Tuesday, May 15, 2012

First SC built 787 scheduled to fly this Friday

It's looking like Boeing is setting to fly the first Charleston built 787 this Friday. Randy Neville, a Boeing 787 test pilot fresh from the 787 World Tour flew ZA003 from St. Louis today then left for Charleston in order to take ZA237 (LN46) on its first flight scheduled for May 18th.  Randy was on ZA001 when it went up on its first flight on Dec. 15, 2009.  Now he's tasked with taking this very special 787 into the South Carolina skies.  This airplane should deliver in mid to late June.

Currently Boeing is conducting tests on ZA506 (LN47) which is destined for ANA.  However current information is that this airplane and ZA507 (LN48) will not deliver this month and is more likely to deliver in June.  This means that only ZA233 (LN29, VT-AND) will deliver this month to Air India.

Meanwhile Boeing had its Investors Day conference today.  There was no new information out of today's conference though it seems that Boeing is now studying a 787 production rate greater than 10.  They're still planning for a rate increase this fall to 5/month.

12 comments:

  1. Love your work that you have done, well done. Can you at all elaborate what tests they are doing with ANA line 47? Are just for this aircraft or are these tests covering the whole fleet as in improvements to come?? or more changes?? or possible even from feedback/problem with the aircraft that they are trying to fix?
    Cheers
    Nick

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  2. Ethiopian now scheduling 787 service from August 1: http://airlineroute.net/2012/05/16/et-787-update2/

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  3. http://nl.flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE236/history/20120517/1500Z/KSKF/KSKF

    za236 Back in the air

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  4. Air India first delivery now confirmed for May 28-31. India's Civil Aviation Ministry sent out invites yesterday to journalists to accompany the minister Ajit Singh on his visit to Seattle from May 28-31 to receive delivery of the first aircraft.

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  5. Hey,Love your work and much appreciated.

    Do you by chance take any photos if so can you pass on of QR to ghazanfarullak@hotmail.com

    thanks

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  6. ZA236 is coming back to KPAE. Maby dual delivery?

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  7. Interesting bit of trivia. The picture of ZA236 on Matt's blog returning from San Antonio show the rudder only partially painted. It is solid red, missing the yellow flower petals. See picture # 1. Earlier pictures show ZA236 fully painted. See Picture # 2. This might indicate that either the rudder was replaced, or that it was stripped to be rebalanced, or that some other maintenance was done it. No matter what, it will need to revisit the paint shop before delivery.

    YESTERDAYS PICTURE
    http://paineairport.com/kpae5027.htm

    EARLIER PICTURE
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/smartjunco/6819594726/sizes/l/in/photostream/

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  8. FYI - email from Boeing SC :



    From: candy.l.eslinger@boeing.com
    Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 14:59:28 -0500
    Subject: Re: ZA237 (LN 46)'s first flight

    The airplane has not made its first flight yet. We should be announcing a date very soon.

    Candy Eslinger
    Boeing South Carolina
    +1 843-789-8270
    +1 843-819-1488 (mobile)
    Candy.l.eslinger@boeing.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. FYI - email from Boeing SC :



    From: candy.l.eslinger@boeing.com
    Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 14:59:28 -0500
    Subject: Re: ZA237 (LN 46)'s first flight

    The airplane has not made its first flight yet. We should be announcing a date very soon.

    Candy Eslinger
    Boeing South Carolina
    +1 843-789-8270
    +1 843-819-1488 (mobile)
    Candy.l.eslinger@boeing.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. First flight for Charleston 787 is on Flightaware: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE237

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  11. Looks like the first flight for the Charleston 787 is now on Flightaware for today: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE237

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  12. The correct name of the LOT is "LOT Polish Airlines"

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