Yesterday another flight test 787 showed up on the Everett ramp being prepared for it's first flight. Sources tell me that this aircraft is ZA004 but a registration has not yet shown up on it's side.
ZA003 should show up very soon on the Everett ramp as well very soon to start it's preparations for first flight.
Both ZA003 and ZA004 are projected to have their first flights in the first week of February.
Additionally, Matt Cawby reported on his blog that the fatigue test air frame is very close to finishing its side of body modifications and should be moved to the fatigue test area around January 30th to start 3 years of fatigue testing. It will be moved out of the temporary hangar that is on the Boeing flight line.
Matt Cawby's January 9, 2010 Blog Update
Flightblogger got a great article up on the production challenges that the 787 still faces now that the aircraft has entered test flights. Thus far Boeing has completely assembled 1 complete 787s (LN 1 through LN 11) plus two test air frames (ZY997 and ZY998). Currently there are 4 aircraft undergoing final assembly (LN 12 through LN 15) and parts of LN 16 are just starting to arrive in Everett. Flightblogger is reporting that Boeing planes to start increasing production on the 787 round mid February.
Flightblogger: Dreamliner Production Challenges Lie Ahead
Finally through today, January 10, 2010, the 787 test fleet has accumulated over 45 and half hours test flight hours. Also today, Za001 flew the longest 787 test flight thus far at 5 hours and 48 minutes. You can track the 787 flight test hours by going to this spreadsheet here.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment