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!
What is the target total fuel capacity in litres and kilos?
ReplyDeleteDo you know how long the engines have to run ( in testing) before they are ready for flight?
ReplyDeleteNope I don't.
ReplyDeleteIs it difficult to find out. I recall in one of Jon's Ostrower's blogs that it had to be tested at different speeds.
ReplyDeleteI doubt that they are going to start it up and take off...there must be some testing...is this included in the intermediate gauntlet?
They do taxi tests at different speeds.
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that the engines were run for close to eight days continuously...sounds extreme but I remember thinking that at the time.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it is when it is on the engine block but my recall was that it was part of preflight tests.
Anyway, I guess you are saying that the engines have all been pretested and once they are integrated into the system, they are ready to fly without extensive testing.