Boeing 787 (partie 1)

The second GE-powered 787, ZA006 looks set to make its first flight sometime on Monday morning (Oct 4), following successful pre-flight tests over the weekend. The flight will come as a welcome fillip to the GE test effort which has been slowed with extensive ground testing of sister ship ZA005. Further ground tests of a recently installed improved production standard GEnx-1B engine are expected tomorrow while the ZA006 flight crew gears up for their first flight.

While ZA001 and ZA004 also undergo engine-related lay-ups, ZA003 will be undertaking a further series of ground tests this week – some associated with safety systems such as the emergency oxygen supply, as well as measurements of noise from the auxiliary power unit – a sensitive certification issue for the airport ramp environment. The ground work will follow a planned flight test to check out noise levels inside the forward fuselage, as well as discrete tones with certain flap settings. Tests on ZA002 will focus on a series of ground-based checks of the engine oil quantity measuring system.

The airframer says it has completed more than 1,900h of testing over 620 flights with 65% of flight test conditions completed for the Rolls-Royce powered fleet. Additionally, Boeing has logged "well over" 4,000h in ground testing on the test fleet, well in excess of the 3,700h initially stated would be required for certification.

Lastly, Boeing has completed 15 simulated cycles on its 787 fatigue test airframe since it began evaluating the long terms structural life of the aircraft on 13 September. ZY998 as it has been dubbed, will lead the fleet leader by 10,000 cycles at the time of entry into service next year.

Boeing aims to deliver its first 787, a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000-powered example, to Japan's All Nippon Airways in the middle of the first quarter of 2011. Boeing has declined to say when the first GEnx-powered 787 will be delivered or to what operator, though it is believed that Royal Air Maroc or Japan Airlines is the likely first recipient.

Un essai de vol écourté et des règles plus contraignantes à l'atterrissage : de nouvelles perturbations dans le ciel de l'avionneur américain, dont le programme B787 accumule les retards.

L'essai du Boeing 787 avait déjà été repoussé, il a finalement mal tourné. Un article du Seattle Times révèle que l'avion équipé d'un moteur General Electrics a rencontré des problèmes de maintenance lors de l'un des nombreux tests du nouveau cargo de Boeing et que le pilote a décidé d'atterir prématurément, au bout d'une heure seulement de vol. Yvonne Leach, porte-parole de Boeing, a évoqué une mesure de «précaution» et a tout de même qualifié l'opération de succès.

Cet épisode s'ajoute à un durcissement des règles à l'atterrissage pour le nouvel avion de Boeing. La Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) américaine a ainsi récemment publié une notice par laquelle elle impose provisoirement aux avions de maintenir une distance plus élevée derrière le 787 que vers les autres appareils. Ils devront respecter une distance minimale de 16,1 km à l'atterrissage derrière le 787 pour éviter de subir les turbulences créées par ce dernier, alors que la distance moyenne entre les atterrissages est normalement de 9,7 à 12,9 km. Cette règle provisoire, qui s'applique pour l'instant jusqu'au 31 octobre 2011, pourra être assouplie après des tests plus poussés comme cela avait été le cas pour l'Airbus A380.


Retards et polémiques

Les premières livraisons de Boeing 787 prévues en février dernier, affichaient déjà un retard de plus de deux ans sur le calendrier initial. Désormais la compagnie japonaise All Nippon Airways, qui devait être la première livrée, ne recevra son premier appareil que mi-2011.

Mais ce sont les compagnies américaines qui sont les plus mécontentes. Non seulement les livraisons ont du retard, mais en plus, elles sont défavorisées par rapport aux compagnies étrangères qui bénéficient de garanties lors de l'achat d'avions Boeing. C'est un article du Wall Street Journal qui explique que les compagnies aériennes étrangères recoivent des garanties de la part d'agences gouvernementales américaines, comme l'Export-Import Bank, pour l'achat d'appareils Boeing.

Si l'ATA, l'agence qui réunit les principales compagnies américaines, ne vise pas directement Boeing, le constructeur est implicitement montré du doigt, si bien qu'il a décidé de répondre. Réviser ce système «mettrait sérieusement en cause la capacité de l'industrie aéronautique américaine à faire face à la concurrence internationale», affirmait un communiqué du groupe.

Mais tout n'est pas perdu pour Boeing qui multiplie les contrats militaires. Il a remporté, la semaine dernière, un contrat de 5,3 milliards de dollars sur trois ans avec l'US Navy.

