Boeing 747-8 news

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RoMax
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Boeing 747-8 news

Post by RoMax »

Finally after all these years of delays, disappointments, missed deadlines, missed targets,... Boeing is nearing certification and first delivery of their two new flagships, the B787 and B748.
This topic is intended to collect the most important news about these two aircraft in the comming weeks and months (so no need to open a new topic for 787 or 748 news).

I will begin with the news from last week (probably most of you already know these things, but anyway):

- In early June F&R (Functionality and Reliability) and ETOPS testing will begin on the B787. For these tests the 787's will operate as if it is in commercial service, simulating failures/problems to see how the 787 handles this. ZA102, the 9th build 787 will have an important stake in these tests. This aircraft is reworked the previous weeks to bring it completely to the delivery standards. It's the first production aircraf to be completely finished as it should be. This will probably also be the first B787 delivered to ANA. ETOPS and F&R testing will take a month or a bit more.
- Testing on the RR 787 is finished for 96%, the GE 787 is finished with 75% of its testing.
- The FAA has to give a Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) before F&R and ETOPS testing can begin, but this should happen in the comming days/weeks.
- As from 4 July ZA002 ( the second test aircraft wich is in ANA colors) will conduct SRVO (service ready validation operations) testing in Japan for ANA out of Haneda Airport. It will undergo maintenance by ANA staff, ground service operations, refuelling,...

- B747-8F still has to start F&R testing, the start of these tests depends on the approval by the FAA of a design change of the Honeywell flight management software. Boeing expect to start F&R testing in the comming days.
- RC503, one of the five B748F test aircraft is send to Lackland to undergo required rework before delivery to Cargolux. This is the first B748F to end testing.
- Testing of the B747-8i is going very smooth aswell. The -8i would operate around 600 test hours and they currently already did more than 240 hours.

- B787 production is currently at two per month, will to to 2.5 this summer. Boeind don't want to go up with production before first delivery because they already have so many unfinished 787's waiting for rework and delivery.
- First 787 in Charleston will be a 787 for UA/CO and production will start in July. At least, let's hope so, the unions wich represent the workers at the Everett production plant went to court to avoid Boeing building 787's in Charleston.
- The horizontal stabilizer of the B787-9 will be build by Boeing itself in Seattle. Alenia wich is building the horizontal stabilizer for the B787-8 messed it up and caused even more delays, so they will lose the contract for the 787-9. But there might be a problem, Alenia owns the design of the horizontal stabilizer, but it's not clear if they also own the design of the B787-9 horizontal stabilizer wich is slightly different.

- A longer B787 variant is now named the B787-10X and Boeing said it's an aircraf they will normally do in the comming years (not sure when as they avoid different big projects at the same time: see 787/748). It would be a 6m stretch of the 787-9 wich would give it 43 more seats than the 270-290 seat 787-9. Normally they will keep the -9 wing so the range will be lower than the 787-9, but still attractive for many routes. The B787-10X would be something like the A330-300, a large medium-long range aircraft. Many airlines are interested in this, that's why Boeing never let go the idea of the 787-10X.

- JAL will start a new route from Tokyo Narita to Boston with the B787 in April 2012. This route was impossible before but thanks to the long range of the 787 and the limited capacity Boston will finally get its first link to Asia.

- Norwegian takes over 3 of the 4 B787-8's ordered by Icelandair. This makes a total of 5 B787-8's for Norwegian wich decided last year to lease two ILFC B787-8's. Deliveries of all 788's will run from 2012 to 2015. New York and Bangkok were named by Norwegian as possible future long haul routes.

- Today it was also in the press that China Southern will indeed get its first 787 in the last quarter of this year. So they will get two new flagships this year, their first A380 and B787.
Last edited by RoMax on 24 Jan 2012, 16:35, edited 2 times in total.

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RoMax
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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by RoMax »

- As you know the B747-8F, B747-8i and B788 will go to Paris soon. The B748F will fly to Luxembourg after Paris to visit it's launch customer Cargolux (the first aircraft for them is already being prepared in San Antonio, it was one of the test aircraft). The B788 will go to Poland to visit LOT.

- The Honeywell Flight Management Computer (FMC) of the B748F has still some problems and it is still not fully operational during the flights, so it's a question if the full FMC can be certified on time. This is not a fundamental problem for the certification, but it is just annoying to the pilots (and airlines) as they can't use a part of the FMC.
But anyway, the B748F recently started F&R testing (Functionality and realibility testing) with several long flights (8+ hours). These are the last steps before certification wich will be in the comming months.

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

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The first B747-8F (RC501) finished flight testing and is flown to San Antonio to be prepared for delivery to Cargolux later this summer. Now RC501 and RC503 finished flight testing, both are now in San Antonio and both will be delivered to Cargolux (wich is btw 35% owned by Qatar Airways as from today).
RC523 is doing F&R testing as from June 1 and RC522 will come to Europe (Le Bourget and Luxemburg) later this month.

