Category: FlightBlogger

Airplane 28 won’t be radically different from any of previous 21 production 787s that proceeded it, but this airframe, that will eventually end up in the hands of Air India, is crucial to Boeing’s production ramp up.

With its next 787 delivery re-sequencing coming in September, Boeing plans to hold structural deliveries to final assembly for more than a month, allowing all ends of its supply chain to catch up.

The schedule “float” as its been dubbed internally, which will follow the arrival of Airplane 27 in late August, will pause deliveries to the company’s Everett, Washington final assembly line for 30-manufacturing days or roughly six weeks.

Boeing declined to comment on the re-sequencing as the Farnborough Air Show approached.

Airplane 28 is being called Boeing’s “get well” aircraft, achieving 100% completion of assembly and no outstanding traveled work from its North Charleston facility, just renamed Boeing South Carolina, where the aft and center fuselages are integrated.

While program sources in Everett and Charleston say that there are no significant engineering issues driving the hold, many of the issues originate down stream at suppliers around the world, where part shortages cause incomplete work to flow to Charleston, slowing down integration before shipment to Everett.

For example, floor grids, doors and wiring have contributed to the slowdown. Installation of the floor grid, in particular, is a critical path assembly milestone as it provides installation access to the upper crown of the fuselage.

Additionally, the slide is as much an opportunity for Charleston to catch up as it is to provide Everett additional breathing room to focus on the aircraft already through final assembly.

This latest hold is longer than the 24-manufacturing day hold the company put in place following Airplane 22 in late April, allowing its supply chain to catch up on design changes and part shortages.

When Boeing announced the second re-sequencing on June 25, 787 general manager and vice president Scott Fancher, indicated the scheduling change was to “take advantage” of shifting customer delivery schedules. However, programme sources say the request for the hold was made directly Boeing staff, not by airlines who sought to slow deliveries.

When Airplane 28 arrives in Everett in October, it will also represent the start of a faster rate that will see nearly three 787s delivered to final assembly per month.

Yet, the question remains for Boeing: As the ramp up continues toward building 10 aircraft per month byt the end of 2013, how does the company avoid overwhelming its supply chain forcing additional halting stops and starts on its road ahead?

Last month, I wrote a short blurb on the new outboard landing gear door design for the 747-8F that Boeing developed after the airframer found a “very apparent” buffet in the inboard flaps when set to the maximum setting of 30. RC501 was spotted yesterday during a test flight from Boeing Field sporting the new gear doors.

The original design had the lower part of the door canted out 45-degrees, while the revised design feature the lower door more in line with the upper door. The modifications also include vortilons on the
inboard flap as well as a bullnose design on the leading edge of the
upper half of the outboard landing gear door. 

Photo Credit Liz Matzelle

(Three more photos after the jump)

As its second 787 final assembly line springs up from a clearing in North Charleston, South Carolina, Air India is slated to be the recipient of the first Dreamliner built outside of Puget Sound, say program sources.

Structural sections for the first Charleston-built 787, Airplane 56, will arrive at the company’s sprawling new final assembly building following its completion in July 2011, followed by handover to the Indian flag carrier in the first quarter of 2012.

Boeing declined to comment on how Air India was selected to be the first 787 delivered from Charleston, while a spokesman for the carrier was unaware of the carrier’s selection.

Air India expects to take delivery of its first 787, Airplane 25, which is currently undergoing final assembly at Boeing’s Everett factory, in the first quarter 2011.

Photo Credit ClemsonPilot

VENICE — Nearly a generation has passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the bi-polar world of communist and capitalist economies has given way to an interconnected world of globalized competition and industrial integration often bolstered by state support.

With the commercial jet aircraft manufacturing landscape having dwindled to just four players over the past decade, that trend of industrial consolidation is set to reverse itself in the years to come. Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi, best known for its portfolio of fighter aircraft, is the first in a spate of new entrants to offer a jetliner assembled solely in the eastern hemisphere, but marketed to the world.

Its product, the 100-seat SSJ100 aircraft, made its first flight from Komsomolsk-on-Aumr, Russia in May 2008. It is powered by two PowerJet SaM146 engines, and is the launch point of a new business model which aims to challenge the established airframers Embraer and Bombardier on a global battlefield, starting with entry into service by year’s end with Russian flag carrier Aeroflot and Armenian carrier Armavia.

As the first new entrant to step up to the plate, Suhkoi Civil Aircraft (SCAC) solidfied its strategic partnership with Alenia Aeronautica, the civil branch of Finnemeccanica, in June 2006 with a 75%/25% development split. A year later forming Superjet International, a Venice, Italy-based joint venture between Alenia (51%) and Sukhoi (49%) that took the reins on global marketing and product support.