Flight Testing

The 787 flight test fleet is closing on 2000 flight hours flown, they can potentially break through that mark today. The Rolls Royce powered 787s got a real work out on Oct. 12th flying almost 24 flight hours during the day and breaking through the 1800 flight hour mark for the RR/787 flight test combination. Hopefully this signals a push to accumulate the remaining 35% flight test requirements needed to certify the Rolls powered 787s. Boeing has completed almost 75% of the require flight test hours needed to certify the Trent 1000 powered 787s so they are getting close.

While the first four 787s are being pushed, ZA005 is at Everett for some standard inspections as well as fuel transfer tests. ZA006 remains at Boeing Field going through the post first flight lay up where additional flight test instrumentation is being installed. I haven't heard when those two airplanes will be flying again. Currently about 27% of the GEnx/787 flight test hours have been flown.

ZA102 is now scheduled to fly around November 24th instead of November 9th though that date may change. This will be the first flight of a production standard 787 with a full customer interior. Both ZA101 and ZA102 have its Trent 1000 engines. ZA101 will undertake ground testing though I'm not sure if it has a customer interior as well.

Next month ZA004 will down for about a month while it gets new Trent 1000 engines with the package "B" improvements meant to bring the engines to within 1% of the promised SFC (specific fuel consumption) that Rolls Royce promised to its customers.

Production

As the flight test wring out the 787 for delivery, Boeing is slowly ramping up 787 production. Currently ZA230 will moved out of position 4 in building 40-26 and the line should pulse on October 15th but the next airplane ZA233 (LN 29) won't be loaded into position 1 until October 26th. I'm still trying to find out why the 11 day delay. ZA234 (LN 30, a 787 for Air India) is due to start final assembly 9 days later. This indicates that Boeing is attempting a 9 to 10 day run with each airframe is in each of the 4 assembly positions 9 to 10 day. This translates to a final assembly run for each 787 of about 36 to 40 days in building 40-26. At that rate, Boeing should be at ZA236 (LN 35, the 35th 787 being built is for Air India) by the end of the year though they will have 30 787s built and out on the flightline.

Speaking of the flightline, the parking spots for airplanes at Everett are getting full. So full that Boeing is now parking airplanes in a small ramp area in fron of the Future of Flight Museum. According to Matt Cawby, Boeing has leased out space at Everett near the air control tower as well asto the south of the asembly halls in order to store built but undelivered 787s.

Lastly, Flightblogger took a trip to 787 suppliers in Asia and has put up an excellent post of the 787 suppliers in Korea with some great photos. It is a great read.

The 787 test flight program reached milestone yesterday with 2,000 flight test hours accumulated in the 10 month old flight test program. The milestone was reached when ZA002 flew a 20 minutes test flight to Moses Lake Airport. However, through the last half of September and the first half of October there has been a very noticeable slowdown in the flight test program. In period from Aug. 15 to Sept. 14th, Boeing posted 362.5 flight hours on the 787 spread across 121 flights. From Sept. 15th to Oct. 14th, the 787s flew only 165 hours on 71 sorties. That's a reduction of over 54%. With ZA004 being out a month starting in November, Boeing will have to depend on the remaining three airplanes sustain the flight test program.

Boeing still has over 1,100 test flight hours to complete. The 787-Trent 1000 flight test fleet achieve another milestone by reaching 75% of the required (2,430) flight test hours. That means that the Trent 1000 flight test fleet has a little over 600 flight test hours to complete certification. Boeing says it has completed over 65% of the required testing conditions thus far.

Next month Boeing plans to change out the engines on ZA004 from the current Trent 1000 with package "A" to the package "B" powerplants. The change out should take about a month including ground testing and this airplane will be back in the air sometime in December. It does look like that the first few Trent powered 787s delivered to ANA will be the package A versions though I'm not sure when Rolls Royce will start delivering the package "B" to Boeing.

In the meantime Boeing has flown the Trent 1000 aircraft fairly aggressively in the last few days but I do still believe that they still have a long road ahead of them despite being almost three quarters of the way through the flight test program. If Boeing can fly the four test airplanes about six and a half hours a day for the next three months, they can achieve certification of the Trent powered 787s a month before first delivery. The GE powered airplanes are over 27% done with their test flight program but currently both airplanes are in lay ups and have not flown since early October. I'm still trying to find out when those airplanes are planned to return to the air.