Well, it’s not quite tapping the dashboard to see how much gas you’ve got left, but 787 ZA004 is spending the day crossing the United States, overflying major cities like Boston, Norfolk, Raleigh-Durham, Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City or San Francisco to test the 787’s fuel quantity indication system (FQIS), say program sources.
The FQIS is available as a gauge on the lower right corner of the 787’s Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System (EICAS) and is one of the synoptic pages on the multifunction display (MFD). On the synoptic page, fuel is displayed per tank in units of 1000lbs as well as a cumulative total fuel weight for the aircraft. The page also provides indications on how the fuel is flowing through the aircraft, showing tank crossfeed, engine and APU flow maps.
The nearly 14 hour flight will see the fourth 787 cross west to east and then back again to Boeing Field in the evening. If you happen to spot ZA004 cruising high above the US today, drop a line in the comments.
Map Credit FlightAware
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.