787 return to certification testing in a week; ZA102 to fly in last two weeks of January

Now that the Holiday are over, Boeing is trying to pick up the pace for the lost time due to the fire on ZA002. Boeing has been flying ZA001 and/or ZA004 since January 3rd though they haven't been flying very long duration flights (longest so far is about 5 hours).

However, in the coming days we should see more 787 rejoining the test flight program though for the next one week at least these will be only Boeing test flights and certification test flights.

According to information from sources, ZA005 should be flying again on January 9th (Sunday), and ZA002 will be flying again on January 11th. ZA006 will fly on January 14th and ZA003 will be flying again on January 16th.

More importantly, ZA004 is projected to restart certification flight tests as early as January 14th with ZA001 and ZA006 projected to follow on the 15th, ZA002 on the 16th and ZA005 on the 18th.

Also of significance is that ZA102, the first production airplane to fly may fly as early as January 15th and as late as January 24th. This airplane is out on the flightline at Everett. It is around this time that Boeing will be releasing it's 2010 full year financial results so there would be more that will probably be siad about the schedule at that point though everyone is still waiting to hear about the revised delivery schedule from Boeing.

Note that this schedule is still a projected schedule and things can still change given Boeing continued discussions with the FAA.





I hope to learn more very soon.