Aviation Week reports that ZA001 hit an electrical system snag this weekend following “landing gear retraction tests went better, and faster, than expected.”
On Saturday Boeing decided it
would have a special test to trouble-shoot the issue on Sunday
afternoon, but by the morning of Apr 26th it was decided to
indefinitely delay the electrical system test. No word as yet on what
exactly the issue was, or whether it will delay the start of
intermediate gauntlet tests – the next big milestone on the road to
first flight.
This page has no additional details beyond what has been reported by Aviation Week, though I was reminded of a quote from then 787 Program Manager Pat Shanahan in May 2008 that puts this situation in the appropriate context for understanding the road forward.
Mr. Shanahan, now Vice President of Airplane Programs, said of gauntlet testing:
“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? Guess what, there will be lots of those, 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.”
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.