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
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8 comments:
Well done done BOEING. It seems that they have practically conquered their teething problems and the technology progressively maturing. However, can't understand why they are moving some of their design activities to Russia which is tantamount to technology transfer to russia. Americans needs more manufacturing and technoloy jobs. I woud't be surprised if Snowden will end -up working with Boeing Russia design center.
Uresh - Brisbane stop is to clear customs (not refuel). No custom clearance facilities in Alice Springs.
Cheers
A
Hey Uresh, Just wondering when you will get the updated firing order to update the tables.-Thanks
The view from a brisbane resident: really looking forward to seeing the -9 for the first time. January/ February 2014 sees the start of regular QANTAS (jetstar) services from Brisbane to Bali so plenty going on. From a broader perspective I will be watching the firing order for the -8 throughout 2014 . QANTAS has an all too well publicised cash flow / debt problem at the moment, but needs every -8 it can get to release A332's into domestic service to replace stone age 763's. Interesting times indeed. Both QANTAS and AIRNZ need the -9 for trans pacific services. Whether QANTAS can afford them is another matter.
Boeing 787 - the newest airplane on the world I recommend it!
Happy New Year Uresh to you and your family
Ureshs, any new info about LN5 and LN22? These 2 frames should be now inside EMC, with next one moved from storage to outside position.
On that thread, it appears the final completed Air India frame has transitioned from EMC to pre-flight leaving only the recently resold Transaero/Lion/Rwandair aircraft (11 airframes) plus LN5 & LN6 in storage or EMC. It will be interesting to see how many of these move in this calendar year. Happy New Year to all.
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