Boeing will be sending a flight test 787-9 to New Zealand and Australia late this week to conduct hot weather testing as well as for marketing purposes. The aircraft, ZB002 (LN 133, N787FT) will sport the marking of launch customer Air New Zealand when it leaves Boeing Field around January 2nd or 3rd. It is due to arrive in Auckland, NZ around January 4th in the late afternoon where it will remain for 2 days as Boeing and Air New Zealand conduct a marketing program for the larger version of the 787. It'll leave Auckland on Monday Jan. 6th at about 11 AM local time for Brisbane where it will clear customs and then proceed to Alice Springs, Australia landing at about 5 PM local time.
ZB002 will conduct hot weather testing at Alice Springs from January 7th to January 11th. It is unknown if the aircraft will return to the united States immediately after completion of the hot weather tests or if it conduct more market/testing activities will down under.
Testing on the larger 787 variant apparently is going well by all accounts. Boeing has completed the first production 787-9 and should start on the 2nd production aircraft sometime late next month. The fourth 787-9 will participate in F&R testing as well as other testing activities that need to be completed. There are plans to include a 5th 787-9 in the testing process but I'm not sure if it will be ZB003 (LN 169, ZK-NZE) which will be the 1st 787-9 delivered to a customer.
Stay tuned for my 7887 2013 year end wrap up coming soon.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Friday, December 20, 2013
Boeing makes final 2013 787 delivery push
Boeing has started making its final push to deliver as many commercial jets as possible before the and of the year. As far as the 787, Boeing has thus far delivered 6 aircraft in December, 16 for the 4th quarter, 60 for 2013 and 109 overall since deliveries began over 2 years ago. This includes ZA187 (LN 125, JA833J) for Japan Airlines which is contractually delivered but has not made its delivery flight for unknown reasons. It is expected to flyaway to Tokyo in the next few days.
There are still a number of 787s that are ready of delivery including a trio for China Southern Airlines. It's been a while since these airplanes have taken a flight but I believe the reason is so Boeing and China Southern can have a bit of a splash and conduct a triple delivery on one day prior to year end. Boeing will also deliver one more to QANTAS (Jetstar) which has had 4 flights (maybe one or two more needed) and will deliver the first 787 to be configured as a business jet to the UAE (via ILFC).
It stands to reason that Boeing can deliver 65 787s this year. Their guidance is over 60, thus they'll clearly meet their guidance.
As far as production is concerned, it looks as if Boeing is right now producing at about 9 aircraft/month. There was a hiccup due to a mishap (don't have details) on the main fuselage section for ZA388 (LN 154) for China Southern. that aircraft was loaded today but it did set back the production schedule, according to my calculations, by 18 days. ZA244 (LN 158) for Air India, leap-frogged over ZA388 and started final assembly before ZA388. ZA388 was originally supposed to start final assembly around November 19th. ZA244 was loaded into POS 1 on December 7...an 18 day gap between planned and actual loading of the fuselage sections and an approximately 1 month gap between the loading of ZA244 and ZA472 (LN 150) for Qatar Airways. Boeing Charleston is loading one aircraft approximately every 14 to 15 days or about 2/month. For the record, Jack Jones, VP and general manager of Boeing Charleston says that they are tracking to plan in terms of 787 production. Boeing is loading a 787 roughly every 4 days at Everett and that rate should get a little bit faster. Later on when Charleston is ready to go to 3/month, we should see the period between loadings go up slightly to about 1 airplane ever four and a quarter days.
One interesting thing to note is production quality of the 787 coming off the assembly lines. One way to measure this is to see how many test flights, on average, a Everett-built 787 makes before delivery and compare that to the number of test flights that a Charleston-built 787 makes. Taking out the 2 ferry flights that Boeing has to make to and from Ft. Worth for painting, I find that Charleston-built 787s fly an average of 6.25 flights before they are delivered while Everett-built 787s fly an average of 5.10 flights before delivery. Really just one flight more which in the grand scheme of things is not a whole lot.
A bit of programming note. I will post a 787 2013 year in review around the end of the month or early in January followed by a 2014 look ahead for the program.
