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You’ve been flying for 15 years and just one more to go before you can drive.

On June 12, 1994, John Cashman, and his first officer, Ken Higgins lifted off in N7771 from Runway 34L at Paine Field for the Boeing 777-200’s maiden flight, and the rest, so to speak, is history. I submit the following item from the time capsule to celebrate the goings on of that June day in the Pacific Northwest. In case you’re wondering, this post was set to publish at exactly 11:43 AM PT, fifteen years to the minute when 777 first flight got underway.

Hat tip to the Everett Herald for the reminder. It’s always awkward when you forget a birthday.

If you want to know more about the the history of the 777, I highly recommend carving out five hours for the 21st Century Jet, which details the development of the 777 back in the early 1990s.

• Episode I: To Design a Plane
• Episode II: The Sum of Its Parts
• Episode III: A Plane Takes Shape
• Episode IV: Taking Flight
• Episode V: Countdown to Delivery 
  

If you’re interested in the future of the 777, I recommend one of the Paris Air Show features by Max Kinglsey-Jones: Yesterday’s heroes – what next for A340 and 777 Classic?

As I was beginning my Atlantic crossing last night, I was provided a rare sight out my window while cruising at 35000 feet. Off the right wing of our United 777-200ER was a sight that has become familiar to the readers of this blog, but I had yet to see one in person. This Aviation Partners/Boeing wingletted American Airlines 767-300ER was 2000 feet below us as we flew over the eastern coast of Canada. I frantically snapped about 25 pictures of the aircraft as we passed it, but of those photos, this one was the clear winner amongst a batch of blurry shots.

Travel Day: First Stop London, originally uploaded by flightblogger.

Just boarded this United Airlines 777-200(ER?) for my flight to LHR. I
wish I knew the registration. Help anyone? Flight 918 IAD-LHR. Paris
on Saturday. Let the whirlwind begin.

UPDATE: On the ground safe and sound once again. Thanks for all the help identifying this 777. United’s terminal at Dulles is notoriously bad for seeing registrations, and I was able to get a good look at Heathrow. The aircraft in question is N796UA, a 777-222ER (112/26931) delivered to UAL in January 1998.

UAL918 Flight Plan – KIAD – EGLL:

SWANN V268 BROSS J42 RBV ACK WHALE N23E LOMPI N21C JAROM NATW SOMAX NATW KENUK UL739 GAPLI UR8 GIBSO OCK2E

I would say it’s worth noting that this Thursday marks one year since 787 achieved first power on. It’s been a heck of a year since Boeing first flipped the switch on the first Dreamliner and having just wrapped up the intermediate gauntlet, Boeing has released three new videos detailing the round-the-clock testing on ZA001. The video also gives the first glimpse inside the 787 cabin and the setup of all the flight test stations

From Randy Tinseth’s Blog:

During gauntlet, as I mentioned, ZA001 is being operated just as if it
were in flight. The only difference is it’s still on the ground. We
have pilots at the controls and a team of engineers at work stations in
the back of the airplane. The doors are closed and everybody is on
board for the duration of the “flight.” Believe it or not, meals are
served on board and the lavatories are working!

With next week’s Paris Air Show quickly arriving, Flight assembled its yearly “fattie” issue devoted to taking a long, hard look at the aircraft that shape this industry. In no uncertain terms, the future of commercial aerospace is riding on the wings of the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787. The commercial transition to composite technology is believed to be as significant at the transition from cloth to aluminum structure once was.

My colleague Max Kinglsey-Jones tackled the accelerated pace of development before next year’s start of parts manufacturing in A350 XWB ready to rock. This month’s 163-page issue also features a great micro cutaway of the new long-range twin.

I had the opportunity to take a look back at the year since Flight last examined the state of the 787 program. Realising the 787 dream also details the path forward to understanding the ambitious flight test methodology, future weight reduction and performance enhancements, as well as prospects for the production ramp up all leading to first delivery next year to ANA.

