Boeing 787 (partie 1)

Boeing and Alenia respond to questions on 787 manufacturing quality

ROME -- On our visit Wednesday in Grottaglie, Italy, we had a chance to discuss the horiztontal stabilizer inspections with Boeing and Alenia, who fabricates the 787's tail feathers in Foggia, Italy. The complete responses of Daniele Romiti, Alenia Aeronautica chief operating officer and Bob Noble, Boeing vice president, 787 supplier management are below.

I'm wrapping up my visit here in Italy this week, heading back to the States on Sunday, and after some technical difficulties that resulted in a corrupted audio file, I found a workaround that allowed me to transcribe the responses to questions regarding the horizontal stabilizer quality issue. Apologies for the belated post.

Q: With all the issues cropping up in the supply chain from Italy, is Alenia its weakest link?

Q: How was the issue first discovered? Over the course of the 25 shipsets that made it to Everett, just being found at that point in the quality system, what has been done to make sure this doesn't happen in the future? And what's being done to make sure this doesn't happen in the future?

Q: Can you tell us what the quality control procedures are within Alenia, how it works with Boeing, how it works at Seattle?

Daniele Romiti, chief operating officer, Alenia Aeronautica:
We talk about this, let me call it a manufacturing problem, which is fixed and we used to fixed this with Boeing, as we work as a single team on these subjects, so I think it's quite normal, I would say even though, I was not happy it even happened, we should say it's normal in a manufacturing process and is not related even to those new technologies, it was during assembly of spacements, secondary spacements, on the main spar. So, we have fixed it together with Boeing and there is activity ongoing to just complete our repairs on the aircraft.

Bob Noble, vice president, 787 supplier management, Boeing:
The defect was found in Everett during a routine inspection. I don't believe we have inspected every horizontal yet, however, this defect is not on every unit. We're still working our way through, which units that have the defect and which ones don't. I wouldn't characterize it...Alenia is not the weakest link in the 787 supply chain.

It is a complicated supply chain, Alenia, as you're going to see, builds a very complicated part of the airplane. Unfortunately you won't see the horizontal here (in Grottaglie), I know that's of current interest, but what you're going to see is this is a very complicated manufacturing process, and unfortunately, periodically, things happen, that's why we perform so many inspections. You asked about the inspection processes, Alenia has an approved quality system, that has inspections for defects, it as a part of that system, Boeing, also provides inspection of the units before they leave Italy. And of course, we also inspect the unit when we received it in Everett, and we inspect it periodically during the manufacturing process.

Unfortunately, every once in a while, something of this complexity will have an escape, they're very unfortunate when they happen. This is not at all related to the material system, it is not related to the quality system, it is just one of those things that happens during a manufacturing process. We know what it is, it won't happen again. Absolutely, positively certain we won't have that same defect again. We have put counter measures in pace to assure ourselves of that.

With its debut at the 2010 Farnborough air show days away, Boeing has issued a "cautionary note" that the first 787 delivery could slip into early 2011, citing slower than anticipated instrumentation configuration changes and inspections of the horizontal stabiliser.
Boeing vice president and general manager Scott Fancher says some of the recent issues have "stacked up" and "could see [first delivery] move a few weeks into the new year".
Fancher says the schedule has not officially slipped beyond the fourth quarter timeframe to early to 2011, but adds the airframer will provide more information "as we get closer to the conclusion of flight test".

"None of the issues have to do with airplane performance," says Fancher, who emphasises the aircraft continue to perform as expected, adding the fleet of five flying 787 test aircraft has accumulated more than 1,100h of flight testing over 365 flights.
Boeing aims to complete 2,400h of flight testing on its four Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 powered test aircraft.
Fancher declined to say which instrumentation configuration changes had slowed the flight test programme that began in December 2009, though preparation for flight test aircraft ZA004's flight loads survey and returning ZA001, which last flew on 12 June, to flight testing, are believed to have taken significantly longer than first planned.
"We'll do one block of testing with one [instrumentation] configuration, then change," says Fancher who adds the changes have "taken a bit longer than first planned".
Additionally, Fancher says that inspections of the horizontal stabilisers of the test fleet are now complete, but that process has "led to a little bit of schedule pressure".
Following the revelation of the workmanship issue on 24 June that prompted the inspections, Boeing insisted the "issue will be addressed within the existing programme schedule," though that expectation appears to have shifted.
As a result, first flight of the sixth flight test aircraft, ZA006, the second General Electric GEnx-1B powered 787, has slid to August, says Fancher.
Boeing confirms ZA003, which will represent the company at the Farnborough air show, and ZA001, have both required re-work of their horizontal stabilisers.
In April a source at launch customer ANA indicated the carrier anticipated a slide in the schedule that could result in an early 2011 delivery.

