Jon Ostrower : November 2008 Archives

As Boeing continues to tackle the time consuming replacement of thousands of fasteners, 787 production remains frozen and is pacing a formal assessment of the program's schedule, including a timeline for first flight and delivery.

Though a revised 787 schedule for the start of the flight test program is yet to be determined, Boeing is focusing its efforts for the remainder of 2008 on providing a clean bill of structural health to Dreamliner One.

Boeing declined to comment on the pace of the on-going schedule assessment.

According to sources familiar with the fastener replacement timeline, the expected completion of the fix for Dreamliner One should come by the end of December.

Yet, the on-going fastener replacement is reverberating down the assembly line. Everett, WA-based sources add that no production airframe movements are scheduled for the remainder of the year, resulting in final assembly start for Dreamliner Five, the first General Electric GEnx powered 787, being pushed into 2009.

However, late last week, ZY998, the fatigue test airframe, exited Building 40-24 for the paint shop. The move took place after dark, says one program source, adding that the improperly installed fasteners will be addressed after ZY998 leaves the paint shop.

To date, of the major aircraft structures, only the wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers have arrived for Dreamliner Five at Boeing's Everett facility. The forward, center and aft fuselage sections are being held at supplier partners to conduct fastener replacement.

Vought, which is responsible for the fabrication of the aft fuselage, says it will take about a week per airplane to fix the problem. Vought adds that only shipsets five through 11 require new fasteners because shipsets 12 and on have yet to receive internal structure requiring fasteners.

For the center fuselage integrated by Global Aeronautica, the fastener situation is considerably worse, requiring "about ten thousand" fasteners that need to be replaced between Dreamliners Five and Six, according to one veteran engineer in Charleston.

The Seattle Times, citing sources familiar with the situation, reports that 2000 fasteners will need to be replaced on the aft fuselage and 3000 for the forward fuselage produced by Spirit Aerosystems.

Boeing's round-the-clock work schedule is almost entirely devoted to addressing this issue, as well as inspecting each aircraft for additional quality control issues says one 787 machinist.

To accomplish the task, insulation blankets were removed from the length of all 787 interiors to allow for access to the questionable fasteners. For Dreamliner One, many computer workstations, water barrels and some overhead bins have been installed in the cabin in preparation for the flight test campaign as well.

Another source working directly with the flight test aircraft says other improperly installed fasteners have been found that do not meet the initial problematic non-conforming criteria, but adds that the problems are being addressed concurrently with the existing fixes.

Dreamliners One through Four have had their engine pylons removed and returned to Spirit AeroSystems for fastener repairs. As a result, the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines from Dreamliner One have been removed and positioned behind the aircraft.

Boeing announced earlier this month that the 787 would not fly in 2008, initially citing the 57-day strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers as the cause, though the need to replace thousands of improperly installed fasteners has pushed major 787 milestones into 2009.

Movie Monday is kicking off a bit earlier than usual today (12:52 AM) because I am releasing a 787 update later this morning.

This week's movie is part of a five hour long documentary entitled the 21st Century Jet (1996), which will be presented here over the next five weeks. Many have seen the famous clips from the documentary on YouTube showing the rejected takeoff and wing break testing, but few have seen the complete film which details every aspect of the development of the Boeing 777-200 from the early days as the 767X and the United Airlines launch order to entry into service in Spring 1995.

This is one of the single most valuable public historical tools for understanding Boeing, its recent history and its philosophy on innovation and risk. From a personal prospective, this documentary served as a model for my coverage of the 787 program that you see here. Embedded inside this movie are important lessons for the 787 program, as well as the context for understanding the global design and supply chain.

Episode I: To Design a Plane

Permit me this a brief detour from covering aircraft and allow me to introduce you to my friend Jake Brewer. Jake's Dad work's for GM in Tennessee. GM has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember, and now GM is staring down the spectre of a bankruptcy that has the potential to take an entire US state down with it. I, like Jake, am torn over what to do. What is the role of government? Can a business really be too big to fail? Or just too big? I'll let Jake speak for himself and what GM has meant for his family and this country, I think you'll appreciate Jake's thoughts on innovation and technology in this tumultuous time.

Originally posted at huffingtonpost.com.

