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Boeing’s Goings On
Boeing launched its power-on feature at newairplane.com. It gives a good rundown of the power-on process, as well as some of the first shots of a very alive ZA001 flight deck. Also, it looks as though the first sections of LN7, the first production 787 for ANA, have been delivered to the US. Section 43 from Kawasaki stopped in Everett yesterday on its way to Charleston soon.

This week will bring us the commencement of final assembly operations for ZA004 after this weekend’s line move and ZY998’s Friday transfer to the 767 line. Lastly, Wednesday marks the one year anniversary of the original 787 roll-out.

A380 Convoy
Over the next few days a fresh set of wings and a horizontal stabilizer will be winding across the French countryside on their way to Toulouse. Not sure who the lucky airline recipient will be, but please let me know if you spot it along the way.

GTF to the Sky
Keep an eye out, Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbofan is expected to take to the skies under the wing of a 747SP in the very near future. This page will feature an exclusive video previewing the beginning of flight testing in the next few days.

Oshkosh B’Gosh
As if next month wasn’t going to be busy enough, I’ve been (happily) assigned to cover the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI in late July. Quite wonderfully, they’ve opened their doors to bloggers, so it’s going to be a new media fest at ‘Aviation Paradise’. Also, I’m quite content to fly commercial, but I wanted to see if anyone on the east coast was flying privately and had an extra seat for this blogger. I wanted to do an feature chronicling the journey out there hop-by-hop across the United States. (will help with gas)

F’Blogger@F’Boro
Quick question to you all, what do you want to see from FlightBlogger at Farnborough? Interviews? Topics?

The completion of the 787 first power-on sets the stage for the next phase of the Dreamliner’s march toward first flight. The milestone was met to the day according to sources familiar with the schedule.

The initial power-on testing began on June 11 and wrapped up yesterday. The testing, according to one program source, went more smoothly than initially anticipated. The program staffer stated that, “This is one thing [Boeing] thought was going to be a major issue in our program.” The staffer added that Boeing never expected problems to crop up in the supply chain.

Gauntlet testing is next on the agenda for Dreamliner One. The aircraft’s computer system will be fooled into thinking its flying to simulate every imaginable phase of flight, as well as a myriad of potential failures.

“That’s really when the fun starts, we can really see how stable the airplane is. So, are there any problems that need to be resolved?” 787 VP and General Manager Pat Shanahan said in mid-May. “Guess what, there will be lots of those,” he added. “And the idea is none of them will be severe…I expect people run in every half hour and they’ll drop their grenade, then we’ll dispatch the right people and we’ll go resolve those issues.”

For months, Boeing had planned its timeline around the completion of first power-on for ZA001. With this task now complete, the fatigue aircraft (ZY998) will be moved this evening (June 20) to the 767 line, then later to the fatigue rig for testing. The open assembly station will allow ZA002 and ZA003 to move to the third and second assembly stations respectively.

CONTINUED BELOW (WITH EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS)

EVERETT, Wash., June 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) has completed the Power On sequence for the first 787 Dreamliner, marking the completion of the next major milestone on the path to first flight later this year.

Power On is a complex series of tasks and tests that bring electrical power onto the airplane and begin to exercise the use of the electrical systems. The 787 is a more-electric airplane with the pneumatic, or bleed air, system being totally replaced by electronics.

“The team has made great progress in bringing the bold innovation of the 787 to reality,” said Pat Shanahan, vice president and general manager of the 787 program. “There is plenty of work to be done between now and first flight, but with every step forward we grow more and more confident.”

The Power On sequence began in early June with a series of pretest continuity checks to verify that the wiring installed in the airplane had been connected properly. Upon completion of those checks, the Boeing team plugged in an external power cart and slowly began to bring full power into each segment of the system, beginning with the flight deck displays. From that point forward, the pilot’s controls were used to direct the addition of new systems to the power grid.

Read the full release

Bring Your Own In-Flight Entertainment

Who needs in-flight movie selections when you can hook up to iTunes movie rentals at 30,000 feet for $3.99? Count this blogger in for a connected flight!

With oil spiraling towards $150, Continental a found the 4th way to survive the fuel crisis. In conjunction with the retirement of the Classic 737s, the airline is joining up with Star Alliance and apparently abandoning Sky Team and Delta-Northwest in the process. It’s another way to cut capacity by sharing revenue on overlapping routes. It’s the non-merger merger.

