Saturday, February 27, 2016
Update on 787-9 for Virgin Atlantic
I just got a tentative update on ZB036 (LN377, G-VDIA) which is a 787-9 for Virgin Atlantic. The aircraft is still in 88-30 and will be there until March 6 to the Charleston flightline. The aircraft will presumably under a mini gauntlet ground tests prior to conducting a functional check flight (FCF) on March 11th and a C-2 flight on March 12th. The new tentative delivery date to Virgin Atlantic is now March 17th.
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13 comments:
The absence of news and/or comments about the cause of this repair is surprising.
Question: Did Boeing use techniques and Lessons Learned from the Ethiopian fire at London Heathrow when repairing the Virgin Atlantic damage?
Not really
It wouldn't surprise me
Was it a rolls issue, or an installation one ? Obviously,if it were an manufacturing issue,all the more to keep this as low key as possible. .
Was it a rolls issue, or an installation one ? Obviously,if it were an manufacturing issue,all the more to keep this as low key as possible. .
Given that the aircraft had flown several times before the fire this is probably a one off incident. Still don't know the circumstances of the fire.
To me its interesting that the next four RR powered Charleston aircraft that are in flight test (397) or pre-flight prep (399, 401, 403) seem to not have progressed in test. Are these undergoing special inspections for potential common problem as 377?
given the fire and wing damage, does g-vdia need to go somewhere for paint before delivery?
Uresh
Do you know why BA's next 789 - G-ZBKG - has been taped up for storage at Everett? Your schedule has a target delivery date of 7 March (i.e. next week!) so that looks unlikely to happen.....
Paul
Yeah I'm not sure why it's all taped up. Hopefully I can get an updated schedule soon.
Uresh,
Boeing brought the 737-8 MAX into test on time and is already hinting at delivery as much as 6 months ahead of schedule. With the 787-10 being next in line and a simple stretch of the 787-9 with 90-95% commonality, do you think that Boeing might be able to deliver 787-10 ahead of schedule as part of their under-promise over-deliver mantra as of late?
If so, how much earlier is realistic? And have you heard anything about this possibility?
I haven't heard anything about advancing the schedule up as of yet. If that happens it'll show up during flight testing I think and perhaps into the late stage of final assembly. Right now they're tracking to plan which is hopeful. If there is an early delivery we'll see evidence of that in their flight testing I think.
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