Tag: FlightBlogger Archive

This week’s movie monday takes us back to the late 80s aboard F-WWDC an -100 series A320 (MSN004) which later became F-GGEF in service with Air France. The video takes us on board this early A320, which first flew in June 1987, on what was then the world’s first fly by wire jetliner. What makes the video unique is that the fly by wire envelop protection isn’t being demonstrated in a simulator, but in actual flight pulling some pretty impressive maneuvers you don’t usually see from the flight deck.

For a bit of a historical juxtaposition towards aircraft automation, Flight has a story this week detailing a possible feature on the A350 that could descend the airplane automatically in the event of a change in cabin pressure. The system would activate if sensors detected a change in pressure, but would provide the crew the chance to manually override if the pilots were to take over, or cancel the descent. 

The first 747-8F began the process of powering on its systems on Friday as the new freighter moved another step closer to leaving the factory, Boeing confirms.

In the early hours of August 14th, RC501 was rolled on its landing gear from the final body join station inside Building 40-22 to the final systems integration slant.

The commencement of power on testing marks the beginning of the sequential activation of the 747-8s systems. The first typically activated is the electrical system that feeds power throughout the aircraft. Pneumatic and hydraulic power activation is expected to follow shortly.

Boeing expects the new freighter to roll out of the factory to the paint hangar late in the 3rd quarter or early in the 4th quarter before making its maiden flight by the end of the year.

RC501 is the first of three flight test aircraft that will support certification of the 747-8F and will eventually be delivered to Cargolux after being fully refurbished.

Photo Credit Boeing

Alenia Aeronautica has halted production of two major 787 structural components due to wrinkles in the fuselage skin caused by manufacturing flaws in subcomponents of the one-piece composite barrel, according to a letter obtained by FlightBlogger.

The letter’s subject: “SECTION 44 and 46 STOP WORK ORDER FOR BARREL” details a correspondence between Jay Campbell, sr. manager for supplier management for the 787 fuselage supply chain, James E. Simmons section 44/46 sr. engineering manager and Ciro Occipinti of Alenia Aeronautica in Naples, Italy.

The letter, signed and dated June 23 on Boeing letterhead, was sent the same day Boeing announced the latest delay in the program citing a need to reinforce the side of body structure.

Boeing and Alenia Aeronautica did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The status of production at Alenia’s Grottaglie facility remains unknown at this hour.

This structural issue, sources say, appears entirely separate from the wing fix. Section 44 and 46 are two of the four major structural components that comprise the integrated center fuselage. Section 44, a bonnet section, sits directly on top of the center wing box (section 45/11) while section 46, a complete barrel, is joined to the aft part of the center wing box.

Campbell and Simmons explain the justification behind the production halt as “related to stringer edge steps” causing wrinkles in the skin of the fuselage that were larger than previously “demonstrated during the [preproduction verification] PPV on these components.”

Stringer edge steps, as one veteran composite engineer explains, comprise the stacks of the composite fibers that make up the longitudinal structure that is cured and bonded to the skin of the fuselage barrels to give it its strength.

The letter goes on to detail the recommendations for the proper step height of each layer of composite fiber, plus or minus a given tolerance. The letter says that the guide for building fuselage stringers includes a note that says that step heights beyond a given a specified tolerance “will lead to significant degradation of the structure.”

The tolerances and dimensions of the stringer were specifically outlined in the letter and are not included in this report due to the proprietary nature of the information.

However, the letter continues:

“Boeing engineering evaluations of the cross-sections provided by Alenia demonstrate that negative margins exist in the line 7-19, and line 20 and on, configurations for section 46. Line 5 and 6 are still under evaluation. While efforts are underway to refine that analysis, it is doubtful that the negative margins will be recovered, and that repair of at least line 7-29 will be required.”

Of those 25 shipsets, four have been delivered to final assembly in Everett, Wash, eight are undergoing center fuselage integration at Global Aeronautica in Charleston, S.C. and the remaining 13 are in Grottaglie, Italy.

Each 787 barrel section contains 80 stringers that run the length of the fuselage. The letter did not detail what portion of the 80 would require repair.

The size of the edge steps on the stringers, the letter says, were increased first on “line 5 when Alenia began using the GFM stringer manufacturing cell at Grottaglie.”

Line 5 refers to Airplane Five or ZA005, the first General Electric GEnx powered 787, that entered final assembly in January of this year. Sections 44 and 46 were delivered by Alenia for integration at Global Aeronautica in April 2008.

GFM is a company that does milling, cutting, routing and forging of various materials, including composites components.