If you’re just seeing this blog for the first time and are just learning about the 787 Dreamliner (welcome!), consider my May 2008 article and this month’s Paris feature great ways to get caught up in a hurry ahead of first flight later this month.

As for the week ahead for this blogger, I’ll be heading to Europe on Wednesday evening (UA 777) for a short stay in London at Flight HQ and then down to Paris via train (yes train) for the air show.

Flightglobal.com will have all its bases covered for this show. We’ll have our Media Hub set up where the editorial team will be hard at work, but please feel free to stop by and say hello.
Make sure you’re following my Twitter feed for the latest show developments, as well as the feeds for all my colleagues.

Onward.

ILFC chief Steven Udvar-Hazy pulled no punches on the future of the A380, entertaining a cancellation, expressing concern about the production plan, conversion costs and future cargo variants.

“We are asking ourselves if we are really going to take delivery of the 10 planes,” said Udvar-Hazy at this years IATA general meeting in Kuala Lumpur to German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche.

Udvar-Hazy cited changing market dynamics and waning interest in the European superjumbo as the factors driving the lessors decision making.

ILFC says it can cancel its order without penalty between January and June 2009, with options of delivery deferral or conversion to another aircraft type also being considered. It would be the first cancellation for the passenger version of the A380.

Udvar-Hazy expressed concern about the aircraft’s ability to operate on as many routes as previously expected, adding that “interest is weaker than expected in particular among the Chinese.”

“In this recession, operating economics are critical,” said Sir Richard Branson exclusively to FlightBlogger.

“Airlines need to ensure that they have the right number of seats during a period of lower demand otherwise their bills are going to be unmanageable. A380 operators will be questioning if they’ve got the right aircraft at the right time and whether they can make it a profitable aircraft type over the next two years,” said Branson.

Virgin Atlantic Airways holds firm orders for 6 A380 aircraft.

The A380 is good for niche routes but “if Dubai – New York doesn’t work, I’m not sure what does,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis for the Teal Group.

Emirates, the largest customer for the A380, downsized its Dubai – New York-JFK flight on June 1st from a daily A380 to 777-300ER after poor load factors on the route.

ILFC’s order for ten A380s is valued at $3 billion and is the only lessor to have placed an order for the type.

Udvar-Hazy also sees the estimated $25 million cost of converting the airplane from one airline to another as prohibitively for lessors. Adding, that the development of the A380 freighter variant is “dead.”

Udvar-Hazy sees the slowing A380 production rate as a threat to Airbus as well.

“If I were Airbus I would be very worried,” said Udvar-Hazy. “At current production rhythms, it will be very hard to make money with this plane,” he said.

Airbus announced a 2009 A380 production cut on May 6th from 18 to 14 aircraft, with “more than 20” planned for delivery in 2010.

Aboulafia sees “no hope” that Airbus will ever be able to pay back its non-recurring launch costs and that the A380 program will survive on cash flow enabled by accelerated production, though the economy leaves the company in a precarious situation as it looks to the future.

“What matters now is the A350. That’s a seriously important plane,” says Aboulafia.

Airbus holds orders for 200 A380s from 16 customers.

Twenty-five individual blocks of testing covering nine days wrapped up today in Everett as ZA001’s intermediate gauntlet came to a close.

Boeing confirms the completion of second phase of gauntlet testing and Aviation Week reports that the intermediate wrapped up during the afternoon of June 7th. The testing put all 92 of the 787s systems through extensive testing as then aircraft was ‘fooled’ into thinking it was conducting real flights.

During the gauntlet, the aircraft could be seen running through various take off and landing approach configurations as ZA001 conducted its simulated flights. For example, extending spoilers on ‘touchdown’ followed by a reconfiguration of the control surfaces and a full power run up to simulate a touch-and-go landing.

