Airplanes Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten at various stages of assembly.

In another effort to avoid a further entry into service slide of the 787, Boeing is reportedly adding four flight test aircraft to the fleet. According to a report by Buckingham Research, Boeing will add Airplanes Seven through Ten to the flight test campaign. All told, The Rolls-Royce test fleet will grow to eight. Airplanes Seven through Nine are all destined for ANA, while Airplane Ten will be delivered to LAN. The report suggests that the additional four aircraft will take part in ETOPS and functionality and reliability (F&R) testing, suggesting that the aircraft will not require the extensive instrumentation unlike the first six 787s.

ZA102, Airplane Nine, was set to join the flight test campaign this fall, but was derailed following the uncontained engine failure of the aircraft's Trent 1000s during a ground test in Derby, UK. Aviation Week's Guy Norris reports that the August 2 failure was traced to a build up of oil inside engine.

UPDATE: LAN has selected Rolls-Royce Trent 1000s, not General Electric GEnx-1Bs, as previously posted. I confused LAN's aircraft with Airplanes 17 and 19 for Royal Air Maroc, which were initially allocated as Trent 1000-powered 787s, but were fitted with GEnx pylons during the assembly process.

UPDATE 4:40 PM ET: Boeing statement on the Buckingham Research report:

There will be limited testing on two additional airplanes for a total of eight airplanes (not four for a total of 10). The additional testing is driven by the requirement that some of the testing be done on airplanes in production configuration as opposed to flight test configuration. One airplane will do some ground testing. The other will do some flight testing.

Just to close the loop on the not so subtle intersection of Russian aircraft and politics, Aeroflot announced today it intended to begin taking deliveries of the 150-seat Irkut MS-21 starting in 2016, which appears to make the carrier the launch customer for the type.

In a letter to Putin, chief executive Valery Savelyev specifies the airline's acquisition plans up to 2020. Aeroflot says it aims to acquire 40 Sukhoi Superjet 100s, 11 Antonov An-148s and 25 An-140s before 2016. The aircraft will be used to modernise the fleets of Aeroflot and six associate carriers, of which it is taking over management control.

In addition, Savelyev says Aeroflot is prepared to take up to 50 MS-21s between 2016 and 2020. This all-new airliner is designed to be a viable Russian alternative to the existing single-aisles from Airbus and Boeing in the 130- to 190-seat category, and is due to enter service in around five years.

While I don't speak a word of Russian, Irkut's MC-21 highly-stylized marketing video provides an interesting look at the plans for the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G-powered aircraft with its three-variant family. The initial 150-seat MS-21-200 will seat 150, the -300 with capacity for 180 passengers, and the -400 with seating up to 210. The 300 appears to be a simple stretch of the fuselage, while the -400 will incorporate a further fuselage stretch and an expanded wing span, leading and trailing edge.

The order that put the 8 in 787 has taken another turn.

While the 787's flight over to Farnborough featured evaluations of ZA003's communications systems, the aircraft's three days visit to the UK air show was far from a rigorous test environment. The only evaluations that took place on the ground were by the 787's customers.

As early as Tuesday, ZA002, painted in the colors of the program's launch customer ANA, will depart Boeing Field for Keflavik, Iceland for the program's first international test visit.

Because of the airports notoriously high winds and long perpendicular runways, the Icelandic airport is ideal for testing the crosswind handling capabilities of commercial aircraft, and last hosted the 777-200 and -300 during its testing. Keflavik has hosted Airbus as well, when the A380 conducted its own crosswind trials there in 2007.

With first delivery likely to slip into 2011, Boeing is making significant executive moves to right its jumbo freighter program. Effective Monday:

• Pat Shanahan, current vice president of airplane programs, has extended his responsibilities on the program and will oversee flight test, certification and delivery of the 747-8F. His role as head of airplane programs will continue.
  
