Category: FlightBlogger

With first delivery likely to slip into 2011, Boeing is making significant executive moves to right its jumbo freighter program. Effective Monday:

• Pat Shanahan, current vice president of airplane programs, has extended his responsibilities on the program and will oversee flight test, certification and delivery of the 747-8F. His role as head of airplane programs will continue.
• Mo Yahyavi, current 747 vice president and general manager, will take on an unpecified special assignment.
• Elizabeth Lund, current 767 vice president and general manager will take over as Shanahan’s deputy program manager.
• Kim Pastega, current head of 777 manufacturing, will assume the role of 767 vice president and general manager. 
• Jason Clark, current head of 747-8 interiors, will assume the role currently held by Pastega.

Photo Credit Russell Hill

Passed midnight on the east coast and this is just out from Boeing:

EVERETT, Wash., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The Boeing (NYSE: BA) Company said today that it now expects delivery of the first 787 in the middle of the first quarter 2011.

The delivery date revision follows an assessment of the availability of an engine needed for the final phases of flight test this fall.

While Boeing works closely with Rolls-Royce to expedite engine availability, flight testing across the test fleet continues as planned.

Boeing said last month that the cumulative impact of a series of issues, including supplier workmanship issues related to the horizontal stabilizer and instrumentation delays, could push first delivery of the 787 a few weeks into 2011. The delay in engine availability has extended that estimate to mid-first quarter 2011.

The schedule revision will not affect the company’s financial guidance.

UPDATE 12:05 AM PT: Here’s my full story on the announcement, including what could potentially be happening with the future of the Package A engine.

While the airframer did not explicitly address the uncontained 2
August failure of a ‘Package A’ Trent 1000 in its announcement, the
company says “the delivery date revision follows an assessment of the
availability of an engine needed for the final phases of flight test
this fall”, indicating ‘Package B’ powerplants may be substituted for
the early build Trent 1000s for ANA.

With a lack of specifics from Boeing and Rolls-Royce, the future of
the Package A engine remains uncertain. However, indications exist that
a modification for the failed part will be fed back into the early
production engines with the fall testing related to flying Airplane
Nine – the first production 787 to fly – on limited engineering tests,
instead of Package B certification testing on test aircraft four.

SEATTLE — Late Thursday, ATW reported that Kenya Airways managing director and CEO was notified first delivery to All Nippon Airways will slip an additional three months , placing the handover at the end of the first or beginning of the second quarter of 2011. Historically, Boeing’s last step before announcing a further delay to
the 787’s first delivery has coincided with the official notification
of its customer base.

Boeing would not confirm if it had informed Kenya Airways or any of its 787 customers an additional delay in first delivery to ANA was coming. The airframer has already cautioned that first delivery could slip out of 2010 into early 2011 after sluggish flight test instrumentation change out and horizontal stabilizer inspections slowed the flight test program.

Currently unknown is if the August 2 uncontained failure of a ‘Package A’ Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine will have any impact on the schedule, despite assurances by the engine maker.

The third week of August is no stranger to Boeing announcements of bad news. One year ago tomorrow, Boeing announced a six-month delay following the June 2009 revelation that the 787 required reinforcement of the side-of-body.

7:07 PM PT UPDATE: A source with knowledge of the announcement says that a slip in first 787 delivery to the middle or end of the first quarter will be released on Friday.

7:11 PM PT UPDATE: It is believed the slip will be attributed to issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine, as well as the Alenia-made horizontal stabilizer. The source adds that slip was was expected on Thursday, though Boeing and Rolls-Royce were agreeing on the wording of the announcement.

In June, Flightglobal was invited by civil and defense simulator manufacturer CAE to get hands-on with its Boeing 787 Series 7000 full-flight simulator. Mike Gerzanics, Flightglobal test pilot and current 737 captain and I traveled to Montreal, Canada for an up-close look at a new Level D simulator that will be used to train Continental’s 787 pilots in Houston. Mike, who is also rated in the 777 authored a comprehensive flight test package about his impressions of the 787 simulator, its handling and features.

During the two hours we had with the simulator, Gerzanics and I flew the simulated skies over San Francisco in both normal and irregular operations. Here are some of his impressions:

I am type rated in both the 777 and 757/767, having flown them in
engineering and maintenance capacity for a US legacy carrier. While it
has been several years since my last flight in either type, I instantly
felt at home in the 787. For my familiarisation preview flight of the
787 simulator, the empty weight was 113,500kg (250,000lb) and a fuel
load of 68,000kg. The simulator was at San Francisco International, an
airport with which I am familiar. CAE Capt Domenic Di Iorio sat in the
right seat and guided me through the pre-start flows. Di Iorio also ran
the electronic checklist.

By design, flows and procedures are similar to those I remember for the
777. While we typically would start both engines on the 777 at the same
time, we started No 2 followed by No 1 in the 787 simulator. Regardless,
the procedure is simple – start switch to start and start lever to on,
the FADEC taking care of the rest. Flaps were set to 5, and the
before-taxi checklist was accomplished using the smart electronic
checklist.