This evening (June 7) Boeing
test engineers plan to conduct a systems test monitoring evaluation
which was last run in the last few days of May, just prior to the start
of the intermediate gauntlet. This is therefore seen as a clear sign
that the start of final gauntlet tests is imminent.

Block Nineteen – Flight control ‘sweeps’ for software refinement and telemetry testing. June 5
Block Twenty – Further flight control system check out. Late June 5
Block Twenty-one – Hydraulics testing. June 6
Block Twenty-two – Electrical systems testing. June 6
Block Twenty-three & Twenty-four – Common Core System tests. Overnight June 6
Block Twenty-five – Final electrical system testing. Afternoon June 7

During this weekend, ZA002 underwent testing of the Earth Reference System which feeds position, speed, course and heading data to the 787’s navigation system. The ERS is the key component of the Inertial Reference System (IRS) which is the integrated system combining the traditional ADIRU (Air Data Inertial Reference Unit) and SAARU (Secondary Attitude and Air Data Reference Unit). The left side of the overhead panel is home to the IRS flight deck controls aboard the 787, with a Right and Left activation switch. This differs from the 777 overhead panel which has just the single ADIRU pushbutton.

Early next week will bring two more program milestones when ZA002 heads to the fuel dock as early as Tuesday. Like ZA001 before it, the fuel system will be tested and calibrated and the Hamilton Sundstrand APS 5000 auxiliary power unit will be run for the first time while parked at the Fuel Dock. Across the country, Section 43 for the for the 14th flying 787 will arrive in Charleston at Global Aeronautica from Kawasaki in Nagoya, Japan.

Lastly, Air Transport Intelligence reports that the first Build 4A [Package B] Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines are to be bench tested later this month, before being mounted on the company’s 747-200 and flight tested in July. ZA004 will be the first to fly the new engine which will bring the 787’s fuel consumption within 1% of specification. The Build 4A [Package B] engines will be used for NAMS (nautical air mile) testing to determine the 787’s long-range performance. Boeing will deliver the first few 787s with the original build engines, followed early on by the modified Built 4A Trent 1000s.

Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) have rebalanced their mid-size long-range widebody orders in recent weeks to reflect the changing production planning of Boeing 787 and 767 aircraft.

JAL, which served along side ANA as launch customer for the short to mid-range 787-3, has abandoned its order for the type, instead converting the 13 it had on order to 787-8s. JAL’s total 787 order still stands at 35 aircraft.

JAL was unreachable for comment, however Boeing confirms that the accuracy of its public orderbook.

ANA also has converted some of the 787-3s it has on order to 787-8s. According to Boeing’s orderbook, 22 787-8s and 28 787-3s are now reflected, a shifting of two aircraft to the long range model.

ANA’s original order that launched the 7E7 in 2004 for fifty aircraft was split between 30 787-3s and 20 787-8s.

Boeing initially planned to have the 787-3 enter service between the 787-8 and 787-9, but suspended design work on the aircraft in favor of allocating resources to the development of the stretched -9 variant. Boeing has always maintained that it plans to build the -3, but declines to publicly specify a timeline, saying only that it will come after the -9.

Boeing says it is remains “committed to developing the 787-3 in partnership with launch customer ANA.”

The 787-3 was marketed specifically for the Japanese carriers as it offered a platform for high-density domestic operations to smaller gate-constrained airports.

In addition, ANA confirms it is the responsible party for cancelling five 767-300ER aircraft it had on order with the American airframer.

Boeing’s updated orderbook posted May 28th reflected five new orders for 787 aircraft and five cancelled orders for 767 aircraft from unidentified customers.

The reduction in the 767 backlog appears to have come out of a September 2008 order from ANA for nine 767-300ERs, now listed as four.

ANA attributes the cancellations to changes in the 787 delivery schedule reducing the need for interim capacity from 767-300ERs. FlightBlogger reported in April that ANA had assumed early 787 delivery spots previously held by Chinese airlines, significantly increasing the Japanese airline’s early 787s fleet.

