Dreamliner One, which coincidentally is parked next to the 787th Boeing 777, spent Monday preparing for fuel quantity verification tests with some additional fuel tank sealant and electrical resistance checks.
As of publication on Tuesday, ZA001 had not yet begun fueling.
Back in the factory, the first General Electric GEnx engines are being prepped for installation aboard ZA005. The engines arrived on the factory floor Friday afternoon.
ZA002 remains in the paint hangar where it is receiving the colors of 787 launch customer All Nippon Airways, FlightBlogger confirms.
Following the
completion of its paint job, the aircraft will return to the factory by mid-month,
two bays down from the 787 line in Building 40-24.
Boeing completed ground vibration testing late last week and the blue test fixture had been pulled back away from the aircraft by Saturday. The removal of instrumentation from the aircraft marked the weekend’s final preparations ahead of Sunday evening’s roll out that followed ZA001’s trip to fuel dock F-3.
Sunday’s departure of Dreamliner One from the paint hangar cleared the way for ZA004, ZA005 and ZA006 to advance one position on the 787’s pulsing assembly line, filling the spot vacated by ZA002.
With the first body-join position now clear, ZA100, the first production 787 will be able to begin final assembly once the mid and forward fuselages are delivered from Global Aeronautica and Spirit Aerosystems, respectively.
On the other side of the factory, the final 747-400 (LN1419) left the factory giving ZY998 and ZA003 the chance to advance closer to the football field-sized doors.
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.