Mindful of the egg it got on its face after last year’s Paris air show, Boeing held a telecom Thursday with reporters to issue a “caution” that it might not deliver its first 787 to launch customer All Nippon Airways as planned by the end of the year.


Alerting the media now, two days before briefings the briefing rounds begin at the Farnborough air show, was a smart move.

It deflates the item as a big deal when 787 General Manager and Boeing Vice President Scott Fancher briefs the press at Farnborough.

It’s unlikely that he’ll know anything in the next week that will change what he had to say today. So he can deal with it quickly and move on to what he regards as the more important story: flight testing is progressing.


Boeing’s senior management team hardly needs to be reminded of what happened last year at Paris. They were full of confident statements about how the industry’s first composite jet was within days of making its first flight after about two years of embarrassing production delays.


Instead, test rig results showed they had a major issue with the strength of stringers at the wing-to-body join mark. The redesign added another six months to the schedule.


This time it is not a design issue that may cause a delay, Fancher says. “Some test instrument configuration changes have taken a bit longer than we planned,” he says. The changes affect only a “handful” of instrument and procedures are involved, but working through them has taken longer than anticipated.



“This is a flight test program,” he says. “There are a lot of uncertainties when you flight test.”

Industry sources say the failure, which is believed to have been uncontained, occurred in early August on a production 'Package A' model Trent 1000 engine that will power early 787-8 aircraft for launch customer All Nippon Airways, and has been initially traced to the single-stage intermediate pressure (IP) turbine. The IP turbine in conjunction with the IP compressor supplies the electrical power for the 787's systems.
"A modification is already in place for later engines," says Rolls-Royce.

What Boeing is saying


“Boeing is actively participating in the investigation into this event with Rolls-Royce. There has been no impact on the flight test program to date as a result of this event.” Of more concern is the fact that Boeing says it is “still evaluating” if the failure might have an impact on the year-end target date for service entry with ANA. Ever since the hold-ups caused by the initial horizontal tail inspection Boeing has already suggested that this may slide into early 2011.

What Rolls-Royce is saying.



The Trent 1000 engine experienced a failure this month on a test stand in Derby with the powerplant in a sea-level testbed configuration at high power. The engine suffered an intermediate pressure turbine-related failure because of what is being characterized as an “inappropriate operating regime.”Rolls-Royce says “we are now investigating in detail and have made good progress in understanding the issue.” The company was also apparently already aware of the issue, and it says later model Trent 1000 builds already have a fix in place, which is now also being installed on engines built to the earlier standard.


SPECULATION


The initial report says the failure was uncontained, though this has not yet been confirmed by Rolls. If the design failed to contain the ruptured IPT, Rolls may well be required to rerun some engine certification and type tests. Will this be the case even though the configuration is not completely representative of the Package B configuration which was originally due to be retrofitted to ZA004 within a matter of weeks? Of further concern to Rolls and Boeing must be that the IP system functions in a particularly vital role on the 787 as the power off-take source for the aircraft’s electrical system.

Subsequent comments made by Rolls about having a fix already in place suggest the revised IPT cooling configuration adopted in Package B may address the conditions that contributed to the test failure, as well as forming part of the drive to improve overall efficiency. However, will the failure investigation reveal the need for additional mods to the Package B configuration and, if so, will that inevitably mean delays to the planned retrofit of ZA004 as well as deliveries of production standard engines to Everett?


Flight test status

Boeing’s statements about the failure not having an immediate impact on the test program appear to be accurate so far.


ZA001, now temporarily based at Edwards AFB, Calif, flew an aero performance flight to Victorville. Wednesday 18^th is expected to see the aircraft fly to Roswell, New Mexico where the 787 will undertake wet runway tests. Boeing prefers to use Roswell for this work as the ex-USAF base runway is un-grooved, making it a more challenging test condition.



ZA002. Ground tests at BFI expected Wed 18^th.


ZA003. In lay-up.


ZA004. Flight loads survey, expected to resume from Victorville, Calif on 18^th.


ZA005. Ice shapes handling qualities and stall speed tests.


ZA006. Pre-flight ground system work.