Two 747s touched down yesterday evening at Paine Field in Everett carrying the nose section and center fuselage for Dreamliner Four, marking the commencement of the next phase of assembly of the flight test 787s. The center fuselage, which spent almost eleven months in Charleston, arrived with a greater completion of assembly than was previously forecasted, sources confirm.
Delivery was supposed to take place in late June, though damage sustained on the center fuselage forced a re-evaluation of Boeing's schedule to both repair the damage and continue to reduce the amount of traveled work flowing to final assembly in Everett.
When Boeing
outlined its revised schedule in April, the beginning of final assembly of Dreamliner Four was identified as a significant program milestone.
Boeing has lost roughly five weeks of assembly time on Dreamliner Four, though the reduction in traveled work may end up putting Boeing ahead of where it otherwise would have been had the section shipped on time.
This three-part look inside the 787 program seeks to put in a broader context the current state of Boeing's 787 program. All quotes from 787 program chief Pat Shanahan come from an interview and media briefing conducted at the Farnborough air show in July.
Three interconnected and converging streams of work mark the midsummer point for the Boeing's troubled 787 program.
Part one focuses on the progress on Dreamliner One as it prepares for its first flight in November. Part two examines the current state of the supply chain. The third and final part takes a closer look at the five remaining flight test aircraft.
ZA001
In the life the 787 Dreamliner, number One is finally awake, its heart is pumping, fingers and toes wiggling and its eyes are ready to be opened.
With its nose just feet away from the flight line in Everett, work on the first 787 is going full steam ahead as preparations continue "on track" for a first flight in November.
Work on ZA001 is the tip of the spear as the 787 program makes progress.
Yet, design changes for weight reduction and functionality still are still significantly impacting the pace of work. For example, Boeing was forced to redesign the landing gear doors and the surrounding structure.
"We've got all these different projects coming in at a time," said Pat Shanahan, 787 Vice President and General Manager. "So the timing of getting that, it's a sequence issue, I put that door on in final assembly, so I want to get the weight out."
The complexity of the supply chain adds an additional challenge to change incorporation.
"If you're at Global Aeronautica, the issue is that there's some surround structure [for the center wing box and main landing gear well] that gets put in at Fuji if it travels to Global Aeronautica because it's in a tool and some of that structure is really important if you're going to move the fuselage."
Shanahan underscored the fact that design changes like these are inconvenient and disruptive, but also normal and planned as part of any new aircraft program. The new doors arrived for Dreamliner One in early June.
Even with these design changes, the more Boeing is able to learn from systems integration, the more it is able to apply lessons learned to the subsequent flight test and production aircraft.
The twin Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines
returned to Everett for installation on July 11 and were quickly remounted to the pylons. The cowlings and thrust reversers have also been installed on the engines in preparation for the first runs that will take place in the coming months.
Dreamliner One has had its nose cone radar installed and auxiliary power unit loaded into the aft tail cone.
Toward the end of July, Dreamliner One
achieved hydraulic power-on and successfully moved the aircraft's flight control surfaces for the first time. In the coming weeks, the aircraft will be jack up again to retract the landing gear for the first time.
In recent days, the FAA and ZA001 customer All Nippon Airways have been conducting closeout inspections on the wings.
Boeing expects to have all of the hardware on Dreamliner One qualified by the second or third week of August, "with the exception of the brakes."
Shanahan identified the brake control software as a crucial pacing item for the 787's first flight.
Boeing declined provide additional information on the completion of the brake control software being developed by Crane Co., a subcontractor for General Electric's Smiths aerospace unit.
Boeing intends to provide an update on this, and other program items, in the fall.
Dreamliner One will eventually move out of Building 40-26 for a spot on the 767 line to make way for the assembly of Dreamliner Five.
Finally, the looming contract negotiations between the IAM and Boeing could also present additional complications for the 787.
The revised schedule from April for first flight, according to sources, was initially set for late October. Though, with November now identified for first flight by Shanahan, parts of the schedule appear to have moved slightly to the right. Initially, Dreamliner One was scheduled to be factory complete 72 hours prior the expiration of the Machinists' contract on September 3rd.
In 2005, the Machinists went on strike for four weeks costing Boeing at least $1.5 billion in revenue and delayed delivery of 30 aircraft into the following year. Three years later, the uncertainty of a potential strike could have an impact on beginning the flight test program.
The negotiations begin on August 21.
Image credits to Gregg Segal, Royal King and Max Kingsley-Jones. Assembly depicted in March, May, June and July of 2008.
Have you ever seen "that guy" on the road? Have you even been "that guy?" You know, the one who feels compelled to text message while driving. What about while flying?
As for distracting the pilot, one would hope that we'll see aviate, navigate, communicate (then text message) hold true. A passenger sitting in the right seat can just as easily use the system as well.
Image courtesy Boeing
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