GM Goes Grassroots. A son is torn.
On November 12, Tom Brewer received an "URGENT call to action..." along with all other General Motors employees in the United States from GM North American President Troy Clarke. The return email address was "grassroots@gm.com." The urgent task at hand: Call your members of Congress to request that the American auto industry receive a government "loan" of at least $25 billion.

Employees were then directed to a website through which to take action:

www.gmfactsandfiction.com

As a grassroots clean energy advocate and strategic communications professional, it's a type of request I know intimately. I've written and received countless emails just like it. Two this week. Tom, however, has not.

Tom has been an employee of General Motors since he graduated from Evansville University in 1974. At the time, for a Midwestern kid from "stonecutter" Bedford, Indiana, it was kind of like going to work for Google today.

As you can imagine, Tom's seen a lot happen in the energy and auto industries in the last 34 years, but before this year he never considered that his retirement, his health care, and indeed his professional future would be in such dramatic jeopardy. In fact, without ever changing careers, he once worked for the largest and arguably the most influential corporation in the world; now he's getting these emails. He never dreamed that he'd need to be calling his congressmen to save the company to which he's always been loyal, and upon which he and his family's livelihood has depended. I can speak with such certainty about Tom's past because I've known him for 27 of the 34 years he's been with General Motors, and we're very close.

Tom is my dad.

Ford Motor Company has a market cap of $3.01 billion at 3:31 PM. A bit of afternoon blogger snark:

That means you could buy Ford for about 12 of the aircraft Alan Mullaly helped to invent.

For a point of comparison, that's 20% of the 777s that Emirates operates. How's that for irony?

Call me crazy, but I always felt Project Runway was a show that should've been about airports. So much for that plan. Beginning today, a hat trick of new runways opens up at three major airports across the US. Airport expansion is quite rare here in the US and seeing three huge new runways opening simultaneously is unheard of. Airports are more likely to be closed in the United States rather than opened.

My home airport, Washington-Dulles got its first new runway since it opened in 1962. Runway 1L /19R is 9,400 feet long and appears to be accessible only by Taxiway Tango currently. For this runway to be truly effective, this runway will need all its taxiways connected so it doesn't snarl traffic on 12/30.

At Seattle-Tacoma, Ruwnay 16R/34L is officially operational after 15 years of debate and Chicago-O'Hare gets 9L/27R at the north end of the massive airport. Interestingly, it turns out that airlines are less than enthusiastic about the next phase of O'Hare expansion.

If you want more airport news, I highly recommend Terminal Q authored by my colleague, the always insightful Megan Kuhn. Terminal Q just migrated from its original home over at Blogger to Flightglobal.com, so stop by and wish her a warm welcome!

I went spelunking in the United States Patent and Trademark Office cave and came out with a gem of a find. Its title: AIRCRAFT. Clever, I know. This AIRCRAFT patent (filed by The Boeing Company) claims to depict "The ornamental design for an aircraft." It does not disappoint. There's not a whole lot of textual meat to the application, which is why the visuals are so important.

Patent D0580864 looks pretty radical. Two cabins with stadium style forward sloping seating with a two level lounge area separating the two cabins. It may kill cargo capacity, but it sure looks interesting. It would certainly rule out anyone from the economy cabin using the premiums lavs.

My colleague asked me, what aircraft it was modeled on and I thought for for a moment that it was arbitrary, but it struck me that it bore a striking resemblance to the Sonic Cruiser design from 2001-2002.

I dug a bit deeper into the 5-page patent and the cabin arrangement shows 214 seats in a two-class configuration; premium holds 35 and economy 179. The seat layout fits loosely into the same aircraft class as 787 and A330. What a wild design. I threw this graphic together (with the help of the Flight archives) to give you a sense of the comparison.

Right now in Everett, twin 787s are undergoing final assembly with red painted rudders. Dreamliners Three and Four are destined for Northwest. I've had the pleasure of seeing both at various states of assembly in South Carolina, Kansas and Washington. Dreamliner Three will forever hold a special place in my heart, as it was the first 787 I stepped aboard back in May.

