Powering The 787 Dreamliner To Power On

June 13th, 2008

In late March of this year, speculation was rife that the Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was headed for a third major delay. Coupled with that speculation was the news that Boeing had agreed to acquire the 50% stake held by Vought Aircraft Industries in Global Aeronautica, which is responsible for the assembly, systems and integration of subassemblies from Italy and Japan on the 787.

Vought is still a partner on the program, responsible for the aft fuselage section for all 787 variants. Alenia also holds a 50% stake in Global Aeronautica.

Earlier this week, Boeing completed the transaction and has brought the much vaunted global supply chain a little closer under its watchful eye.

The timing may be considered coincidental, but the next two weeks mark the long awaited first major milestone for the 787 that made its debut almost a year ago. Given the added margin into the program since the third delay, Boeing has started the process of turning power on for the first time to the numerous 787 systems and aims to complete full system power on throughout the airplane by the end of this month.

All images courtesy of CNN/Fortune

Hamilton Sundstrand president David Hess stated earlier this month that Boeing had all the software and hardware necessary to initiate power on. The flightdeck of the first 787 is virtually complete from a systems point of view and the components required to power up the airplane are in place and “ready to go”.

While no firm date has been set for first flight, it is widely believed that the first 787 will undergo an array of ground tests both inside and outside of the current Everett factory where it currently resides. Boeing has earmarked the fourth quarter of this year to get the 787 airborne - getting into the skies sooner will equally allow a greater window in case of any anomalies discovered during flight tests. The company hopes to conduct the first flight by early/mid-December 2008.

Boeing hopes to have all six test 787’s (four powered by Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines, two powered by the General Electric GEnx engine) by the end of the first quarter of 2009.

Despite reaching this milestone later than the company had hoped, demand for the 787 has not waned and in the current economic climate of high oil prices, the prospect of the Dreamliner securing more customers is certain.

In a statement, 787 Communications spokeswoman Yvonne Leach stated that “we did put power on to the airplane for the first time yesterday (Wednesday),“.

“It gives us confidence that we’ll have that milestone completed by the end of the month.”

Critically, the focus will start to shift away from the 787’s near term targets of power on, first flight and tests towards how Boeing manages the recovery of the revised production schedule. The aim is to produce 10 a month from 2012 onwards.

Between 2009 and the end of 2011, Boeing will not just be working hard on perfecting the production system for the 787-8 model. With the planned entry into service of the stretched 787-9 due in early 2012 to launch customer Air New Zealand, the focus on increasing production for the more popular 787-8 model means that the 787-9 service entry may be pushed back, according to two existing 787-9 customers that declined to be identified. We believe that any such delay could be up to six months, meaning service entry for the 787-9 in the latter half of 2012.

As it stands, Boeing has stated that early 2012 is the target for the 787-9 service entry.

In the meantime, the countdown for the 787 to make history for the both the aerospace and airline industries beckons.

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