The road to it’s year-end entry into service, like the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787, has faced two years of delay after its originally planned November 2008 first delivery slipped due to an over-optimistic development schedule and production issues on the aircraft’s engine. The engine-maker now claims it is in control of those issues, and is now winding down its four-aircraft flight test program with the approaching first flight of its first production aircraft.

With next week’s Farnborough air show marking just over a year since the new 100 seater’s western debut at the Paris air show, the Superjet is poised to announced new orders, including a fresh Letter of Intent from a North American lessor for up to 65.

In a Movie Monday befitting the coming 2010 Farnborough air show, I have reached deep down into the vault to pull out newsreel footage from the 1950 Farnborough air show. The foundations of the UK air show haven’t changed significantly in the past sixty years, though the products on display most certainly have.

Watching the 10 minute clip narrated by Leslie Mitchell of British Movietone News, you can spot the parallels between the 1950 and 2010 shows. A mega-military airlifter (Blackburn Universal Freighter), the new long-range jet airliner (DeHavilland Comet), the biggest passenger plane of its day (Bristol Brabazon), and the ever hot topic of aerial refueling.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it certainly does rhyme.

After the jump you’ll find a second five and a half minute clip that is a mostly narrarator-less B-roll of the 1950 air show that preserves the audio of the aircraft making low fly-bys. Turn up those speakers.

In the same week as controversy stirred over President Nicolas Sarkozy purchasing an A330 for his presidential transport, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin decided a different path to cultivate his nation’s goal of re-growing its domestic commercial aircraft production.

Let’s see how far the 162-passenger, Pratt & Whitney PW1000G-powered Irkut MS-21 is from finding its domestic launch customer. A meeting like this has but one outcome: 

Savelyev said he would report back to Putin with a revised plan.

For its Farnborough 2010 (flight) line up, Airbus will bring the A400M, A380 and A330-200F to the mid-summer show. A400M and A380 will both be taking part in the flying display, with A380 flying daily and the A400M on Monday through Thursday. In addition, the first Rolls-Royce powered A330-200F for Etihad Crystal Cargo, the new freighter’s launch customer, will be attending the show as well. The A330-200F and C295 will both be on static display during the week.

Photo Credits Yvan Panas & Christophe Ramos

Boeing’s first and third flight test aircraft, the latter of which is currently slated to represent the company at the 2010 Farnborough air show, are undergoing rework of it horizontal stabilizer following the discovery of a quality issue that threatened to reduce the fatigue life of the structure, Boeing confirms.

ZA001 and ZA003 were scheduled to be in a planned maintenance layup at the moment and the rework is being done concurrently, says Boeing.

ZA002, Boeing’s second 787 flight test aircraft which wears the colors of launch customer All Nippon Airways, is on reserve for the mid-July air show in case ZA003 is not out of rework.

However, Boeing estimates that the ZA003 will complete the rework by Friday, July 9, eight days before the aircraft is set to depart Boeing Field for Farnborough airport in the UK on July 17.

Meanwhile, ZA004 kicked off its flight loads survey today from Victorville Airport in Southern California after nearly a month of being outfitted with fresh instrumentation that will compare and measure the loads on the aircraft’s structure against design expectations.

ZA005 is currently undergoing flutter testing that began on July 2 to evaluate the airframe engine combination of the GEnx-1B engine. Additionally, first flight of the sixth flight test aircraft has slipped into early August, says program sources.

The first 787 to be painted in JAL colors has emerged from the ATS hangar following change incorporation. The aircraft, which is either Airplane 20 or 21, is registered JA821J. It’s entirely possible this is Airplane 21 because it lacks the special decals planned for Airplane 20 based on the drawings submitted by Japanese children.

UPDATE: The aircraft pictured is Airplane 20, which will be first handed over to JAL.

Photo Credit Liz Matzelle, Video Credit Matt Cawby

Last month, I had the opportunity to visit Montreal and see production of Bombardier’s new CRJ1000 up close. Airplane 7, serial number 19007, the eighth CRJ1000 built, was undergoing power on testing when I saw the aircraft in June. Bombardier hopes to deliver the first production aircraft before the end of January next year to either Air Nostrum (a subsidiary of Iberia) or BritAir (a subsidiary of Air France). The Canadian airframer had halted flight tests between July and February as the company worked through software issues with the command-by-wire rudder, a new technology on the CRJ1000.

See my complete Bombardier set on Flickr from my trip, which includes CRJ900 interior and flight deck, CSeries systems integration building (CIASTA), Chinese center fuselage test barrel, wind tunnel model, engineering sim and interior mock up.