The now-approved merger of Delta and Northwest has provided this blogger with much Photoshop fodder over the past several months. Whether it was their respective fleets side by side when the merger was first announced or the first Delta 747-400 set to emerge from the paint shop next month, this merger has been easy on the eyes.

I went ahead and had some fun with Photoshop yesterday afternoon and painted up a rendering of what a Delta 787 should look like when it emerges from the paintshop. Make sure to click the image for a larger version.

Though, with things progressing sluggishly in Everett, will those two flight test 787s be painted first in Northwest or Delta colors? I would imagine that Delta doesn't love the idea of having to pay for repainting of two new aircraft, so it certainly remains an open question if ZA003 and ZA004 will be born Delta instead of Northwest.

Boeing just released its third in an ongoing series of 787 milestone videos on its website. The latest chronicles the completion of destructive testing on the 787 test wingbox. The results of will be analyzed and applied to additional testing on the 787 static airframe (ZY997). The final validation of wing strength for FAA certification will be carried out on ZY997 when the wing is bent to apply 150% of maximum loads.

Boeing has not yet decided if it plans to break the wings of ZY997. One could speculate that the destruction of the test article helped in determining the extent of debris cleanup that might be required if the test was carried out on ZY997 inside the factory. In January 1995, the Boeing 777 was brought to 154% of maximum loads before it snapped in spectacular fashion.

Breaking the wing is not a requirement for certification, but would help in understanding the overall strength of the wing. If the wing survives well past 150% of maximum loads, it would provide a guide for weight reduction because the wing would be carrying too much structure, as well as assisting in understanding the growth potential for future 787 models.

With last week's announcement of the 747-8 delay, got me to thinking. Just how many 747-400s are left to be delivered? Boeing originally intended to build 747-400s and 747-8s side by side on the production line in Everett, but decided a year ago to close out the -400 line before launching -8 assembly.

The last passenger -400 was delivered to China Airlines back in April 2005, leaving nine 747-400 freighters left for delivery.

After poking around a bit and triangulating some data, the remaining nine will go to four cargo operators: UPS (1), Nippon Cargo Airlines (2), Cathay Pacific (4) and LoadAir Cargo (2) of Kuwait. UPS and NCA will receive -400Fs and CX and LoadAir will receive -400ERFs.

The final -400, an Extended Range Freighter, is destined for LoadAir and will be the 1419th 747 built since 1968.

Sluggish Deliveries Warning
This item went largely unnoticed last week from the EADS Airbus press conference:

Deliveries of Airbus A380 aircraft may be delayed: EADS
PARIS (AFP) - Deliveries of some super-jumbo Airbus A380 airliners scheduled for next year may be delayed until 2010, the head of the European aerospace group EADS said on Friday.

"We had planned to deliver 12 A380s in 2008 and 21 in 2009. Some of the 21 for 2009 may be delivered in 2010," EADS head Louis Gallois said in telephone press conference.

Airbus chief Thomas Enders had bet a magnum of champagne on delivering the 33 aircraft by the 2008 and 2009 time frame.

New customers Air France, Lufthansa and China Southern are among the airlines expected to get their first A380s in 2009.

Wave 2 did fly!
There was quite a bit of back and forth last week about whether or not the first Wave 2 A380 actually flew. MSN026 in fact did make its first flight as reported by Flight on November 12. Though, it raised a funny question: If a plane flies in Toulouse and no one is around to spot it, did it actually fly?

Well, the answer is yes. The aircraft left early in the morning and came back to TLS after a two hour flight rather than being ferried to XFW. No photographers were around to spot it at the time. The QANTAS A380 arrived in Hamburg earlier today with plenty of visual evidence to support that claim.

A380 No. 10 leaves the nest
Emirates got its 3rd (of 58) A380-800 (MSN016 A6-EDC) on November 15th, making it the tenth superjumbo to be delivered since the A380 entered service in 2007 with Singapore Airlines. The arrival of number three will launch service between Dubai and London on December 1. The commencement of that route will bring the total A380 city pairs to seven. QANTAS A380 no. 2 VH-OQB is next in line for delivery.

ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: A6-EDC [ ]
Message label: Q0 Block id: 4 Msg no: S27A
Flight id: EK7380 [] [Emirates]
----------------------------------------------------------[ 15/11/2008 09:17 ]-

QANTAS names its A380
Am I crazy or are there only 19 bullet points here? QANTAS ordered 20 A380s. Also, there are 21 names. I'm willing to bet that Keith and Ross McPhearson Smith each get their own superjumbo and John and Reginald Duigan get to share. Anyone care to clarify?

• Nancy-Bird Walton - the first woman to fly a commercial aviation service in Australia. First woman to fly a commercial service in Australia.
• Hudson Fysh - one of the founders of Qantas and the airline's first Managing Director. A founder of Qantas and the first Managing Director.
• Paul McGinness - A Qantas founder.
• Fergus McMaster - A Qantas founder and the airlines first Chairman.
• Lawrence Hargrave - The inventor of the box kite and achieved a linking of four to fly sixteen feet in 1894.
• Charles Kingsford Smith - Achieved the first trans-Pacific flight that ran from the USA to Australia in 1928. He also formed Australian National Airways Limited.
• Charles Ulm - Charles Kingsford Smith's Co-pilot when he flew the trans-pacific flight and was also a founder of Australian National Airways Limited.
• Reginald Ansett - The founder of Ansett Airways in Australia.
• David Warren - The inventor of the Black Box Flight Recorder still used in modern airliners.
• Bert Hinkler - Achieved the first solo flight from Britain to Australia in 1928.
• John and Reginald Duigan - Both men were the first to design and build a flying powered aircraft in 1910.
• Phyllis Arnot - The first Australian woman to achieve a commercial pilots licence.
• Keith McPhearson Smith and Ross McPhearson Smith - both were winners of the 'air race' that ran between London and Australia held in 1919.
• Lester Brain - One of the pilots working on the first Qantas routes in 1925. He was responsible for transporting the first Catalina Flying Boat that was delivered to Qantas in 1941. Mr Brain was also given the position of General Manager of Trans-Australia Airlines in 1946.
• Lores Bonney - The first woman to complete a solo flight around Australia in 1932 and the first to fly solo from Australia to England in 1933.
• Norman Brearley - The founder of Western Australian Airways Limited. The airline were responsible for operating the first scheduled air service commencing on the 5th of December 1921.
• PG Taylor - Charles Kingford Smith and Charles Ulm's navigator and co-pilot on several occasions on flight between Australia and the USA as well as between England and Australia. Awarded the Empire Gallantry Medial in 1937 for acts of bravery.
• John Flynn - The Royal Flying Doctor Service founder.
• Gaby Kennard - The first Australian female to complete a solo flight across the globe.

UPDATE - The one I missed:

• Scotty Allan - Co-pilot alongside Charles Ulm and P G Taylor on the 1933 record-breaking flight from England to Australia and later joined Qantas and flew DH86 aircraft on the Brisbane-Singapore route.

The National Geographic Channel has produced some great aviation documentaries over the years and this one is no exception. This five part show covers the development of the Airbus A380. I bid your productivity a fond farewell. Enjoy!

Just released:

SPEEA and Boeing reach tentative agreement on new contracts

SEATTLE - Tentative agreement was reached today between the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, and Boeing on new four-year contracts covering 21,000 engineers and technical workers.

The two sides reached agreement early Friday. Union negotiators are recommending members approve the agreements. If approved by union members, the agreements will replace existing contracts that expire Dec. 1.

Two contracts are involved in the negotiations. The first covers 14,000 engineers in the SPEEA Professional Bargaining Unit. The second contract covers 7,000 technical workers in the union's Technical Bargaining Unit. While the majority of workers are in the Puget Sound region, the contracts cover employees in Oregon, Utah and California. Both contracts expire Dec. 1.

No details can be released until after union negotiators present the agreements to the SPEEA Professional and Technical bargaining unit councils at a special meeting set for 5 p.m., this evening (Friday, Nov. 14).

Main Table negotiations started Oct. 29.

Source: SPEEA.org

News of the delay just broke. I was getting word over last 48 hours of something big coming out today, it looks like this is it. No word on when roll out of first flight would be. Though one could speculate that first flight would be late 2009 or early 2010.

An industry source tells FlightBlogger that Boeing is expecting 6 747-8F deliveries in 2010 followed by a production ramp up to about 4 per month.

