The Road to 787 First Flight – June 7 – Intermediate gauntlet complete (Update1)

Twenty-five individual blocks of testing covering nine days wrapped up today in Everett as ZA001’s intermediate gauntlet came to a close.

Boeing confirms the completion of second phase of gauntlet testing and Aviation Week reports that the intermediate wrapped up during the afternoon of June 7th. The testing put all 92 of the 787s systems through extensive testing as then aircraft was ‘fooled’ into thinking it was conducting real flights.

During the gauntlet, the aircraft could be seen running through various take off and landing approach configurations as ZA001 conducted its simulated flights. For example, extending spoilers on ‘touchdown’ followed by a reconfiguration of the control surfaces and a full power run up to simulate a touch-and-go landing.

This evening (June 7) Boeing
test engineers plan to conduct a systems test monitoring evaluation
which was last run in the last few days of May, just prior to the start
of the intermediate gauntlet. This is therefore seen as a clear sign
that the start of final gauntlet tests is imminent.

Block Nineteen – Flight control ‘sweeps’ for software refinement and telemetry testing. June 5
Block Twenty – Further flight control system check out. Late June 5
Block Twenty-one – Hydraulics testing. June 6
Block Twenty-two – Electrical systems testing. June 6
Block Twenty-three & Twenty-four – Common Core System tests. Overnight June 6
Block Twenty-five – Final electrical system testing. Afternoon June 7

During this weekend, ZA002 underwent testing of the Earth Reference System which feeds position, speed, course and heading data to the 787’s navigation system. The ERS is the key component of the Inertial Reference System (IRS) which is the integrated system combining the traditional ADIRU (Air Data Inertial Reference Unit) and SAARU (Secondary Attitude and Air Data Reference Unit). The left side of the overhead panel is home to the IRS flight deck controls aboard the 787, with a Right and Left activation switch. This differs from the 777 overhead panel which has just the single ADIRU pushbutton.

Early next week will bring two more program milestones when ZA002 heads to the fuel dock as early as Tuesday. Like ZA001 before it, the fuel system will be tested and calibrated and the Hamilton Sundstrand APS 5000 auxiliary power unit will be run for the first time while parked at the Fuel Dock. Across the country, Section 43 for the for the 14th flying 787 will arrive in Charleston at Global Aeronautica from Kawasaki in Nagoya, Japan.

Lastly, Air Transport Intelligence reports that the first Build 4A [Package B] Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines are to be bench tested later this month, before being mounted on the company’s 747-200 and flight tested in July. ZA004 will be the first to fly the new engine which will bring the 787’s fuel consumption within 1% of specification. The Build 4A [Package B] engines will be used for NAMS (nautical air mile) testing to determine the 787’s long-range performance. Boeing will deliver the first few 787s with the original build engines, followed early on by the modified Built 4A Trent 1000s.