). Ground vibration testing, which measures the airplane's response to flutter, also concluded on the second flight-test airplane, designated ZA002, at the end of this week. All the necessary structural tests required prior to first flight are now complete. Now on the flight line, ZA001 will undergo additional airplane power and systems tests as well as engine runs. After completing final systems checks and high-speed taxi tests, the airplane will be ready for first flight, which is on schedule for later this quarter.

The 787 Dreamliner has orders for 886 airplanes from 57 customers.
Contact: Yvonne Leach, 787 Communications, +1 206-854-5027 or mailto:yvonne.l.leach@boeing.com;_ylt=AiHnGa965drDITnLEzrd5tmuMncA

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

787: Boeing flight test update

Well I'm gleaning news from a few different sources but Boeing released a lot of information on the upcoming flight test program for the 787.

One major take away: Boeing still is sticking with first flight by the end of June, 2009.

First let's see how the work is divided up between the 6 test flight airplanes (this is from Guy Norris' article):

ZA001: aerodynamics and handling characteristics, flutter, stability and controls, low speed testing, check out of the full data system, major systems integration work and check out.

ZA002: test stability and control, autopilot, avionics, propulsion and electric systems.

ZA003: tests of electro-magnetic/high-intensity radiated fields (EME/HIRF), systems, noise, flight deck, ETOPS, avionics and minimum data system.

ZA004: high speed aerodynamic performance, community noise, propulsion, ETOPS and flight loads survey

ZA005: repeat some flutter work because it is the first GEnx-1B powered version, as well as performing stability and control, aerodynamic performance, propulsion, avionics, community noise and ETOPS

ZA006: lightning-specific EME tests, and HIRF, more ETOPS and miscellaneous tests with minimal analog requirements.

First Flight: Flight duration will be anywhere from 3 to 5.5 hours depending on weather and other factors. First flight will fly Dreamliner 1 from Paine Field to Boeing Field where the test flight team is based. There will be no overflight of Seattle on the first flight nor will there be a barrel roll a la 707.

Some other interesting nuggets: 60% of the required paperwork for certification has been completed and submitted to the FAA. Of the 40% remaining less than 10% is using flight test data.

The 787 will be ETOPS certified to 330 minutes and minimum of 207 non ETOPS

43 pilots and 1000 engineers and mechanics will be involved with the 787 flight testing program.

While I was not there there are plenty of media that were and here's where you can link to their reports though I'm also waiting on Jon's report:

Guy Norris (Aviation Week)

Andrea James (Seattle PI)

Everett Herald (Michelle Dunlop)

ATW Online (Aaron Karp)

Flight International (Stephen Trimble)