Blog

Buried amongst paragraphs about 777F flight training and the 787 stretch in this week’s commentary from Scott Hamilton, was a subtly placed sentence:

The first flight of the 787 is planned for March 31.

After poking around a bit, this blogger has learned that this date for first flight date comes from a very senior source close to the 787 program. Of course, this date is all dependent on the late March weather conditions in Everett. Historically, this date is primarily meant as a guide. The 767-200 flew a few days early in 1981 to take advantage of good weather, just as the 777 waited a few days longer for ideal conditions.

This date meshes with information about the plans for 787 flight readiness and pre-first flight testing that has to take place during the month of March.

Image Courtesy of The Boeing Company

In other 787 news, the aft fuselage for ZY998, the Fatigue Airframe, was delivered to Everett yesterday evening. The center fuselage, the final fuselage section awaiting delivery, should be making the trip from Charleston to Everett later this week. One exciting surprise of last night’s delivery flight was the stop the LCF made along the way at McConnell AFB in Wichita to pick up the nose section for Dreamliner Two. This is the first major assembly for the second flying 787 to arrive in Washington and a big step forward in the program.

One largely unreported story from Dubai is beginning to gain a bit of clarity:

Green aircraft to replace 737
By Ivan Gale, Staff Reporter
Gulfnews.com

In the next 18 months, Boeing expects to arrive at a design template for the 737 replacement, with “notional entry into service” around the middle of the next decade.

“The technology to create an airplane that could economically obsolete the 737 and Airbus 320 class of airplanes looks to us to be around 2015, give or take,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive Scott Carson told Gulf News.

So how much business is at stake over the next twenty years in the single aisle market? Both Airbus and Boeing agree that there is no less than $1 trillion available between now and 2026. If you average delivery forecast from both manufacturers you have more than 16,000 new single aisle aircraft rolling off the assembly lines in the next two decades.

A story floated out on the other side of the Atlantic yesterday while the US was enjoying its Thanksgiving dinner that has serious implications for both major aircraft manufacturers. Air France/KLM, soaring after it announced a doubling of its profit, is soliciting bids from Airbus and Boeing for up to 100 new widebody long range aircraft. The number alone is staggering. The order would be worth around $20 billion. KLM will use the replacements on its 747 Combis and MD-11s and AF needs to replace its 777-200s.

The following is the timeline of events from the Etihad A340-600 accident last week:

FROM : AIRBUS FLIGHT SAFETY DEPARTMENT TOULOUSE

SUBJECT: A340-600 – MSN 856 – ACCIDENT IN PRODUCTION OUR REF.: F-WWCJ AIT 2 DATED 20th OF NOVEMBER 2007 PREVIOUS REF: F-WWCJ AIT 1 DATED 16th OF NOVEMBER 2007

THIS AIT IS AN UPDATE OF PREVIOUS AIT N°1 CONCERNING THE A340-600 PRODUCTION AIRCRAFT MSN 856 INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT IN AIRBUS PRODUCTION FACILITIES IN TOULOUSE ON THE 15TH NOVEMBER 2007 AT 17:00 LOCAL TIME.

THE FOLLOWING IS THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS ACCORDING TO THE RECORDERS, WHICH HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR RELEASE BY THE FRENCH INVESTIGATION AUTHORITIES (BEA).

FOR ABOUT 3 MINUTES BEFORE THE END OF THE EVENT, ALL FOUR ENGINES EPR WAS BETWEEN 1.24 AND 1.26 WITH PARKING BRAKE ON AND WITHOUT GROUND CHOCKS.

THE ALTERNATE BRAKE PRESSURE WAS NORMAL. (WITH PARKING BRAKE ON, BRAKE
PRESSURE IS SUPPLIED BY ALTERNATE).

