A buzz has been floating through Everett these last few days. An excitement not felt since the July 2007 roll out of Dreamliner One. In the evening hours on the 10th of February a modified 747-400 touched down after its brief journey from McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas.
On board was a payload both significant for its level of completion and what it represents for the future of the 787 program. Under a cold, wet and cloudy Washington sky, a parcel of progress found its way into Building 40-36 at the Boeing plant in Everett.
The precious cargo was the nose section for Dreamliner Two, which is destined to be the second 787 to take to the skies.
The nose structure (Section 41), which was manufactured by Spirit Aerosystems, arrived largely complete, stuffed with its windows, windshield wipers, doors, ducting, wiring, insulation, flight deck bulkhead, significant flight deck structure and much more. All flight deck equipment, such as panels, controls and LCD screens are installed in Everett. Section 41 also shipped with its radome installed to protect the honeycomb radar that had already been installed underneath.
The completed statement of work of Dreamliner Two is the first opportunity to better demonstrate the potential behind the global assembly model for the 787 program. The arrival of structures for Dreamliner Two mark the first time parts intended for flight have arrived for a 787 since April and May of last year. It is also the first opportunity for all assembly teams to undertake the complete work package in the sequence Boeing intended for its 787s.
The level of completion of the nose section even caught those in the factory off guard, "Just wow. Everyone is stunned," remarked one engineer.
The final section of Dreamliner Two arrived the following afternoon. The center fuselage was flown from Charleston to Everett where it joined other major components on the factory floor.
The center fuselage section is made up of four major sections: The center wing box and landing gear well (Section 45/11), one forward barrel (Section 43), one aft barrel (Section 46), and one half barrel that is attached on top of the center wing box (Section 44). The four sections, which are fabricated by Italian and Japanese manufacturers, are integrated at the Global Aeronautica facility in Charleston, SC.
The level of completion of the center fuselage of Dreamliner Two stands in significant contrast to what arrived last spring for Dreamliner One. The 84-foot long structure was delivered with much of the flight test wiring, forward wing-to-body fairing, doors and air conditioning packs installed. The forward 43 section sports much of the necessary ducting, wiring and insulation.
The aft fuselage structure for Dreamliner Two, the 47 and 48 Sections, which are fabricated and assembled by Vought Aircraft Industries next to the Global Aeronautica facility in Charleston, arrived in Everett three weeks ago.
The 39-foot long barrel will require the most traveled work of the fuselage sections and underscores the challenges that still lay ahead for Boeing on the 787 program. Even with the work left to be completed on the aft fuselage, the structure itself is the most complete statement of work that has come out of the Vought facility in the Palmetto State to date.
The wings for Dreamliner Two have been in the factory for almost two weeks undergoing pre-integration work. They will be mated to the center wing box when the final body join gets underway in the coming weeks. Work has been progressing steadily toward installing flight control surfaces, pylons and wing systems. The most notable improvements on the wings are found in the level of completion of the leading and trailing edges, as well as the quality and quantity of permanent fasteners. According to one source the fasteners represent a "world of difference" over previous wing sets.
According to Senior 787 Program leadership, "Fully complete and stuffed sections are expected to arrive from some partners starting with Airplane 5." Though not fully stuffed, "The condition of assembly (COA) of the sections for Airplane 2 is significantly better than the COA for Airplane 1, static and fatigue."
Both the nose and center fuselage structures have been moved forward to Building 40-26 and have been loaded into the tooling at assembly station one. Assembly stations two, three and four are occupied by the Fatigue Airframe, Static Airframe and Dreamliner One respectively. This marks the first time in the 787 program that all four assembly stations are in use at the Final Assembly & Delivery facility.
The not-yet-assembled Dreamliner Two is significantly farther along than Dreamliner One, according to several sources who have worked with both, raising the chances that Dreamliner Two will be the first 787 to take to the skies later this year. Dreamliner One is being readied for power on and first flight more than a quarter mile down the assembly line in the massive Everett factory.
on February 13, 2008 10:30 AM | Reply
FLying LN 2 before LN 1 might be a problem mainly because of the fact that there are three airframes in front of it surrounded by scaffolding and other tooling in order to access areas where they need to finish assembly. Boeing is not about to remove all the scaffolding and fixtures, roll out the 3 planes in positions 2 through 4 so they can move out LN 2. By the time they do all that LN 1 will be ready to move.
on February 13, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply
Flying LN2 1st may not be possible since it is likely that only LN1 has the required level of flight load instrumentation built into the structure to allow the flight envelope to be opened for LN2-3-4-5-6.
on February 13, 2008 3:45 PM | Reply
Question: If Vought's rear fuselage composed of sections 47 and 48 is the assembly requiring the most traveled work, why was it the first to be delivered to Everett three weeks ago?
on February 13, 2008 4:21 PM | Reply
Question: If Vought's rear fuselage composed of sections 47 and 48 is the assembly requiring the most traveled work, why was it the first to be delivered to Everett three weeks ago?
