Tue, Jun 23, 2009
First Flight Of B787 Postponed, No New Date Set
Boeing announced Tuesday that first flight of the 787 Dreamliner
will be postponed due to a need to reinforce an area within the
side of the fuselage of the aircraft.
The need was identified during the recent regularly scheduled
tests on the full-scale static test airplane. Preliminary analysis
indicated that flight test could proceed this month as planned.
However, after further testing and consideration of possible
modified flight test plans, the decision was made late last week
that first flight should instead be postponed until productive
flight testing could occur.
First flight and first delivery will be rescheduled following
the final determination of the required modification and testing
plan. It will be several weeks before the new schedule is
available. The 787 team will continue with other aspects of testing
on Airplane #1, including final gauntlet testing and low-speed
taxiing. Work will also continue on the other five flight test
aircraft and the subsequent aircraft in the production system.
Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes
said a team of experts has already identified several potential
solutions.
"Consideration was given to a temporary solution that would
allow us to fly as scheduled, but we ultimately concluded that the
right thing was to develop, design, test and incorporate a
permanent modification to the localized area requiring
reinforcement. Structural modifications like these are not uncommon
in the development of new airplanes, and this is not an issue
related to our choice of materials or the assembly and installation
work of our team," Carson said.
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