Monday, December 7, 2009

Dreamliner 1 may start taxi tests soon

According to Guy Norris and Matt Cawby, Boeing may start conducting some taxi tests of Dreamliner 1 very soon. Matt Cawby on his blog post yesterday says that further VHF radio checks were conducted and added that taxi tests appeared imminent.

Matt Cawby also videotaped the LCF delivering the main fuselage section for Dreamliner 14 (LN 14).
Matt Cawby's Dec. 5th blog post

Today Guy Norris posted on his blog at Aviation Week that there is to be a "all hands" safety walk down which is a sign that taxi tests are imminent. Guy also said that testing thus far has gone very well. Now the question remains, with taxi test apparently coming soon, does that mean that Boeing is altering the path to first flight? What other testing is going to happen and when? What about the detailed static test results (should be coming within days). The answers to these questions will help determine when Dreamliner 1 will fly.

787 Countdown to first flight (resumed) Part 2

UPDATE (12/7/2009, 2:50PM) I'm getting word that Dreamliner 1 is being deiced. The only reason to do that is to either run taxi tests or to make sure that the aircrafts movable surfaces are free of ice during flight control surface movements in a test.

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