Yet this particular 787 returned quite different from when it left the Pacific Northwest in March. The aircraft completed eight months of change incorporation at Boeing’s Global Support & Services facility in San Antonio, Texas.
The site, which sits adjacent to Lackland Air Force Base, is being used to modify six 787; refurbishing the three commercially viable test aircraft, three production aircraft, as well as the 747-8F test fleet.
Boeing has not yet decided if it will expand San Antonio’s scope beyond these first six 787s.
The duration of ZA117’s stay in San Antonio provides an indication of both the scope and pacing of the 787 change incorporation operation that is taking place in Texas and Washington State.
Further, it also provides a broad measurement of the top of Boeing’s learning curve for modifying 787s, as aircraft assembled after Airplane 23 will require less re-work.
When the facility was
first inaugurated in early-March, Boeing was bullish on how long it would take for a 787 to be modified and brought into full post-certification compliance before being outfitted with a revenue interior:
“We’re not far away,” says David Pickering, director of field operations at the Everett site. “This signifies a point in the program where this airplane is getting darn close. A few months worth of work down here and managing the end of flight test, and then we’re looking at interiors.”
Pickering adds Boeing will know if additional aircraft will be coming to San Antonio at the conclusion of flight test around “early summer” in June or July.
Airplane 23, also known as ZA177, is expected to remain in San Antonio for change incorporation until mid-summer, before returning to Everett for final installation of the aircraft’s interior and repainting with JAL’s new colors.
With Z24 to be released later this month, Boeing’s latest delivery and production schedule, there are strong suggestions the pace of change incorporation in Everett and San Antonio has slowed 2011 deliveries further, pushing early aircraft into 2012.
While in Texas, Airplane 23 underwent extensive changes including wholesale replacement of its environmental control system air-conditioning packs and modification of ducting and baffling in the aircraft’s cabin, as well as motor and fan changes and related software.
Further, modifications were made to the aircraft’s flight control system hardware and software, changing out the outboard ailerons, outboard and inboard flaps and flaperons, as well as making changes to the elevator and rudder systems.
The aircraft now features a new wiring configuration, along with the fully certified version of the updated electrical power distribution system that was changed after
the November 2010 fire aboard test aircraft ZA002.
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.