During the manufacturing process, the composite stringers are fabricated in a clean room, loaded onto the preformed mold, or mandrel, then are wrapped in a preset amount of carbon fiber tape. After lay-up, which is done by a robotic wrapping machine, the mandrel is bagged and moved to the autoclave for high temperature curing.

Boeing’s instructions in the letter to Alenia was to complete any carbon fiber placement currently underway, but not to begin any additional bonding or curing of barrels.

According to the letter, specifications were authored to control the height of the “edge step” as a result of what was learned during preproduction verification (PPV). The letter states that Alenia determined it “cannot comply with the requirement” and had requested “that the step height control provisions be eliminated.” Boeing concluded that “based on the structural analysis…this is unacceptable” because the wrinkles “represent a risk of a major repair to every unit that is built without engineering coverage.”

Boeing’s conclusions on this structural analysis were conducted on two scrapped barrel sections identified as being from Airplane 15 section 46 and Airplane 20 section 44. “Sections cuts from the scrapped AP15 barrel show wrinkle geometry well in excess of those found during the PPV.” Adding that the specification “does not allow wrinkles in the skin, and the existing effects-of-defects data does not sufficiently characterize the structural performance of wrinkles of this magnitude.”

Boeing has yet to provide a revised schedule, known internally Z18, that dictates the 787 production and delivery schedule to suppliers and airline customers. The company has said a revised planning schedule will be available by the end of September.

This structural issue appears to not affect the first flight planning for ZA001 through ZA004, but it is yet unknown if delivery planning of the early production aircraft will be impacted while this issue is being resolved.

After traveling for two weeks, I quickly realized how out of the loop I had become at keeping a close eye on the location of the 787 fleet. I’m all caught up now, so I felt it only fitting to provide a brief update on positions of the 11 787s currently coming together in Everett.

To start, ZA001 is in Paint Hangar 45-04 for the side of body modifications. ZA002 is on the flight line preparing for taxi testing that could get underway as early as this weekend or early next week. ZA003 is positioned on the 767 line in Building 40-24. A freshly painted ZA006, registered N787ZA is also on the flight line.

ZA004 remains at the head of the 787 line in Building 40-26, flanked by ZA005 and ZA100 at the third and second positions, respectively. ZA101 is in the first final body join position and will receive its horizontal and vertical stabilizers shortly. The horizontal and vertical stabilizers plus the wings and aft fuselage for ZA102 are at the rear part of the 787 line.

ZY998, the fatigue test airframe, remains on the 747 line in Building 40-24 just in front of the first 747-8F. ZY997 is being prepped for the side of body fix in Building 40-23 where the aircraft has been since April 2008.

To the Edge of Space
Gizmodo beat me to the punch on this one, but I promise that I found it before they did. I was saving it for a mini-movie monday. I, of course, have now way to prove that, but the beautiful video above (that should be watched in HD) is 11 minutes of what it’s like to fly to the edge of space in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane.

UAVs come to DC!
AUVSI is in full swing this week in DC and The D.E.W Line and As the Cro(ft) Flies will be all over the unmanned systems show. I most likely will pop over one or two days this week to shudder at all those jockeying to replace manned aircraft. Man…can’t a pilot can’t get a break? 

Southwest and Republic Fight for Frontier
In the ongoing battle for the future of Frontier, SWA has upped its bid for the Denver based carrier to $170m against Republic’s $108m. If Southwest wins the bidding, which based on a $62m advantage, appears more than likely, SWA will transition Frontier’s Airbus fleet to about 40 737-700s, replacing the 51 A320 family aircraft in the fleet. Southwest says it is also entertaining options for what to do with the remaining 10 Bombardier Q400s flying for Lynx.

Seattle pol takes jab at SC
Hat tip to the Boeing employee who sent this my way. Larry Phillips (D), who’s running for King County Executive, takes a shot at South Carolina. It’s almost like he knows how to get the attention of the tens of thousands of Boeing employees who live in King County.

Spotters Delight
The Seattle Times penned a great article about airplane nuts in the Pacific Northwest. Yes, that might be redundant, but the article captures the passion that enthusiasts bring to following things that fly. Also, Liz Matzelle, a good friend of this blog is prominently featured in the article.

Email Subscriptions
I’ve gotten requests over the last several months to set up formal email subscriptions for FlightBlogger and all the solutions I had come up with were rather inartful. With the help of FeedBurner, I’m able to offer a daily email with a digest of the previous day’s posts. I want to keep the email in your inbox to a minimum, so this is probably the best way to do it.

