The Road to 787 First Flight - April 25 - Swing swing swing

ZA001, jacked up off its landing gear, was conducting final landing gear swing tests late into Friday evening, as Boeing moves ever closer to rolling the first 787 to the flight line.

Using about 4 million lines of code, and a myriad of supporting systems, ZA001 raised and lowered its landing gear in concert with the nose and main gear doors.

Following this final ground-based validation of the landing gear system, the next test of the Messier-Dowty landing gear will take place in the skies over Washington when Mike Carriker and Randy Neville are at the controls. The area around the aircraft was cordoned off for the tests after jacks to raise the aircraft were installed early on Friday.

For ZA002, final preparations were underway for the ground vibration testing as additional testing equipment was being set up on Friday evening. The tests, according to Aviation Week, are slated to get underway around midnight Pacific Time.

Presuming the current testing progresses as planned, Boeing is targeting a very late Sunday night departure for ZA001 from Building 40-24. Dreamliner One will be quite visible on the flight line when the sun rises over Everett on Monday morning.