As the summer is drawing to a close, Boeing continues 787 deliveries and production at 12 per month thus there is an absence of the usual summer time slow down probably to make up for the slow down in production bought on by the introduction of the 787-10. In the past two plus weeks Boeing has delivered 3 787 (all -9s) and have 9 more being readied for delivery by the end of this month. 6 of the 9 already have had their customer flights while the other three have had their first flights. El Al's first 787-9 should be delivered around Friday, August 18th. Air India should be receiving 2 more 787-8s as well leaving one more left on their order of 27 Dreamliners.
Production wise, Boeing has rolled out 7 airplanes thus far and started final assembly on another 7. Among the aircraft that should roll out over the next two weeks will be QANTAS' first 787-9. This airplane should be on the 40-51 Ramp in about 1 week. Air India's last 787-8 should also roll out by the end of the month.
In 787-10 testing, Boeing has racked up over 525 flight test hours with ZC001 doing most of the heavy lifting in support of certification followed by ZC036 and then ZC002. The aforementioned ZC001 is currently in Victorville, Ca. while ZC036 is still in Seattle and ZC002 is in Charleston. Boeing should begin final assembly on the ZC003 early next month. This is the first -10 that will be delivered to a customer (Singapore Airlines). I fully expect that this aircraft will also do some flight test activities (functionality and reliability testing). This would follow what Boeing did for the 787-9 program where they had 5 airplanes performing flight tests including 2 production aircraft in addition to the 3 flight test airplanes. I expect that ZC037 which will be a production 787-10 with GE engines to perform a similar function around the middle of next year.
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