Here are couple of links from Boeing's media day at Boeing Charleston:
Post and Courier photo gallery
Post and Courier Article
Charleston Business Journal Article
Full 787 List
Current 787 Production List
Delivered 787 List
787 Monthly Delivery Tracking
787 Customer Delivery
787-9 Flight Test Hours
Current 787 Operators
There are still a number of 787s that are ready of delivery including a trio for China Southern Airlines. It's been a while since these airplanes have taken a flight but I believe the reason is so Boeing and China Southern can have a bit of a splash and conduct a triple delivery on one day prior to year end. Boeing will also deliver one more to QANTAS (Jetstar) which has had 4 flights (maybe one or two more needed) and will deliver the first 787 to be configured as a business jet to the UAE (via ILFC).
It stands to reason that Boeing can deliver 65 787s this year. Their guidance is over 60, thus they'll clearly meet their guidance.
As far as production is concerned, it looks as if Boeing is right now producing at about 9 aircraft/month. There was a hiccup due to a mishap (don't have details) on the main fuselage section for ZA388 (LN 154) for China Southern. that aircraft was loaded today but it did set back the production schedule, according to my calculations, by 18 days. ZA244 (LN 158) for Air India, leap-frogged over ZA388 and started final assembly before ZA388. ZA388 was originally supposed to start final assembly around November 19th. ZA244 was loaded into POS 1 on December 7...an 18 day gap between planned and actual loading of the fuselage sections and an approximately 1 month gap between the loading of ZA244 and ZA472 (LN 150) for Qatar Airways. Boeing Charleston is loading one aircraft approximately every 14 to 15 days or about 2/month. For the record, Jack Jones, VP and general manager of Boeing Charleston says that they are tracking to plan in terms of 787 production. Boeing is loading a 787 roughly every 4 days at Everett and that rate should get a little bit faster. Later on when Charleston is ready to go to 3/month, we should see the period between loadings go up slightly to about 1 airplane ever four and a quarter days.
One interesting thing to note is production quality of the 787 coming off the assembly lines. One way to measure this is to see how many test flights, on average, a Everett-built 787 makes before delivery and compare that to the number of test flights that a Charleston-built 787 makes. Taking out the 2 ferry flights that Boeing has to make to and from Ft. Worth for painting, I find that Charleston-built 787s fly an average of 6.25 flights before they are delivered while Everett-built 787s fly an average of 5.10 flights before delivery. Really just one flight more which in the grand scheme of things is not a whole lot.
A bit of programming note. I will post a 787 2013 year in review around the end of the month or early in January followed by a 2014 look ahead for the program.
Here are couple of links from Boeing's media day at Boeing Charleston:
Post and Courier photo gallery
Post and Courier Article
Charleston Business Journal Article
Full 787 List
Current 787 Production List
Delivered 787 List
787 Monthly Delivery Tracking
787 Customer Delivery
787-9 Flight Test Hours
Current 787 Operators
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Mishap with L/N 154 mid body fuselage section forces Boeing to re-shuffle final assembly order at Charleston
According to sources, a mishap while assembling the mid body fuselage for ZA388 (L/N 154) for China Southern Airlines forced Boeing to re-shuffle the firing order at Boeing Charleston. Details are unknown but the mishap, which took place in building 88-20, caused extensive damage to the mid body fuselage section. The damage was severe enough that Boeing had to pull manufacturing techs from the final assembly line to help with the re-work with many technicians putting in overtime to get this fuselage section completed. This airplane was scheduled to start final assembly during the 3rd week of November but it was pushed back to the first week of December. Boeing, however, was unable to complete the re-work in time and forced the re-shuffling of the final assembly order.
Currently, ZA 244 (L/N 158, VT-ANP) for Air India is loaded in position 1 in 88-30 while the re-work in 88-20 continues and is expected to be completed shortly.
After inspection and review of all the re-work on mid body for L/N 154, it should enter final assembly later this month.
Boeing integrates different fuselage sections built in Japan and Italy into one large main fuselage section in the 88-20 building.
This incident also has played havoc with Boeing's 787 final assembly schedule for Charleston as the final assembly of follow 787 in Charleston had to be pushed back. Subsequently, Boeing MTs in Charleston may have to put in overtime in order to make up the lost time and get the schedule back on track.