• Mo Yahyavi, current 747 vice president and general manager, will take on an unpecified special assignment.
• Elizabeth Lund, current 767 vice president and general manager will take over as Shanahan's deputy program manager.
• Kim Pastega, current head of 777 manufacturing, will assume the role of 767 vice president and general manager. 
• Jason Clark, current head of 747-8 interiors, will assume the role currently held by Pastega.

Photo Credit Russell Hill

Passed midnight on the east coast and this is just out from Boeing:

EVERETT, Wash., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Boeing (NYSE: BA) Company said today that it now expects delivery of the first 787 in the middle of the first quarter 2011.

The delivery date revision follows an assessment of the availability of an engine needed for the final phases of flight test this fall.

While Boeing works closely with Rolls-Royce to expedite engine availability, flight testing across the test fleet continues as planned.

Boeing said last month that the cumulative impact of a series of issues, including supplier workmanship issues related to the horizontal stabilizer and instrumentation delays, could push first delivery of the 787 a few weeks into 2011. The delay in engine availability has extended that estimate to mid-first quarter 2011.

The schedule revision will not affect the company's financial guidance.

UPDATE 12:05 AM PT: Here's my full story on the announcement, including what could potentially be happening with the future of the Package A engine.

While the airframer did not explicitly address the uncontained 2 August failure of a 'Package A' Trent 1000 in its announcement, the company says "the delivery date revision follows an assessment of the availability of an engine needed for the final phases of flight test this fall", indicating 'Package B' powerplants may be substituted for the early build Trent 1000s for ANA.

With a lack of specifics from Boeing and Rolls-Royce, the future of the Package A engine remains uncertain. However, indications exist that a modification for the failed part will be fed back into the early production engines with the fall testing related to flying Airplane Nine - the first production 787 to fly - on limited engineering tests, instead of Package B certification testing on test aircraft four.

SEATTLE -- Late Thursday, ATW reported that Kenya Airways managing director and CEO was notified first delivery to All Nippon Airways will slip an additional three months , placing the handover at the end of the first or beginning of the second quarter of 2011. Historically, Boeing's last step before announcing a further delay to the 787's first delivery has coincided with the official notification of its customer base.

Boeing would not confirm if it had informed Kenya Airways or any of its 787 customers an additional delay in first delivery to ANA was coming. The airframer has already cautioned that first delivery could slip out of 2010 into early 2011 after sluggish flight test instrumentation change out and horizontal stabilizer inspections slowed the flight test program.

Currently unknown is if the August 2 uncontained failure of a 'Package A' Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine will have any impact on the schedule, despite assurances by the engine maker.

The third week of August is no stranger to Boeing announcements of bad news. One year ago tomorrow, Boeing announced a six-month delay following the June 2009 revelation that the 787 required reinforcement of the side-of-body.

7:07 PM PT UPDATE: A source with knowledge of the announcement says that a slip in first 787 delivery to the middle or end of the first quarter will be released on Friday.

7:11 PM PT UPDATE: It is believed the slip will be attributed to issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine, as well as the Alenia-made horizontal stabilizer. The source adds that slip was was expected on Thursday, though Boeing and Rolls-Royce were agreeing on the wording of the announcement.

In June, Flightglobal was invited by civil and defense simulator manufacturer CAE to get hands-on with its Boeing 787 Series 7000 full-flight simulator. Mike Gerzanics, Flightglobal test pilot and current 737 captain and I traveled to Montreal, Canada for an up-close look at a new Level D simulator that will be used to train Continental's 787 pilots in Houston. Mike, who is also rated in the 777 authored a comprehensive flight test package about his impressions of the 787 simulator, its handling and features.