Sitting still…for now.
I’m back in DC after two weeks on
the road and I am beyond happy to be back home with a chance to sit
still until next month. All told, I flew seven different legs and
7673 nm between DC, Oshkosh, New York City, London and back again. I’m
going to savor every minute of being back in 100 degree nasty sweaty gross swampy DC.

I really should just say submitted without comment, but really, it deserves one. This is absolutely spectacular. It is the kind of video that just brings a massive smile to my face because it captures every single reason why I love aviation. I trust it will do the same for you. My hat’s off to Slickhutto.

Embraer’s Phenom 300 is pushing through its certification campaign, having passed the 750 flight test-hour mark with four flying aircraft since the aircraft’s first flight on April 29, 2008.

The aerodynamic configuration of the aircraft is now finalized and the company is continuing to explore the maximum operational speed and maximum altitude envelope, says Augusto Salgado da Rocha, product strategy sr. manager Executive Jets.

Other testing has included water spray, engine controllability and in-flight start and thrust determination and fire detection and extinguishing in on the Pratt & Whitney Canada’s PW535E engine.

Salgado da Rocha added that the aircraft has completed bird strike tests on the light jet and its fatigue and static structural tests are ongoing.

Natural icing, crosswind takeoff and landings, cold soak and external noise test have all been completed with autopilot and avionics tests, flutter and high speed tests and landing and takeoff performance are continuing.

The Brazilian airframer says the aircraft is on track for a certification and entry into service in the fourth quarter.

For the smaller Phenom 100, which was certificated in the fourth quarter of 2008, Embraer has delivered a total of 25 of the VLJs to date, says Ernie Edwards, Embraer vice president, marketing and sales U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

The company will introduce its clean-sheet DeCrane Aerospace cabin seat design, with optional armrest in the fourth quarter for newly delivered Phenom 100s with a retrofit option available in the first quarter of 2010.

Embraer has responded to certifications concerns about the amount of cabin space available by increasing the aisle width from 8.15 in to 13.58 in. Other upgrades to the Phenom 100 coming in 2010 will include pathways navigation and a synthetic vision system.

Salgado da Rocha adds that Embraer has been actively retrofitting an interim fix to the Phenom 100’s flap system following an airworthiness directive in February after it was found the flap handle position could miscompare between commanded and actual flap settings.

LONDON — On July 31st, ZA001 was rolled from the flight line to Paint Hangar 45-04 where the first 787 will remain for at least several weeks, as preparations are underway to install the wing fix on the static test airframe in the first major step to remove the obstacle standing in Boeing’s way to flying the Dreamliner.

Boeing has begun preparations on the static test airframe (ZY997), the aircraft on which the problems were first discovered, sources confirm. Once installed, the wings of test airframe will again be flexed to validate the static strength of the structure.

Since the June 23rd delay announcement, much of the focus has been centered on not only developing the fix itself, but the challenge to Boeing engineers and assembly crews to install  the side of body fix for the 787.

The installation, which will take place on the upper part of the side of body of the 787, is centered on two areas on both the port and starboard sides of the aircraft. The process of reinforcing the structure that connects the wing to the body of the aircraft will see modifications of both the Section 11 (center wing box) and Section 12 (wing box) of the aircraft.

The physical constraints of the area where repair crews will be working has been described by program sources as a series of “interconnected phonebooths laying on their side.”

To paint a picture of just how tight the area is, imagine a 17-foot long space along the wing root that is just over 5 and a half feet tall and about three feet wide. The areas on the top panels of these “phone booths” needing the fix are 17 I-shaped stringer beams on the Section 12 wing box and another 18 on the Section 11 center wing box that are affixed to the upper skin. The area requiring reinforcement is extremely tight providing just 3-4 inches from the top skin of the wing.

Crews will gain access to the inside of Section 11 by way of an access door into the center fuel tank from the rear spar inside the right hand landing gear bay. Two additional access holes leading from the side of the center wing box allows for crews to work inside the area on the Section 12 area of the side of body.

ZA001 and ZA002 hold unique challenges from the remaining four flight test aircraft because the interior working areas inside the fuel tank have been fully closed out and fueled for the previous APU and engine runs. Sources say ZA001 was drained of fuel before being moved back inside the paint hangar.

Supplier sources say that the reinforcing parts required for ZA001 and ZY997 have been shipped to Everett. ZY997, which will be the first test aircraft to receive the fix, has been surrounded by scaffolding in preparation for the installation.

Boeing continues to move forward with increasing the pace of deliveries to Everett, even as 787 is stalled by the fix. Boeing has begun final assembly on Dreamliner Eight, ZA101, though the upper panels of the final body join, sources say, will be done in an incomplete way to allow easier access to the the inside of the aircraft for installation of the fix. Wings for Dreamliner Nine (ZA102) are set to arrive later this week, just under 30 calendar days after Dreamliner Eight’s wings were delivered from Nagoya, Japan.

