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Boeing has again placed its stake in the ground for the eighth time, marking the third quarter of 2011 for first delivery of its flagship 787 Dreamliner to Japan’s All Nippon Airways, though the company says answers to larger questions will have to wait.

Boeing’s new 787 schedule is out this morning:

Boeing Sets 787 First Delivery for Third Quarter

EVERETT, Wash., Jan. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Boeing (NYSE: BA) announced today that it expects delivery of the first 787 Dreamliner in the third quarter of this year. The new delivery date reflects the impact of an in-flight incident during testing last November and includes the time required to produce, install and test updated software and new electrical power distribution panels in the flight test and production airplanes.

N1006F, originally uploaded by kpaekilo1.

Boeing will restart 787 certification operations, the first of three major milestones slated for Monday.

Currently based in Yuma, Arizona, ZA004 will re-launch Federal Aviation Administration certification operations for the 787 with a validation of the fuel jettison system, sources tell FlightBlogger. This will be the first flight test for certification credit since ZA002’s November 9 fire that placed the regulatory validation of Boeing’s new flagship on hold.

Monday will also feature the first flight of a production 787, ZA102, the ninth 787, which wears a white fuselage and All Nippon Airways tail. The aircraft has been re-registered at N1006F, formerly N6066Z, and will fly a standard B-1 production flight, which includes a checkout of the airworthiness of the aircraft and the actuation of the landing gear. This is the seventh 787 to fly since the flight test program began on December 15, 2009.

While it is first slated for a shakedown of all its systems, ZA102 will join the test fleet for the extended twin engine operations (ETOPS) certification before it is delivered to ANA. ZA101, the eighth 787, will primarily operate as a ground test aircraft for the system functionality and reliability testing as part of the ETOPS certification effort.

Lastly, the formerly fire-stricken ZA002 is also expected to rejoin the test fleet Monday with a checkout of the electronic engine control system.

Boeing has yet to announce a revised schedule for first delivery to ANA.

UPDATE 1/17 2:34 PM ET: Program sources say ZA102’s first flight has slid to Tuesday at the earliest due to some last-minute trouble-shooting on board the aircraft.

Aeroflot is inching closer and closer to accepting the first Suhkoi Superjet SSJ100-95LR, as the Russian airframer has released the first official photos of the RA-98001. Russian certification of the new regional jet is expected this month, and EASA told Reuters yesterday its stamp of approval will follow in 2012. More photos are available below the fold.

Photos Credit Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company

Dear Friends,

Of the fifty-two weeks last year, more than two of them were cumulatively spent airborne covering 165,000 miles over 17 countries on five continents passing through 45 different airport. This page produced 374 posts, 29 videos, 3,033 photos and a potentially obscene number of tweets.

It is with that I say thank you for everything in 2010. I’ve said it before, but without all of you I’m just a guy talking to himself on the internet. Your unending passion for aviation fuels my own and never fails to inspire me to try and bring you a small slice of the commercial aerospace industry.

So with the two weeks airborne in 2010, I’m going to take the first two weeks of 2011 to stay on the ground. I’m going to be on vacation starting today, stepping away for a much needed breather. I’ll return to work on January 18.

Though no exciting destination is planned for this vacation, I intended to reintroduce myself to the city that I call home. I’ve been estranged from Washington, DC for far too long and being at home is exactly what I need. In fact, in my brief professional life I don’t believe I’ve ever taken off for this long.

I’ve had my vacations where I (try to) ignore the news and the happenings in aviation and social media, but those attempts at quitting cold turkey tend not to relax me at all. Yes, I know that makes me an addict. So, that being said, I won’t be far if you’d like to drop me a line.

I’m looking forward to spending the first two weeks of 2011 eating normally, sleeping normally, catching up on reading, movies and all that stuff. I’ll also be starting work on a new personal project that I’ll be sharing more information about as things unfold.

2011 will be the year of the CSeries, the A350 and the MRJ as they
see their first units moving into final assembly, setting the stage for
their 2012 first flights. 2011 will also be the year of the 787, and
perhaps its most challenging yet.

Again, just let me say thank you for another amazing year. This page turns four in March and it continues to challenge and surprise me in ways I never could have imagined.

With deepest gratitude,

Onward,

Jon Ostrower

Boeing confirms ZA004 is slated to reactivate 787 flight test operations today, with a flight from Paine Field in Everett. Here’s my complete story on the resumption of 787 flight testing. 

Boeing Resumes 787 Flight Testing

– Interim solution verified through extensive testing 

– Schedule assessment expected to conclude in January

EVERETT, Wash., Dec. 23, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Boeing (NYSE: BA) will resume flight test activities on the 787 Dreamliner later today. The company has installed an interim version of updated power distribution system software and conducted a rigorous set of reviews to confirm the flight readiness of ZA004, the first of the six flight test airplanes that will return to flight.

“Initially, we will resume a series of Boeing tests that remain to be completed in the flight test program. That testing will be followed later by a resumption of certification testing,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program. Today’s testing will include an intentional deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), which is a small turbine that is deployed when back-up power is required.

Boeing and Hamilton Sundstrand completed testing of the interim software updates earlier this week. Verification of the system included laboratory testing of standalone components, integration testing with other systems, flight simulator testing and ground-based testing on a flight test airplane.

In the last several weeks, the company continued ground testing as part of the certification program. Additional ground testing will be done by the company on the production version of the airplane to further verify performance of the changes being made.

“As we return to flight test and determine the pace of that activity, we remain focused on developing a new program schedule,” Fancher added. “We expect to complete our assessment of the program schedule in January.”

Flight testing of the 787 was suspended last month following an in-flight electrical incident on a test flight in Laredo, Texas.

More often than I’d like, I receive emails from readers concerned that their comment on a post did not appear on the site. Allow me to shed some light on this. This blog is hit with dozens and dozens of spam messages per hour and in order to ensure that comments, which come directly to my inbox, are legit we have a spam filter to block all the Via(gr)a and S-E.O (misspellings intentional) comments.