13 SECONDS BEFORE THE IMPACT THE AIRCRAFT STARTED TO MOVE. WITHIN 1 OR 2
SECONDS THE CREW APPLIED BRAKE PEDAL INPUTS AND SELECTED PARKING BRAKE OFF. THESE ACTIONS LED THE NORMAL BRAKE PRESSURE TO INCREASE TO ITS NORMAL VALUE.

2 SECONDS PRIOR BEFORE THE IMPACT, ALL 4 ENGINE THRUST LEVERS WERE SELECTED TO IDLE.

THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED THE CONTAINMENT WALL AT A GROUND SPEED OF 30 KTS.

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF ANY AIRCRAFT SYSTEM OR ENGINE MALFUNCTION.

AIRBUS REMINDS ALL OPERATORS TO STRICTLY ADHERE TO AMM PROCEDURES WHEN PERFORMING ENGINE GROUND RUNS

ENGINE GROUND RUNS AT HIGH POWER ARE NORMALLY CONDUCTED ON A SINGLE ENGINE WITH THE ENGINE IN THE SAME POSITION ON THE OPPOSITE WING OPERATED AT A LIMITED THRUST SETTING TO AVOID DAMAGE TO THE AIFRAME

WHEEL CHOCKS ARE TO BE INSTALLED THROUGHOUT THE TEST.

YANNICK MALINGE

VICE PRESIDENT FLIGHT SAFETY

AIRBUS

As promised, the original Flightblogger has been moved over to flightglobal.com. Please enjoy all the pages which are now all in one place.

September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007

A follow-up to the earlier post. When you see these up-close photos of the scope of the damage to the aircraft it’s even more amazing that no one was killed. Truly a miracle.

I sat down with Addison Schonland and Scott Hamilton of AirInsight, LLC this morning to record a podcast about the 787-10.

Image Courtesy The Boeing Company

There’s been a good amount of discussion generated in the wake of Dubai about how Boeing should respond to the A350-1000. I penned post in early August (To -10 or not to -10) asking this exact question. According to Scott Hamilton’s commentary this week, Boeing is toying with the idea of growing the -10 to 380 seats. This would tackle the problem of eroding market share in the 777-300ER seat range and even top the A350-1000 by 30 seats. However, Scott contends that this could be “a stretch too far,” hurting the 787 which is optimized for the -8 and -9 market.

PICTURE: First Airbus A400M flight-test aircraft rests on landing gear

By Andrew Doyle

Flightglobal.com has obtained an image of the first Airbus Military A400M flight-test aircraft resting on its own landing gear at the final assembly line near Seville, Spain. The transport is awaiting installation of its composite wing and empennage, together with its four Europrop International TP400 turboprop engines.

Aircraft MSN001 will be the first of six aircraft being dedicated to flight testing, and should fly by mid-2008, says Airbus parent EADS.

EADS recently announced a delay of up to a year to first deliveries of A400Ms to the French air force. The programme’s seven European launch nations and two export customers have between them ordered 192 aircraft and had originally expected deliveries to start in November 2009.

Click for full resolution

I wanted to provide a bit of clarification on what flight ready means when talking about the 787 lead up to first flight.

Though unconfirmed by official sources, Dreamliner One is tentatively scheduled to be flight ready by late February. Word from the factory floor confirms this time frame is on target with expectations.

When I mentioned flight readiness by late February, I neglected to describe exactly what this meant. This milestone signifies that all systems are ready for flight. This is not the same as a first flight date.

After flight readiness is achieved, Boeing will be starting the engines for the first time, running ground vibration tests followed by the low speed and high speed taxi tests. Only after these additional milestones are accomplished, will we see the Dreamliner fly.

One very important note to add to this is that weather plays a big factor in determining the first flight date. Boeing prefers a first flights to occur on runway 34L to the North because there are fewer homes north of Paine Field.

Because of this, the winds have to be blowing favorably to the south to provide the proper conditions for first flight.

A northerly wind is harder to come by at Paine Field because the prevailing wind direction in March is typically from the South.