During the taxi to Runway 28R I again marvelled at level of detail in
the simulation. While never to be confused with the real thing, feeling
concrete expansion joints while taxiing lends an air of authenticity. A
reduced power take-off was accomplished, with indicated take-off speeds
(V1/VR/V2) of 142/144/153kt respectively.

Rotation forces were on par with those I remembered from the 777,
establishing a 10e_SDgr attitude and holding it until lift-off. Once
airborne the gear was retracted and I followed the flight director
guidance for the initial climb. Passing 1,000ft (300m) MSL the flaps
were retracted at the reference flap speed bugs on the airspeed tape. A
250kt indicated airspeed climb to 5,000ft MSL was accomplished, and I
steered the 787 towards the coast near Half Moon Bay, California.

Travel Day: DCA-BDL-ORD-SEA, originally uploaded by flightblogger.

HARTFORD — I’m currently in the middle of my day bouncing across the country. I’ve wrapped up my visit to Pratt & Whitney in Hartford and Middletown where the company tightened the final bolt on the first PW1524G engine to test. After a grueling 24-month, eight-engine certification program the geared powerplant will take flight under the wing of the Bombardier CSeries. I’ll have much more on my visit to Pratt during this week and next.

Next stop for me is O’Hare on United 483 on board N468UA, an Airbus A320, then on to Seattle for a few days for the unveiling of the Boeing 787 full flight simulator and additional interviews. Flightglobal will be covering 787 simulators wall-to-wall, so check back mid-day Thursday for an up close multimedia look at the tools that will train future Dreamliner pilots and a 777-rated pilot’s impression of how the simulator handles.

If all goes to plan, Thursday and Friday are going to be very, very busy days on this blog.

Stay tuned.

How is it possible that 787 is flying icing tests in late August in the skies over Seattle? In fact, Boeing’s fifth 787 flight test aircraft – ZA005 (N787FT) – has been been doing exactly that – flying maneuvers to evaluate the handling and stall characteristics as if ice were forming on the 787’s wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers. However, flight test crews aren’t out searching for natural icing conditions like they did with ZA001 in mid-May, rather, before taking off from Boeing and
Paine Fields earlier this week, ZA005 was fitted with simulated ice
shapes.  

Frank Rasor, then director of flight test operations, and now Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief engineer, described the icing tests at a 2009 787 flight test briefing:

Basically what we’ve done is been able to simulate the worst case icing conditions on the airplane with ice shapes. Flight test is all about the envelope conditions, so we will be testing within that envelope and get ice buildup on the airplane. But the ice shapes allow us to know we are at that end condition, otherwise it’s very difficult to measure what’s happening on the wing during the flight. It allows us to get there, know the condition, and fly there safely. Ice shapes are primarily foam-epoxy build-up and they’re put on with glue and aluminum speed tape that we use in flight tests. They can be taken off. We do performance take-off and landing with those ice shapes on. 

ZA005 spent a few extra days at Paine Field before the testing got underway on Sunday, after the aircraft
developed a hydraulic leak on approach during an August 17 flight from Boeing Field. The aircraft has spent this week flying in and out of Everett and over Puget Sound with the ice shapes fitted to the leading edges of the wings and stabilizers.

A very special thanks to Alex Jossi, who snapped the photo above of ZA005 departing Boeing field on August 17.

Just out from Bloomberg:

Rolls-Royce Group Plc was forced to temporarily close a site used to trial jet engines for Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner model and the rival Airbus SAS A350 after a turbine blew up on the test bed earlier this month.

The failure of the Trent 1000 engine, which powers the Dreamliner, resulted in “limited debris being released into the test facility,” Rolls-Royce spokesman Josh Rosenstock said in a telephone interview late yesterday. Minor repairs to the site in Derby, England, will be completed shortly, he said.

The failure, which happened on August 2, was not initially confirmed as uncontained by Rolls-Royce or Boeing, with statements that declined to address the specific nature of the incident.

The European Aviation Safety Agency, which must sign off on new aircraft and components developed in the region, said it sent an official to England following the test-bed incident. The malfunction occurred on Aug. 2 and was a so-called uncontained failure, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Alison Duquette. That means pieces of debris would have been flung out at high speed, piercing the housing. 

“We can confirm that we have been notified by Rolls-Royce and we are working with the company to make sure the engine is certified to the highest possible standard,” EASA spokesman Jeremie Teahan said yesterday from Cologne, Germany.

Boeing said last week that it was working with Rolls-Royce closely on the investigation and added that it the failure had not impacted 787 flight testing “to date”. Though as part of the company’s investigation, it was “working through a plan” to determine if first delivery to ANA or 787 production flights would be impacted. Boeing did not disclose when it expected to complete the investigation.

As I write this, ZA002 (N787EX), Boeing’s second 787 flight test aircraft is cruising up the coast of Canada at 36,000ft bound for the North Pole to spend the day evaluating a myriad of navigation systems.