The first production 787, ZA100, has been moved to assembly position two inside Building 40-26, while ZA004 remains at position four closest to the door where it underwent gear swing tests this week.

The Section 11 half of the wing fix is expected to be incorporated at Global Aeronautica beginning with Airplane 15. The Section 12 side of the fix will continue to be completed in Everett because aspects of the modification require the wing box and center wing box to be in the wing to body join process, sources say.

Though as Boeing continues to churn through its internal assessment of first flight and first delivery expected to be ready later in the 3rd quarter, many outside the program are increasingly placing estimates on a slip of greater than six months into the first quarter of 2010 with a first delivery not occurring until the first quarter of 2011.

Over the previous week, FlightBlogger gathered the comments from several news reports, analysts and suppliers to aggregate the estimates on the timing of first flight and first delivery of 787. In addition to the public comments, six aerospace analysts, were polled on their estimates. They were provided the option of declining attribution due to the investment position of their respective firms. A total of 10 data points were collected.

The results, though gathered in an unscientific way, provide a basic framework for a window in which first flight and first delivery may take place. The consensus appears to trend towards early 2010 first flight with first delivery coming a year later in the first quarter of 2011.

The following are the assembled data points:

Well, EAA 2009 has drawn to a close. My annual trip to Oshkosh has again proven to be my favorite regularly scheduled week at work every year. The reasons for this are captured in this week’s comment from Flight International. Needless to say, the last several months have been a tough one for the industry, but the sentiment of the editorial voice of Flight has struck a different tone for this week. Also, the final batch of my photographs from the past week have been uploaded. Final tally: 183.

A toast to Oshkosh
Flight International
4-10 August 2009

Airlines in loss.
Military and civil programmes under threat. Business aviation in
disgrace and aerospace manufacturing suffering cancelled orders,
plunging revenues and redundancies. Sometimes it takes an event like
AirVenture in Oshkosh to remind us that aviation – at its grass roots – is all about liberation, innovation and the sheer joy of flying.

General
aviation is not immune to the economic downturn, as flying schools and
small charter operators struggle and even leisure pilots fly less and
put off purchases. But – while the world’s best-attended air show in
the unassuming Wisconsin city has its hard business edge – most of the
visitors are there to indulge their passion for flying and marvel in
the latest attempt to stretch the boundaries of aerospace technology.

This
year’s stars of the show were the A380 – still a rare sight in the US
Midwest – and Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnight Two: the mothership that
will carry the first tourist spaceship towards the edge of the Earth’s
atmosphere.

The lack of scepticism with which Oshkosh
greets such technological marvels is refreshing to those of us used to
– rightly – scrutinising the commercial case for new products, whether
they be superjumbo airliners or very light jets. AirVenture is not a
business show in the strict sense. Few attending the event will be
stumping up the $200,000 needed for a trip in Sir Richard Branson’s
spaceship. Few are likely to have travelled on the A380 from the two
North American airports its operators serve. The most active vendors
are those offering hats and hot dogs.

However, with more than half a million visitors, Oshkosh
is the perfect platform to create a buzz for a product, which is why
entrepreneurs such as Branson rate it so highly and why the A380 shows
up among the micro­lights, aerobatic trainers and pistons.

Executives
do not have to deal with probing questions from financial journalists.
Most of the scribes there are enthusiasts themselves. They are not
under pressure to reveal reasons for delays to programmes. Market
shares, capital outlays and risk are concepts for another day.

In a cynical age, Oshkosh worships innovators in the way that 100 years ago the Bleriots and Wrights were hailed as heroes. So this week, Flight International – amid our pages of news analysis and hard-edged scrutiny of our industry – joins in that enthusiasm and toasts the spirit of Oshkosh.

• Avanti plans Latin American push
• Electric overtakes alternate fuels
• Virgin Galactic flies high at Oshkosh
• WhiteKnight Two rudder change confirmed
• Adam Aircraft under new ownership
• Honda poised to test-fly HondaJet
• Remos secures new investor, plans major US expansion
• Piper to offer Garmin G600 glass cockpit
• Cessna to begin SkyCatcher deliveries in 4Q
• VIDEO: Cirrus seriously considers splitting off jet programme
• Icon A5 first delivery pushed to 2011
• PICTURES: VIDEO: Hawker Beechcraft unveils new King Air model
• Piper lays down ambitious expansion plans
• VIDEOS: PiperJet makes air show debut

Photo Credit Lee Karas