During the two hours we had with the simulator, Gerzanics and I flew the simulated skies over San Francisco in both normal and irregular operations. Here are some of his impressions:

I am type rated in both the 777 and 757/767, having flown them in engineering and maintenance capacity for a US legacy carrier. While it has been several years since my last flight in either type, I instantly felt at home in the 787. For my familiarisation preview flight of the 787 simulator, the empty weight was 113,500kg (250,000lb) and a fuel load of 68,000kg. The simulator was at San Francisco International, an airport with which I am familiar. CAE Capt Domenic Di Iorio sat in the right seat and guided me through the pre-start flows. Di Iorio also ran the electronic checklist.

By design, flows and procedures are similar to those I remember for the 777. While we typically would start both engines on the 777 at the same time, we started No 2 followed by No 1 in the 787 simulator. Regardless, the procedure is simple - start switch to start and start lever to on, the FADEC taking care of the rest. Flaps were set to 5, and the before-taxi checklist was accomplished using the smart electronic checklist.

During the taxi to Runway 28R I again marvelled at level of detail in the simulation. While never to be confused with the real thing, feeling concrete expansion joints while taxiing lends an air of authenticity. A reduced power take-off was accomplished, with indicated take-off speeds (V1/VR/V2) of 142/144/153kt respectively.

Rotation forces were on par with those I remembered from the 777, establishing a 10e_SDgr attitude and holding it until lift-off. Once airborne the gear was retracted and I followed the flight director guidance for the initial climb. Passing 1,000ft (300m) MSL the flaps were retracted at the reference flap speed bugs on the airspeed tape. A 250kt indicated airspeed climb to 5,000ft MSL was accomplished, and I steered the 787 towards the coast near Half Moon Bay, California.

HARTFORD -- I'm currently in the middle of my day bouncing across the country. I've wrapped up my visit to Pratt & Whitney in Hartford and Middletown where the company tightened the final bolt on the first PW1524G engine to test. After a grueling 24-month, eight-engine certification program the geared powerplant will take flight under the wing of the Bombardier CSeries. I'll have much more on my visit to Pratt during this week and next.

Next stop for me is O'Hare on United 483 on board N468UA, an Airbus A320, then on to Seattle for a few days for the unveiling of the Boeing 787 full flight simulator and additional interviews. Flightglobal will be covering 787 simulators wall-to-wall, so check back mid-day Thursday for an up close multimedia look at the tools that will train future Dreamliner pilots and a 777-rated pilot's impression of how the simulator handles.

If all goes to plan, Thursday and Friday are going to be very, very busy days on this blog.

Stay tuned.

How is it possible that 787 is flying icing tests in late August in the skies over Seattle? In fact, Boeing's fifth 787 flight test aircraft - ZA005 (N787FT) - has been been doing exactly that - flying maneuvers to evaluate the handling and stall characteristics as if ice were forming on the 787's wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers. However, flight test crews aren't out searching for natural icing conditions like they did with ZA001 in mid-May, rather, before taking off from Boeing and Paine Fields earlier this week, ZA005 was fitted with simulated ice shapes.  

Frank Rasor, then director of flight test operations, and now Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief engineer, described the icing tests at a 2009 787 flight test briefing:

Basically what we've done is been able to simulate the worst case icing conditions on the airplane with ice shapes. Flight test is all about the envelope conditions, so we will be testing within that envelope and get ice buildup on the airplane. But the ice shapes allow us to know we are at that end condition, otherwise it's very difficult to measure what's happening on the wing during the flight. It allows us to get there, know the condition, and fly there safely. Ice shapes are primarily foam-epoxy build-up and they're put on with glue and aluminum speed tape that we use in flight tests. They can be taken off. We do performance take-off and landing with those ice shapes on. 

ZA005 spent a few extra days at Paine Field before the testing got underway on Sunday, after the aircraft developed a hydraulic leak on approach during an August 17 flight from Boeing Field. The aircraft has spent this week flying in and out of Everett and over Puget Sound with the ice shapes fitted to the leading edges of the wings and stabilizers.

A very special thanks to Alex Jossi, who snapped the photo above of ZA005 departing Boeing field on August 17.