Another ANA 787 delivered, another being prepared

Lat night a Boeing crew flew out another ANA 787 for ANA destined for Haneda International Airport. This is ZA102, (JA804A, L/N 9) and one of the very early build aircraft that needed extensive re-work and modifications. It will probably be placed in domestic service. This is ANA's 5th 787 and there are two more waiting in the wings.

ZA117 (JA806A, L/N 40) made an appearance on the Everett flightline after passing the last few months insidethe EMC. Thanks to Johanny who gave us a link to a flickr page maintained by "Simpilot459" which shows this aircraft with lights on at the Compass Rose at Everett. This is scheduled to be the next 787 delivered.

See ZA117

However weather in the Pacific Northwest may become an issue over the next few days that may disrupt the delivery schedule. ZA236 (VT-ANH, L/N 35) was scheduled to fly yesterday but was postponed due to a winter storm that is hitting the Pacific Northwest. This storm is expected to dump snow in the region over the next few days. It's unlikely that this plane will fly its B-1 flight until the storm passes or is reduced in intensity. I'm estimating that it probably won't fly until the end of this week. Likewise, ZA117 is supposed to have it's B-1 flight around the 20th but this is looking increasingly unlikely as it was just pulled out of the EMC and will need to have its first engine start and other pre-flight activities done prior to the flight. I can't se this plane flying before the end of next week.

The end result is that deliveries will be delayed due to the storm as it moves the schedule to the right.

Boeing on verge of starting final GEnx/787 certification tests

UPDATE: Due to a winter storm in Washington State, it looks like ZA236's first flight has been put off. On a related note, ZA102 (JA804A, L/N 9) is now scheduled to leave Everett at 7:15PM local for its delivery flight to Haneda.

A Flightaware alert just went up for BOE 236 this afternoon for takeoff around 1:45pm local time. The significance of this flight is that this is the first flight of the 787 that will undertake the last part of F&R/ETOPs certification testing that is required for FAA type certification of the GE powered 787.

This important testing was partially done by ZA006 a few months ago but FAA requires that some of the tests also needs to be done by a production standard 787. Boeing assigned ZA236, a 787 destined for Air India. The start of the final phase of this testing was delayed and rumor has it that the delay was attributable to lightning protection around the engine pylons for the GEnx-1B engines.

Today's flight should be a standard Boeing checkout flight and there will probably be a couple

More test flights before final F&R/ETOPs flight formally kick off.

Boeing is hoping to start GE/787 deliveries next month so I anticipate that this test should last 3-4 weeks with the aim of first GE powered 787 delivery to JAL at the end of February. However this is all predicated on all testing going well with no major issues being revealed.

787 flyaways

Tentative word is that ZA104 (JA807A, L/N 41) should leave today at about 6pm. It was officially delivered on the 12th. It will be flying as NH9397 departing for Haneda. Nothing up on Flightaware of yet but there is still a few hours to go.

ZA102 (JA804A, L/N 9) is projected to be delivered today with a tentative flyaway date of January 16 at 7:15PM. It will also fly to Haneda as NH9397.

January 787 delivery update part 2

I just got this from a source but it may change depending on conditions at Everett. ZA104 (JA807A, L/N 41) may have been contractually delivered on Tuesday, January 10th. It may flyaway to Haneda Tokyo today, January 12th at about 6PM local time if delivery has been indeed made a couple days ago. Typically the flyaway is a couple days after contractual delivery though it varies from customer to customer and particular circumstances a t the time.

ZA102 (JA804A, L/N 9) is scheduled to be delivered today and may flyaway a couple of days from now. There were no further test flights of both aforementioned aircraft since January 10th.

ZA117 (JA806A, L/N 40) is still scheduled (tentatively) for delivery on the 30th but this should be taken with a grain of salt as the aircraft has not appeared on the flightline yet.

Further I've gotten information that ZA236 (VT-ANH, L/N 35) may make its first flight around Jan. 16th though this is still up in the air (so to speak). This aircraft is to conduct the final portion of F&R/ETOPs testing on the GEnx powered 787 for certification purposes. If Boeing is able to get this part of the program completed in time with certification of of the GEnx 787s then They may be able to deliver two GEnx 787s starting in February. One each would go to Japan Airlines (ZA177, JA822J, L/N 22) and Air India (ZA236, VT-ANH, L/N 35). Boeing also has a 787 penciled in for ANA (ZA105, JA808A, L/N 42) next month.

There are no definitive delivery dates for these airplanes for obvious reasons and these airplanes themselves may not deliver next month due to continued issues revolving the amount of re-work and the allocation of resources to effectively deal with the amount of work. there should be further clarification of the 787 deliveries on about two weeks when Boeing has it's 2011 earnings conference call.

Additional January 787 delivery information

Ok this is coming to me from another source but now we have three Dreamliner deliveries coming up though this is all tentative. Here's the situation now and it seems to be improving:

JA804A (ZA102, L/N 9) to deliver on Jan. 9
JA807A (ZA104, L/N 41) to deliver on Jan. 11
JA806A (ZA117, L/N 40, first flight on Jan. 20th, deliver on Jan. 30

This information is regarded as preliminary as there can unforeseen issues to can derail any of these milestones. Also note that these dates are not the dates that ANA flies them to Japan but dates where contractual delivery is made and money has changed hands.

Fourth 787 to deliver soon

ANA's 4th 787, JA807A (ZA104, L/N 41) is scheduled to flyaway on Jan. 10 around 6PM local time, according to the latest schedule, as NH9397. This means that the offical handover should occur within a couple days before that. This all assumes that there are no other issues with the aircraft.

There is still no word on delivery and flyaway of JA804A (ZA102, L/N 9) but thoughts are it should be in around the middle of this month.

Dominic Gates has a few more details regarding the delays in the 787 deliveries in his article that came out this morning:

Dominic Gates: Boeing delivers more, and less, in 2011

JA805A flying out tonight; JA807A a maybe

UPDATE: It appears that ZA104 will not be going anywhere due to ongoing tech issues. This aircraft did fly today and will also fly tomorrow. There should be more clarification on its status later this week. Currently both this aircraft and ZA102 are scheduled for delivery in January but I do expect at least one more 787 to be delivered this month. Currently NH9397 has left on its delivery flight to Tokyo.

According to Flightaware, NH9397 (also known as ZA116, JA805A, L/N 31) will flying out to Japan on its delivery flight at 6 pm Pacific Time. According to sources this aircraft should be parked at gate 206 when it arrive at Haneda International Airport tomorrow morning.

The same sources said that NH9399 (also known as ZA104, JA807A, L/N 41) is scheduled to leave Everett at 7:15PM Pacific time and will be parked at gate 205 when it arrives at Haneda. ZA104 took an earlier flight around the Washington State area supposedly by ANA pilots so it is unknown if this plane has actually been delivered.

These two airplanes are fitted with the Trent 1000 package "B" engines which brings fuel consumption to within 1% of promised specifications. These airplanes will be employed on ANA's international routes beginning with Tokyo-Beijing later this month followed by Tokyo-Frankfurt next month.

In related news, Flightblogger posted this afternoon on the 787's delivery issues