Lastly, Boeing did fly a 787 out of Charleston to be painted. While Boeing regularly does this, the difference was the aircraft was flown to Portland, OR where the company does have paint facilities and not to Ft. Worth. It was pointed out by a reader that this may be due to the severe winter weather being experienced in Texas. Boeing has a contract with Leading Edge Completions of Ft. Worth, Tx. to paint all Charleston built 787s. There still is one 787 (ZA469, L/N 129, A7-BCH) for Qatar Airways at Leading Edge which flew there three weeks ago. Either the weather has delayed its return or there was some issue with the paint job that Qatar objected to or there was technical issue with the aircraft itself.
Full 787 List
Current 787 Production List
Delivered 787 List
787 Monthly Delivery Tracking
787 Customer Delivery
787-9 Flight Test Hours
Current 787 Operators
Currently, ZA 244 (L/N 158, VT-ANP) for Air India is loaded in position 1 in 88-30 while the re-work in 88-20 continues and is expected to be completed shortly.
After inspection and review of all the re-work on mid body for L/N 154, it should enter final assembly later this month.
Boeing integrates different fuselage sections built in Japan and Italy into one large main fuselage section in the 88-20 building.
This incident also has played havoc with Boeing's 787 final assembly schedule for Charleston as the final assembly of follow 787 in Charleston had to be pushed back. Subsequently, Boeing MTs in Charleston may have to put in overtime in order to make up the lost time and get the schedule back on track.
Lastly, Boeing did fly a 787 out of Charleston to be painted. While Boeing regularly does this, the difference was the aircraft was flown to Portland, OR where the company does have paint facilities and not to Ft. Worth. It was pointed out by a reader that this may be due to the severe winter weather being experienced in Texas. Boeing has a contract with Leading Edge Completions of Ft. Worth, Tx. to paint all Charleston built 787s. There still is one 787 (ZA469, L/N 129, A7-BCH) for Qatar Airways at Leading Edge which flew there three weeks ago. Either the weather has delayed its return or there was some issue with the paint job that Qatar objected to or there was technical issue with the aircraft itself.
Full 787 List
Current 787 Production List
Delivered 787 List
787 Monthly Delivery Tracking
787 Customer Delivery
787-9 Flight Test Hours
Current 787 Operators
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Boeing delivers an anemic 5 787s in November.
So you know how I said that I thought Boeing can deliver 10 to 12 787s last month...boy I didn't even come close. Instead they delivered an anemic 5 aircraft last month despite all the activity with many of the aircraft that are still parked in Everett and Charleston. Boeing has maintained that they will deliver more than 60 787s this year an though the expectations was for a number closer to 68 tor 69 Boeing will still claim that they will have hit their target if all they deliver is 61 in 2013. They would have met their guidance though I think it would have been a disappointment.
That said, I still do believe they can deliver 64 airplanes this year. Thus far, Boeing has delivered 56 aircraft including 2 in December. They have the potential to deliver 8 more aircraft even though they can deliver just 5 more and meet their guidance.
Lately Boeing has been running a few test flights on two frames built in Charleston: ZA386 (LN 104, B-2737) for China Southern Airlines and ZA187 (LN 125, JA833J) for Japan Airlines. I believe that these are final customer flights meant to wring out any further squawks that customer reps have found. These airplanes should deliver soon but along with those I do expect further deliveries to Hainan, QANTAS (Jetstar) and the first 787 business jet to the UAE Presidential Flight.