“We work very closely with all our customers to understand their evolving fleet requirements,” says Boeing. “Occasionally we and our customers make order adjustments that better support their overall fleet needs, while allowing us to successfully manage our production plan.”

The initial order by the Japanese carrier came in response to the near two-year delay in delivery of the first of fifty 787s the carrier has on order.

The nine aircraft, which were part of a compensation package for the delayed 787, were originally set for delivery in 2010 and 2011, said a spokesperson for the company at the time of the order.

ANA was originally supposed to take delivery of its first 787 in May 2008, but Boeing delayed the program several times after suffering production and design changes that slid first delivery to the Japanese carrier by 22 months to February 2010.

Boeing says that the order for five 787s did come from an existing customer, brining the total backlog to 866 from 56 customers.

The addition of five aircraft to the 787 backlog does not, however, signal that the order was a conversion of 767-300ERs to 787s by ANA.

Boeing adds that the first six flight test aircraft remain unallocated and the five new 787s booked will be production standard aircraft.

Simulated Dreamliner Test Flights from Liz Matzelle.

Dreamliner One’s seven-day treadmill run known as the intermediate gauntlet has entered its late phases and appears set to wrap up by the late hours of Thursday night.

Boeing has stuck closely to it round-the-clock 24-hour testing schedule for ZA001, which began on Friday evening.

Video captured on Monday afternoon (June 1st) of smoke coming from Dreamliner One’s engines was reported by the Seattle Times to be a “gauntlet relight test.” The test, which appears to have been a part of Block Six testing, has flight test teams interrupting and “aborting the engine start-up just shy of fuel ignition,” citing a Boeing source familiar with the situation. The smoke, the paper added, was un-ignited evaporating fuel.

According to Boeing, “this was the expected result for the test condition.”

Aviation Week detailed the eighteen testing blocks (1-7, 8-12 & 13-18) that ZA001 has/will run through over the last week.

• Block Six – More test “flights” for the propulsion and electrical systems. Pre-dawn June 1
• Block Seven & Eight –  Electrical, ECS and hydraulics. 2nd half of June 1
• Block Nine –  Hydraulics and Flight Control Systems. Early June 2

Liz Matzelle captured Block 10 and 11 tests (ABOVE) that focused on the functionality of the flight control and hydraulic systems. The tests were run in the overnight hours last night (June 3) operated the aircraft’s movable flight control surfaces in conjunction with engine runs. The tests illustrate the drooping spoiler and aileron features built into the high-lift system.

• Block Ten & Eleven – Flight controls & Environmental Control Systems tests Late June 2
• Block Twelve – Re-run of Common Core System testing. Overnight June 2
• Block Thirteen – Electrical systems testing. Pre-dawn June 3
• Block Fourteen – Environmental Control Systems testing. Morning June 3
• Block Fifteen – Common Core System tests. June 3
• Block Sixteen –  Electrical systems tests. Early June 4
• Block Seventeen – Pilot ‘conditioning’ and preparations for flight. June 4
• Block Eighteen – Final CCS evaluations. Late June 4 into early June 5

Back in the factory, ZA002 is nearing the start of its own factory gauntlet before it makes the trip to the fuel dock for fuel calibration testing as it follows in the footsteps of ZA001.

Meanwhile, the center fuselage for ZA100, the first production 787, continues to be worked on at Global Aeronautica. Originally planned for delivery late last month, Boeing opted to hold the center fuselage in Charleston, SC to eliminate any traveled work and limit additional out of sequence assembly in Everett to match the readiness of other structural sections. The center fuselage is the final major structural assembly awaiting delivery to Everett, after the vertical tail was shipped from Frederickson, WA last week.

According to several sources, the forward fuselage for ZA100, which was delivered on May 26 from Spirit Aerosystems in Wichita, arrived at 100% completion of assembly.