Boeing Adjusts 747-8 Program Production and Delivery Schedule

• Deliveries of 747-8 Freighter to begin third quarter of 2010; deliveries of 747-8 Intercontinental passenger model to begin second quarter of 2011.
• Company working with customers to minimize disruption. Intercontinental passenger model to begin second quarter of 2011.

EVERETT, Wash., Nov. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boeing (NYSE: BA) today announced an adjusted schedule for production and delivery of the 747-8 Freighter and Intercontinental airplanes.

The revised schedule is based on a production and flight-test plan developed in conjunction with the company's suppliers that provides additional time for addressing issues that have slowed the program's progress. Those issues include supply chain delays driven by design changes to the airplane, limited availability of engineering resources inside Boeing, and the recent Machinists' strike that halted production in the company's factories.

Boeing today confirms that the 737 programme faces a new challenge to return to full rate production. Thousands of small pieces of structural hardware must be replaced because of a lack of corrosive coating.

The airframer says the components, known as nutplates, do not present "an immediate safety of flight issue."

The problem impacts "thousands" of nutplates in each 737 fuselage. The company adds that about 30% will require replacement, a number that runs about 3,000 to 4,000 nutplates per fuselage according to a program source, though the number varies depending on the model of 737.

Boeing is currently ramping up 737 production to its normal rate of about one per day, following the 57-day strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). The nutplate quality issue, however, means assembly workers must scramble to replace the parts before each aircraft now on Boeing property can be delivered.

Boeing emphasizes that no 737 will be delivered unless it meets proper conformity standards. Boeing declined to specify what impact the nutplate replacement would have on the pace of production and deliveries.

Boeing says it is devoting significant resources to solving this problem quickly.

Spirit AeroSystems is responsible for development of the 737 fuselage at its Wichita, Kansas facility. Once completed, the green 737 fuselage is shipped by rail to Renton, Washington, for final assembly.

Once completed, aircraft are flown to Boeing Field near downtown Seattle for delivery to customers.

Boeing says that one of three of Spirit's nutplate suppliers had been delivering parts lacking anti-corrosion material, adding that a root-cause analysis will be undertaken in conjunction with Spirit to prevent the problem from recurring.

Spirit was unavailable for comment.

Boeing adds that all non-conforming nutplates that have yet to be installed at Spirit have been returned to the supplier.

Staff from Spirit have been dispatched to the Seattle area to help identify and fix fuselage sections that are not yet in the final assembly phase.

However, the problem is not limited to only those aircraft waiting to be assembled and delivered.

According to Boeing, 737s delivered to customers since August 2007 contained non-conforming nutplates. Boeing's delivery website says that 394 737s were delivered between August 2007 and October 2008.

The company is working with the FAA to address the in-service fleet. Boeing says that only areas exposed to moisture could potentially present problems in the long-term by corroding prematurely.

737-800 Assembly Video after the jump
Photo Credit: FlightBlogger

Submitted without comment.

You may remember this infamous aircraft from the brutal accident that severely injured the ground test crew of Etihad's A340-600 (MSN856) last fall. This appears to be all that is left of the aircraft at Toulouse. The aircraft was going to be A6-EHG, but was heavily damaged during and engine run up while it was still in test registration F-WWCJ.

The accident happened almost a year ago (Nov. 5, 2007) and was reported here live as the accident details became available. Coverage of this accident generated the highest traffic this blog has seen to date.

From the Archives
November 5, 2007: Etihad A340-600 Severely Damaged in Engine Test
November 20, 2007: Etihad A340-600 Accident Photos

UPDATE: It looks like the tail made it to Paris for an environmental exhibition on the Place de la Concorde. Hat tip to LS for the find.

Sometimes the best resources are hidden right under your own nose! I went trolling across flightglobal.com yesterday and found some extraordinary features of this website that I don't utilize nearly enough and you really should take a look at.

Five things I didn't know about flightglobal.com

1. Cutaways - Flight has always been known for its cutaway drawings. Okay, I knew about this one already, but trust me, go exploring, you won't be sorry. I've got more than enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that they have inspired many a child to become an engineer. We've got most of the database online. It's definitely worth taking some time to explore. Each one is about 1000 pixels wide so you really get a good view.