Here's my list of expected 787 deliveries in December:
China Southern - 2 aircraft - ZA386 and ZA381
Hainan Airlines - 2 aircraft - ZA432 and ZA435
Japan Airlines - 1 aircraft - ZA187
QANTAS (Jetstar) - 2 aircraft - ZA216 and ZA217
UAE Presidential Flight (leased from ILFC) - 1 aircraft - ZA560
787-9
787-9 seems to be making fairly good progress and the flight test program is slowly coming up on three full months of flight testing. It is expected that the flight test/certification program will continue for another 3 to 4 months and first delivery to Air New Zealand should occur around July 2014. The first production 787-9 (ZB197) was rolled out of 40-26 on November 20th and placed inside the Everett Modification Center (EMC). This aircraft will deliver to ANA probably later in the summer. The second production aircraft and the first to deliver to the launch customer is ZB003 is still a couple months away from starting final assembly but both these airplanes will be used for F & R (functionality and reliability) testing as well as other FAA mandated tests which needs to be completed on a production standard aircraft. The three flight test aircraft will be refurbished with 2 going to Air New Zealand and the 3rd (GE-powered) 787-9 flight test aircraft is rumored to be going to Japan Airlines.
Lastly, two 787 that were most recently rolled out the final assembly building in Everett were taken not to the flightline but to the EMC. There was confusion related to this and many speculated that it is due to some "issues" that the 787 might be experiencing though nothing has come up that would warrant that kind of speculation. The two aircraft are ZA586 which is another ILFC leased business jet and ZB197, the aforementioned 787-9 for ANA that will be used for testing. First ZA586 is probably there to get some specialized work down related to its cabin installation after delivery. Nothing unusual there. ZB197 is not needed for another couple months and will probably have some minimal flight test equipment installed. Either way I don't think it's a sign of anything amiss in the 787 program.
Full 787 List
Current 787 Production List
Delivered 787 List
787 Monthly Delivery Tracking
787 Customer Delivery
787-9 Flight Test Hours
Current 787 Operators
That said, I still do believe they can deliver 64 airplanes this year. Thus far, Boeing has delivered 56 aircraft including 2 in December. They have the potential to deliver 8 more aircraft even though they can deliver just 5 more and meet their guidance.
Lately Boeing has been running a few test flights on two frames built in Charleston: ZA386 (LN 104, B-2737) for China Southern Airlines and ZA187 (LN 125, JA833J) for Japan Airlines. I believe that these are final customer flights meant to wring out any further squawks that customer reps have found. These airplanes should deliver soon but along with those I do expect further deliveries to Hainan, QANTAS (Jetstar) and the first 787 business jet to the UAE Presidential Flight.
Here's my list of expected 787 deliveries in December:
China Southern - 2 aircraft - ZA386 and ZA381
Hainan Airlines - 2 aircraft - ZA432 and ZA435
Japan Airlines - 1 aircraft - ZA187
QANTAS (Jetstar) - 2 aircraft - ZA216 and ZA217
UAE Presidential Flight (leased from ILFC) - 1 aircraft - ZA560
787-9
787-9 seems to be making fairly good progress and the flight test program is slowly coming up on three full months of flight testing. It is expected that the flight test/certification program will continue for another 3 to 4 months and first delivery to Air New Zealand should occur around July 2014. The first production 787-9 (ZB197) was rolled out of 40-26 on November 20th and placed inside the Everett Modification Center (EMC). This aircraft will deliver to ANA probably later in the summer. The second production aircraft and the first to deliver to the launch customer is ZB003 is still a couple months away from starting final assembly but both these airplanes will be used for F & R (functionality and reliability) testing as well as other FAA mandated tests which needs to be completed on a production standard aircraft. The three flight test aircraft will be refurbished with 2 going to Air New Zealand and the 3rd (GE-powered) 787-9 flight test aircraft is rumored to be going to Japan Airlines.
Lastly, two 787 that were most recently rolled out the final assembly building in Everett were taken not to the flightline but to the EMC. There was confusion related to this and many speculated that it is due to some "issues" that the 787 might be experiencing though nothing has come up that would warrant that kind of speculation. The two aircraft are ZA586 which is another ILFC leased business jet and ZB197, the aforementioned 787-9 for ANA that will be used for testing. First ZA586 is probably there to get some specialized work down related to its cabin installation after delivery. Nothing unusual there. ZB197 is not needed for another couple months and will probably have some minimal flight test equipment installed. Either way I don't think it's a sign of anything amiss in the 787 program.
Full 787 List
Current 787 Production List
Delivered 787 List
787 Monthly Delivery Tracking
787 Customer Delivery
787-9 Flight Test Hours
Current 787 Operators
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