I plugged in ZA002’s flight plan into Great Circle Mapper to get a sense of 787’s polar route, which will see the aircraft heading north along the Pacific coast toward Fairbanks, Alaska, before overflying the northern-most airport in the United States, Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport in Barrow, Alaska.

SEA J523 YZT J502 FAI Q61 BRW 7500N 16500W 8000N 17500W 8500N 17500W
8900N 15000W 9000N 00000W 8900N 13000W 8500N 13000W 8000N 13000W 7500N
13000W 7000N 12500W 6500N 12300W 6000N 12300W YYE J541 YYJ JAWBN1

After crossing Barrow, ZA002 will continue north over the Beaufort Sea before reaching 90N 0W, also known as the geographic North Pole. (A 2005 estimate of the magnetic North Pole lies at 82.7°N 114.4°W)

The aircraft will then head south through Western Canada with a return to Boeing Field scheduled for 10:15 PM PT. With its departure this morning just before 8 AM from Seattle, the polar flight will be the longest performed by a 787 to date clocking in at more than 14 hours. This will break the record held by ZA004 at 12h 30min recorded during NAMS testing on May 19.

Aviation Week’s Guy Norris provides a superb technical summary of the kind of navigation tests that ZA002 will conduct during the polar flight and includes his own personal experiences flying along with McDonnell Douglas MD-11 flight test teams in 1989 as they validated the aircraft’s navigation systems over the North Pole:

Although
Boeing does not comment on specific flight tests, it is likely the crew
will perform runs to and around the north pole in various modes and
simulating various system failures. In 1989 I was lucky enough to be on
a polar test flight during the latter stages of the MD-11 certification
program, and joined the crew on the flight deck along with the FAA and
JAA officials to see how the displays would cope with the transition
over the pole itself. With darkness cloaking the scene outside, all
eyes were on the large screens as the moment arrived. Despite several
failure modes deliberately added to the mix, the system coped admirably
– the displays momentarily ‘blinked’ before a rapid heading and track
reversal occurred as we passed over the polar waypoint.

It
was a strange thought that one second we were hurtling north at
transonic speed, and the next we were pointing straight south. Our
flight had begun in London and transited to the pole via Norway before
crossing the top of the world and continuing south across Canada and
the U.S. to McDonnell Douglas’s test site in Yuma, Ariz. It was a
memorable day, not least for allowing me to witness two sunrises and
two sunsets in the space of 14 hours!

Map Courtesy Karl Swartz

In the just the last two weeks, three mystery facilities across the United States have come to the fore with varying degrees of clarity, and three of the worlds biggest aircraft makers are closely involved and not saying a word.

The first sub-assemblies for MSN001, the first Airbus A350-900, are scheduled to arrive in Toulouse a year from now in the third quarter of 2011 ahead of final assembly.

The program has eaten significant margin already, having pushed the start of final assembly of MSN001 from second quarter 2011 to the third quarter 2011, with first flight to follow in mid-2012. That event will kick off a 12-month – down from 15-month – five aircraft, 2,600h flight test program to certify the new twin-jet.

The initial slip of three months, which maintains an entry into service date with Qatar Airways in mid-2013, was attributed by Airbus to four primary areas related to the sizing of the majority composite jetliner.

[A350 program manager Didier] Evrard says the decision to push back fabrication was partly driven by
the fact that Airbus is working in so many new areas with carbonfibre,
so “you only have one chance. Normally you could commit to production
with a global finite element model, but the process for development of
structure in composite is really different [to metal] – you cannot
start machining the part and then improve the design.

“The four areas affected comprised the airframe sizing, the wing-root joint, the fuselage’s electric structural network (ESN – which helps the conductivity of the carbonfibre fuselage) and the fuselage damage tolerance. While the first two issues have been resolved and the fixes approved, validation of the solutions for the latter two is ongoing but progressing well, says Airbus.

However, with three years to go before it carries passengers, a new report from Bernstein Research is pegging A350 entry into service in 2014. The report by Air Transport World, does not elaborate on the reasons for the further slip, but states that the European airframer will hand over just eight of the aircraft in 2014.

Asked to comment, an Airbus spokesperson told ATW, “We don’t have any basis to confirm the data in the Bernstein report.” Airbus has reassured the market in the past that the program is on track for a 2013 first delivery.

With Airbus maintaining its 2013 target, one A350 supplier source tells FlightBlogger: “Airbus is in more schedule trouble than Boeing was with the 787.” First Section 15 composite panel fabrication is expected to begin in September or October at Spirit AeroSystems in Kinston, North Carolina, adds the source, before the parts are later shipped to St. Nazaire for center fuselage build up in the first quarter of 2011.

Despite a potential slip, fabrication of MSN001 has been ongoing since December 2009, and structural supplier Aerolia, which builds the upper panel of the Section 12, which will contain the A350’s forward doors, completed fabrication in July along with the St. Nazaire-manufactured aluminum lithium lower sill of Section 11 which makes up the flight deck structure in the forward fuselage.

Rendering Credit Airbus & Photo Credit Aerolia