With three months and seven days since the 787's December's first flight, four Dreamliners have taken flight, accumulating roughly 360hr of flight time. Boeing is moving into the heart of its flight test program after completing both flutter and ground effects testing, with Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) by the Federal Aviation Administration expected by month's end.
There's been much discussion about the rate of accumulation of flight hours and whether or not the 787 flight test fleet is flying enough to meet the pace for a fourth quarter entry into service. Flight test hours, while the gauge offered by Boeing on 787flighttest.com, may not be the most accurate representation of the progress of the program. Frank Rasor, director of flight test operations for Boeing, explained last year that simple division will not yield a proper measurement of progress:
The other thing, if you did the math, when we talk about 7000 hours when you add up the ground test and flight test, and that adds up to longer than the flight test duration, if you just did testing. Well, there's a tremendous amount of concurrency in the test, so one test flight might be checking off 5-6 hours of written test objective. You can't take that math and divide by 24 and 31 because you'll get the wrong answer.
Though month three of 787 flight test did provide a bit of clarity on the pace of hours being accumulated. Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO, Jim Albaugh, said on March 9th that the program had used some margin built into the flight test program, but declined to specify how much. Albaugh traced the margin use to slower than expected turnaround time and a steeper learning curve.
We did burn a little bit. And, really, what it was-- It was really two things - getting the efficiency on the flight test program up. Right now, it's above where we wanted it to be. And the other thing is getting the turnaround of the airplanes, so we can get the hours in the airplane each and every day. And I think we've been able to address that. Again, a little slow in getting up to the learning curve. I think we're there right now. Last week, we had three airplanes up simultaneously. And I think, at the end of this month, we get our certificate, which will allow us to bring the flight engineers-- to bring the FAA onto the airplane and to really get into a lot of testing. So that should happen by the end of this month.
When Boeing mapped out its 787 flight test plan, it originally targeted TIA - the official commencement of certification - about two months after first flight. Program sources say that TIA was planned for late February. Albaugh's March 9 assessment places TIA at the end of the month, placing Boeing about a month off of its anticipated pace. Another source says that TIA continues to be paced by the completion of the Wedge V5.5 software testing.
Month Three 787 Flight Test Update continued below
ZA001/BOE1
Since February 15th, the aircraft has accumulated an additional 120hr of flight time over roughly 41 flights, bringing the airframe's total to more than 220hr over 68 flights. Month three of flight testing for ZA001 was dominated by flutter testing which wrapped up on March 19th after 27 test days. ZA001 progressed through flutter testing, clearing the aircraft at different speeds and altitudes, starting at FL150, progressing through FL220 and FL300 building toward a straight-and-level speed of M.92 and M.97 dive.
The aircraft reached a ceiling of FL430 (audio) on February 25th, while maintaining a 6,000ft cabin altitude and M.96/7 in a dive on on March 3rd (audio), clearing the aircraft to fly its full flight envelope. ZA001 performed a max thrust reverser landing (audio) March 4th at Boeing Field. The aircraft was filmed overflying Paine Field on its way to the flutter track on March 5th.
Matt Cawby captured air-to-ground recordings of ZA001's high-speed flutter testing on March 6th (flutter ops to M.90 & return to Boeing Field) and March 7th, departing Boeing Field (audio), and a no-thrust reverser Autobrakes 4 landing (audio) performed on return to BFI.
ZA001 moved into high-speed stability & control (S&C) testing on March 20th, following the completion of aeroelastic flutter testing.
ZA002/BOE2
Dreamliner Two accumulated 86 hours since February 15th bringing it to just under 130h total. ZA002 spent the first half of month three conducting stability & control testing of the 787's flight control system, along with tests of the aircraft's auxiliary power unit. During that period, ZA002 was transiting between Boeing Field and Moses Lake.The aircraft and about 150 Boeing employees transitioned to Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California for ground effects testing on March 9th. During its time in Southern California, the aircraft flew close to the airport's 15,000ft runway under visual flight rules demonstrating the takeoff and landing handling of the 787.
Dreamliner Two is expected to return to Boeing Field on Tuesday, March 23rd.
PHOTOS FROM VICTORVILLE
ZA004/BOE4
PHOTOS FROM VICTORVILLE
ZA004/BOE4Dreamliner Four made its first flight on February 24th (audio) from Paine Field, ferrying to Boeing Field (landing video) after a 3h flight with Capts. Heather Ross (ZA004 chief pilot) and Craig Bomben at the controls. The aircraft completed high-speed taxi runs (audio) before departing Everett. ZA004 had previously run through its final gauntlet, which started on February 19th. After first flight, the aircraft went into a planned post-first flight layup on the ground at BFI for installation of additional instrumentation ground tests.
On March 10th, ZA004 began serving as a testbed for the Wedge V5.5 "service-ready" software load, which includes the updates to the flight control module (FCM) and holds the fly-by-wire software and the 787's control laws. Flight testing the new software began on March 18th, when ZA004 returned to flight test.
Final software flight tests are expected to wrap up on Monday, March 22nd before the aircraft goes into a period of ground testing.
On March 10th, ZA004 began serving as a testbed for the Wedge V5.5 "service-ready" software load, which includes the updates to the flight control module (FCM) and holds the fly-by-wire software and the 787's control laws. Flight testing the new software began on March 18th, when ZA004 returned to flight test.
Final software flight tests are expected to wrap up on Monday, March 22nd before the aircraft goes into a period of ground testing.
ZA003/BOE3
Dreamliner Three, flown by Capts. Ray Craig (ZA003 chief pilot) and Mike Bryan, made its maiden flight on March 14th for 3h and 5min (arrival video). The first flight came after ZA003 wrapped up two days worth of final mini-gauntlet testing on March 10th and 11th. The aircraft has been in a planned post-first flight layup period since its first flight, which was originally set to take place by the end of February, but slid due to pre-fitting of flight test instrumentation.ZA005 & ZA006
Both General Electric GEnx-1B-powered 787 flight test aircraft remain parked inside Building 40-24 - future site of the 787 surge line - being prepared for their respective first flights expected in April or May. ZA005 carried out nacelle strut drain testing around March 7th and the aircraft is now expected to move out for a final aqueous wash of the fuel tanks. ZA006's engines have arrived on the factory floor for fitting.
Photos Credit Anonymous (1), Seahawks7757 (2), Code20photog (3-4), Jim Atkins (5-6) Scott Lewis (7), Rick Schlamp (8), Kevin Scott (9)
Photos Credit Anonymous (1), Seahawks7757 (2), Code20photog (3-4), Jim Atkins (5-6) Scott Lewis (7), Rick Schlamp (8), Kevin Scott (9)
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