What’s the best way to operate a profitable route? Let someone else fly it.

Larry Kellner was quite clear in his desire to keep Continental on its own. Should be very interesting to see how this one plays out.

Continental Airlines and United Airlines Announce Comprehensive Plan
for Global Cooperation; Continental Plans to Join Star Alliance

CHICAGO, June 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL) and United Airlines (Nasdaq: UAUA) today announced a framework agreement to cooperate extensively, linking their networks and services worldwide to the benefit of customers, and creating revenue opportunities and cost savings and other efficiencies. In addition, Continental plans to join United in the Star Alliance, the most comprehensive airline alliance
in the world.

This is a breaking story and will be updated as details become available.

GAO Statement

I’ve been working on two new features for the pre-Farnborough issue of Flight, one on 777 and the other on the 747-8. While researching yesterday, I came across a very interesting fact. With the help of the Way Back Machine, the historical archive of the entire internet, I found that the range of the 777-300ER has increased almost 11% (7,175 nm to 7,930 nm) since 2001! The maximum takeoff weight increased 25,000 lbs in that same time as well without a change in fuel capacity. To boot, the 777-200LR had a 6% increase in range too.

See for yourself.

Best. Week. Ever.
FlightBlogger had its highest traffic in a single week…ever.  The combination of the 787 power-on, Hawker 4000 certification, live twittering from Vought, Global Aeronautica and Spirit, and the peek inside Dreamliner Four’s flight deck and cabin racked up a staggering 63,000 page loads and 44,000 visitors. That tops the previous best seven day take during the Singapore Air Show in February by over 50%. Worth noting, this blog is rapidly closing in on 1,000,000 hits since it was reborn in November of last year.

Also, what’d you think of Twitter? Love it? Hate it? Jon, what’s Twitter?

Moving Day
As the close of the month draws near, Boeing has a big two weeks ahead. First, progressing with power-0on to validate the systems integration is job number one. Yet, even as the task of electrifying 787 ZA001 continues, a delicately choreographed dance is set to unfold in Everett in the next week or so. The fatigue airframe ZY998, will make its move later this week to its temporary home on the 767 line, freeing up a spot for Dreamliner Four to begin final assembly when the nose and center fuselage arrive. With ZY998 moving out, Dreamliner One will come out to play once again as well. Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, and 777F first flight should be really soon as well. Most likely before the United States turns a youthful looking 232.

UPDATE: I was rightfully reminded that on June 19 the Government Accountability Office (formerly the General Accounting Office) will be issuing its decision on Boeing’s tanker protest.

Get ‘Em While They’re Hot
QANTAS has put begun selling tickets for the inaugural A380 flights between Melbourne and LA on October 20 and adding Sydney to Los Angeles starting October 24. V Australia, the new international arm of Virgin Blue will begin flights on the Sydney-LA route with a brand new 777-300ER in December. Should be quite interesting to see who gets the better operating economics, the twin-engine Boeing with 350 or the four-engine Airbus with 450.

UPDATE: Looks like QANTAS is giving serious consideration to the 777-300ER as a 747 replacement across the Pacific.

Farnborough
One month from today we’ll be in the thick of the 2008 Farnborough Air Show. I’ve pretty much been prepping for this since I started with Flight in Dubai last November.
The last nine months will have been a rehearsal for the big dance next
month. I’ll be there with bells on, ready to blog, twitter, flickr and
other fun noun-verbs at the biggest aviation event of the year.

A Familiar Face
One last item. I took this photo as I was flying out of Wichita over McConnell Air Force Base on Friday. You might just recognize the aircraft on the ramp. I zoomed in to give you a better view. Click the image for a larger version.

WICHITA, KS — This is likely to be the first, and hopefully the last, FlightBlogger blog post from inside an active tornado warning which is in effect for the Wichita area.

Dreamliner Four forward fuselage, also known as Section 41, will be delivered to Everett next week on June 19. It will be the first 787 nose section with 100% completion of assembly.

It’s worth comparing these photos to those of Dreamliner Three from the Everett Final Assembly Line taken mid last month.

Click on each image for a high resolution version.

CONTINUED BELOW

WICHITA, KS — Spirit Aerosystems showed off its forward 787 Section 41 today and invited the media onboard Dreamliner Four, the first nose section to be delivered with a 100% completion of assembly. The first photo features, from left to right, Dreamliners Four, Five, Six and Seven.

CONTINUED BELOW