Because it needs traveled works.
on February 13, 2008 6:25 PM | Reply
You go Boeing!!!
on February 14, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply
The news does not tell the whole truth. Much of the work on LN2 will have to be un-done in Everett as they need to incorporate design changes discovered with LN1.
Enjoy the moment, but this will draw even more resources away from completing LN1, and LN1 is months away from first-power with first-flight likely in the 4Q.
on February 14, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply
Stacy,
Would you please contact me at your earliest convenience at flightblogger (at) gmail (dot) com.
Thanks,
Jon
on February 14, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply
Stacy,
Would you please contact me at your earliest convenience at flightblogger (at) gmail (dot) com.
Thanks,
Jon
on February 14, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply
[i]The news does not tell the whole truth. Much of the work on LN2 will have to be un-done in Everett as they need to incorporate design changes discovered with LN1.
Enjoy the moment, but this will draw even more resources away from completing LN1, and LN1 is months away from first-power with first-flight likely in the 4Q.
[/i]
How can you incorporate design changes when you haven't even started test flights. You're whole assertion is off. The work with LN 1 is just to put it together not to discover design issues. If there were design issues with LN 1 I'm sure they would have made chagnes to LN 2 and out before shipping to Everett.
on February 14, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply
The news does not tell the whole truth. Much of the work on LN2 will have to be un-done in Everett as they need to incorporate design changes discovered with LN1.
Enjoy the moment, but this will draw even more resources away from completing LN1, and LN1 is months away from first-power with first-flight likely in the 4Q.
How can you incorporate design changes when you haven't even started test flights. You're whole assertion is off. The work with LN 1 is just to put it together not to discover design issues. If there were design issues with LN 1 I'm sure they would have made chagnes to LN 2 and out before shipping to Everett.
on February 14, 2008 10:41 PM | Reply
If anything, perhaps the stuffing work on LN2 helped out Boeing on LN1.
We're halfway through Q1, and Boeing has a little over 3 months to get their bird in the air (according to their schedule). Hopefully we aren't hearing another announcement of a delay in May.
on February 15, 2008 7:33 AM | Reply
Jon,
you don't need test flights to justify design changes. YOu can find many problems in the assembly phase as well. I believe Hughs statement, because it reflects my experiences during my work for another "big airframer" ;-). Ripping out cables to incorporate design changes (i.e. in the secondary structure) and putting them in (a different) place afterwards is common practice in such an early stage. But this is something what the public relations office will most likely not admit. Nevertheless it happened before and I am certain it happens at Boeing, too. "First time right" is a nice manager slogan, but this also never happens. In my opinion, Hughs assertion is quite realistic.
on February 15, 2008 10:31 AM | Reply
Enjoy the moment, but this will draw even more resources away from completing LN1, and LN1 is months away from first-power with first-flight likely in the 4Q.
If first flight slips well into 4Q, it's not only obvious that the R&D issues for the 787 are even more challenging than reported, but that the 787 may not receive technical certification until early March 2010.
Why?
Because the cold soak trials must be successfully completed during the cold weather test campaign. The aircraft must spend a couple of days in conditions of up to minus 30 degrees Celsius to prove full functionality of all systems under extreme weather conditions. Such trials will include powering up the aircraft, the engines and hydraulic systems after a full 12-hour period at such low temperatures.
The window for 787 cold weather test the will last until the end of February next year at the latest, that is, if Boeing won't mind doing the cold soak trials in the Antarctic region.
Hmm, Boeing shouldn't count on the new ice runway at Casey. By looking at the surface temperature of Antarctica in winter and summer, it's obvious that Casey's proximity to open water is important to the general characteristics of the Antarctic coastal climate found at Casey. Finally, by looking at the Annual Temperature Table for Casey, one should realise that the new blue ice runway is a non-starter in regard to cold soak trials.
on February 16, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply
'Largely', of course, implies more complete than not, yet doesn't say just how far the Spirit section has progressed to be fully stuffed.
Not that it matters. The key is that this state of affairs was supposed to have been attained last year, was not, yet was covered up. And, you, Jon, need to remember that you helped uncover the sleight of hand.
Sure, there was excitement last year; but, we know in retrospect that it was much ado about not much.
So, Boeing has learned from this experience. Has Spirit?