When you throw apture in the mix you get a better look at things like the tail section of an Airbus A300 or flight deck of a Lockheed L1011.

http://flightglobal.com/cutaways

2. 100 Years of Flight Archive - Every issue of Flight International from 1909 to 2004 is available in a searchable PDF database. Every page, every issue. What about the August 16, 1945 issue at the end of WWII? Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969? Want to see when the idea of the 787 was born? Watch the 20th century unfold in the sky.

http://flightglobal.com/archive

3. Incident Watch - Hidden beneath a few layers of content, I discovered that we keep a  constantly updated log of incidents with any powered aircraft (GA and above, including military) that happen around the world. It's an excellent resource for boiling down an incident to its core elements. It also includes links to news stories and photos if they're available.

http://www.flightglobal.com/staticpages/incidentwatch.html

4. Commercial Aircraft Directory - Flight has compiled an impressive database of the vital statistics of a huge number of commercial aircraft. It even includes the thrust rating for all the possible type of airframe/engine combinations. For a data junky like me, it's a goldmine. Best yet, it's available in metric and imperial.

5. Videos, videos, videos - I had no idea how many we actually had. Some recent ones like the delivery tour of the QANTAS A380 or interviews with airline CEOs provide an often unseen glimpse into the workings of the aerospace industry. There are even a few on there that were produced by yours truly. You can even upload your own to be featured on flightglobal.com.

One of my favorite airports in the world (have yet to visit) is Osaka's Kansai Airport. Also known as KIX (ICAO: RJBB), the airport is 100% man made, which also includes the land it sits on. The airport started off with just one runway (6/24) and had a second (6L/24R) added to allow for 24 hour airport operations in September 2007.

The terminal building, which has some breathtaking architectural inspiration, is the largest of its kind in the world at 1.7 kilometers from end to end.

If you're anything like me, you'll enjoy browsing through these (not for real flying) approach and departure procedure charts for Kansai.

Another interesting fact is that the bridge that connects the island airport to the mainland necessitated an evolution in weather radar systems because it is so large it was creating a false windshear indication for arriving aircraft.

Here's part one (of five). The remaining four can be found after the jump.

Obama to DC
President-elect Obama is making his first trip to DC today on an American Airlines MD-80. For historical comparison President-elect Bush used the American Airlines 737-800 Retrojet to get around after the 2000 election.

SPEEA and Boeing
Representatives from Boeing and SPEEA are sequestered at a SeaTac airport exchanging proposals and counter-proposals on contract language. Boeing calls the first offer "very respectable and oustanding." SPEEA had a different take, calling the offer "incomplete and disappointing." The best and final offer is expected this week.

At least the hotel has warm chocolate chip cookies at the front desk.

KLM gets first E-Jet
Royal Dutch Airlines KLM Cityhopper had its first Embraer E-190 delivered this weekend. PH-EZA bounced through Recife then to Tenerife on its way to Amsterdam.

Vought Earnings
Texas-based Vought Aircraft Industries announces its 3rd quarter earnings today. It should shed some light on the impact of the IAM strike and on-going 787 delays on the supply chain. Vought is responsible for fabricating the aft fuselage section (47 and 48) for the 787.

At its North Charleston facility, in response to the Boeing IAM strike and Boeing 787 delays, Vought has implemented a temporary shutdown of the bond fabrication operation and expects to extend the temporary shutdown to the production assembly areas. The length of the temporary shutdown will be determined by the length of additional delays in the 787 production schedule from Boeing.

There are some indications that the shutdown is likely to happen during the holiday season and layoffs are likely as a result. Back at Boeing all Machinists are expected to be back at work today jetliner production slowly ramps back up again.

Third A380 for Emirates
MSN016 A6-EDC was spotted flying around the Hamburg area this weekend as it gets ready for its delivery later before the end of the year. Hat tip to Sean Taylor for the find.

One year with Flight!
It's been a year since I officially went from rogue blogger to semi-respectable mainstream blogger. Rogue isn't the right word, maybe maverick? I've logged 80,000 miles and 1,514,599 page loads over 4 continents and 6 countries. A colleague pointed out that that comes to 19 page loads per mile, which may or may not be a metric for productivity, I can't tell.