Friday, May 24, 2013

Fuselage sections starting to arrive into Everett for 1st 787-9

Boeing is starting to receive the fuselage sections for ZB001, the first 787-9 to be built.  Boeing received the first section 41 (forward fuselage) from Spirit AeroSystems from their Wichita plant.  This section is not too different from the forward fuselage for the 787-8 thus integrating it into the production system shouldn't present any challenges.  Boeing may have received another fuselage section (either the rear or center section) very early this morning a 747-400 Dreamlifter did arrive into Everett from Charleston where these sections are built up. All the fuselage sections should be in Everett in the next few days if they're not all there already. 

Boeing will load the first 787-9 into position 1 in 40-24 on May 30.  Sources revealed to me that this aircraft should transfer to position 2 around June 9...10 days after first being loaded into position 1 which is quite surprising since it takes about 11 to 12 days for each production 787-8 to progress down each line position.  Extrapolated this could mean that ZB001 would be assembled in about 40 days if there are no complications during the final assembly process.  I do expect it to be a little longer though due to systems integration testing during final assembly which would add about another week at most.  Thus ZB001 could take about 7 weeks in final assembly before it is rolled out to the paint hangar and eventually the flightline to begin gauntlet testing.  ZB001 could be out of 40-24 by the third to fourth week of July, another week for painting and out on the flightline in early August.

In somewhat related news on the production front, it does appear that Boeing will temporarily be slowing down 787-8 production as there looks to be some sort of construction going on within 40-26.  I surmise that Boeing will be getting rid of or modifying some of the original production tooling in position 1.  This would include the "MOATT" or "Mother Of All Tool Towers" which was envisioned as a device to quickly and efficiently join the fuselage sections along with the wings and horizontal and vertical stabilizers.  Unfortunately the promise of MOATT didn't live up to the reality and Boeing is now using some more traditional tools like overhead cranes to move around some of the larger structures like the wings.  These changes will ultimately help Boeing to get to 10/month but in the short term it will slow down production for a couple of weeks.  Because of this ZA562 (LN 127) for ILFC/Aeromexico won't be loaded until after June 9th, perhaps the 10th.  This shouldn't impact deliveries too much as Boeing is still trying to catch up on delayed deliveries due to the lithium ion battery issue which grounded the 787 and stopped deliveries.


 







20 comments:

Trapperpk said...

Uresh, will Boeing keep slotting in new Nines when this first one rotates to position number two?

Uresh said...

Only the two other test aircraft then it'll resume building -8s. See my spreadsheets regarding the firing order in 40-26 and 40-24.

Jet.Fuel.773-er said...

Are some of the test frames going through testing while on the assembly lines??

Uresh said...

There'll be some systems integration and other tests while in the assembly line.

Andrew Munsell said...

JAL has completed their 307th and final familiarity flight before returning their 787's to service on 6/1/13.

http://www.jal.com/cms/en/corp_00229.html

Unknown said...

Busy holiday weekend today

B-1 (TUI ZA319),
C-1 (ANA ZA513),
C-3 (GUN ZA380).

grahamj said...

Only two deliveries so far (5/26) since the battery fix. What's the holdup?

Unknown said...

JAL ZA184
TUI ZA317 & ZA318
GUN ZA380
ANA ZA513

All are hopefully done flying and have the possibility of the $$$ changing hands before the 31st from PAE -- don't know about CHS.
The big push will be for June 30, end of quarter/half.

Andrew Munsell said...

ANA has resumed Dreamliner flights ahead of schedule albeit unscheduled ones.
https://secure.ana-g.com/anacom/cgi-bin/787/pdf/service_e.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22676545

John1958 said...

Hi Uresh......looks like TUI A will arrive MAN UK 31/5/13, and TUI B will arr MAN UK 1/6/13!!!!

Hope this helps

John

Anonymous said...

Air india is also taking delivery before months end

Pete Templin said...

I'm seeing the entries for LN116 and LN117 inverted in your spreadsheet. Any idea if this is a browser issue or a doc issue?

Piotrek_ said...

LN30 ZA234 VT-ANE change incorporation/re-work done!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonm/8874128894/

D Robert said...

from Bloomberg... it would appear that the entire customer fleet have had their batterie repaired !

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/boeing-concludes-battery-retrofits-on-50-787-jets-Ne6JWqZITPmF79n47VqD0Q.html

Uresh said...

Boeing put out a press release earlier in the day saying that they're done...old news, I'm afraid.

Piotrek_ said...

VT-ANE has been moved inside EMC again?

Uresh said...

It still has work to be done on it.

Don said...

Do you know if the 787 fuselage parts are delivered by train from Wichita? I can see 737 fuselages here in Kansas City on the way west. Never saw a 787 though. Would be fun.

Great job as always on keeping us informed!

Uresh said...

No they're flown to Everett

Unknown said...

Is there a way that you could further explain what pre-flight prep, production testing,and change incorporation and re-work mean. Thanks,Ben