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by RC20 »

I think Boeing stole the Paris air show. New 747s and 787 both.

In numbers Airbus did as usual, the sand bag thing. Pretty much an A320NEO show though Boeing had some great wide body numbers to announce (and with the backlog at 5 years, what can they sell but NEO?)

Maybe most interesting is the destruction of the A350 stategy. They tried to cover the 787 segment and the 777 segment, and did neither well on either end (the A350-900 looks to have found a niche between the two that I did not expect to see, so I was wrong on that).

The 800 is now being shopped as "hey guys, you really should move up to the 900". Much like the 787-3, it looks to be kaput. A heavy downsized tube has never sold (777-100)

The 1000 just does not offer enough of anything for the big buyers to be happy. Only a major rework will get it to what they want (something to compete with the 777 so they don't have to pay full boat). I think its going to be more than 2 years, it will take 100k+ engine thrust and a new wing.

And then its narrower than a 777 (cargo issues if you try to do a freighter). So Boeing can call it the A350 narrow body!

Boeing still has to decide what to do about the 737. That may be an interesting mix of a hybrid Leap X and CFM engine to bridge the gap, and then a new small plane (notice Boeing is now call it the new SMALL AIRCRAFT, not narrow body. Stay tuned

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by ATCO ACC »

For info, today, RC522 left Luxembourg with destination Everett KPAE. Callsign was "Boeing 522" (BOE522 )

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by sn26567 »

RC003, the latest Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental to fly, has taken off on its first flight.
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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by earthman »

I find the name silly, as if the other incarnations of the 747 don't have intercontinental range.

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RoMax
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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

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RC523 (the fifth B747-8F) is currently performing it's max endurance F&R test flight (the same kind of flight like the 18h B787 flight mentioned in the previous post). And it seems they wanted to be creative with their flight plan. The aircraft is currently writing a big "747" on the US.

http://nl.flightaware.com/live/flight/B ... /KPAE/KPAE

"Sadly" enough the real flight path isn't as perfect as the flight plan, so the "747" is not so nicely formed. :lol:

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

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MR_Boeing wrote:The aircraft is currently writing a big "747" on the US.

http://nl.flightaware.com/live/flight/B ... /KPAE/KPAE

"Sadly" enough the real flight path isn't as perfect as the flight plan, so the "747" is not so nicely formed. :lol:
Impressive programme, but it looks now that the flight willl be shortened. I am not sure the aircraft will make the last 7... Pity. It would have been a nice signature for the achievements of Boeing.
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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by RoMax »

They finished it, but it's a not so nicely formed. :P But still impressive.

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by Bralo20 »

MR_Boeing wrote:They finished it, but it's a not so nicely formed. :P But still impressive.
And flew 11.650nm doing it... :)

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by sn26567 »

Indeed they seemed in a hurry to go back to Snohomish County Airport and made several shortcuts that completely destroyed the nice 747 pattern. Pity!
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RoMax
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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by RoMax »

sn26567 wrote:Indeed they seemed in a hurry to go back to Snohomish County Airport and made several shortcuts that completely destroyed the nice 747 image. Pity!
Yes but even now they flow a very big distance in a 17h flight (just saw they did a 16h 17min flight the day before...). Maybe they overestimated the writing of a "747" in a real flight... :P

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

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About the B748F, Atlas Air gave more information about the delivery shedule of their B748F's. They expect their first one in October followed by two in November. This shedule is based on the latest shedule released by Boeing. Atlas Air has 12 B748F's on order and previously said they hoped to get the first 3 in the fourth quarter of this year. These 3 will be operated by British Airways World Cargo under a five year wet lease agreement. Initially deliveries to Atlas Air were sheduled to begin in 2010.

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by RoMax »

Very good news related to the B748F. Certification testing (including F&R testing) is completly finished! RC523 his final certification flight was that "747-writing-in-the-sky flight" and RC522 ended certification of the Honeywell flight management computer (wich caused many problems already).
It wasn't easy, as the B748F programme needed more than double the amount of test hours they expected before. But some design problems resulted in the redesign of some parts and needed more testing.

Boeing will now make final documentation submissions to the FAA. The ongoing partial shutdown of the FAA is not expected to interfere with final airframe certification, as the staff responsible are paid out of an unaffected source of funding. However, approval for the jumbo freighter's use at six major US airports remains in question with Congressional funding denied to divisions responsible for airport certification.

Certification is expected within a few weeks, but some new, promissed features will not be included yet. With the biggest the FMC of Honywell. 0.1nm required navigation performance (RNP) and "quiet climb" ascent profiles, have been deferred. Boeing has been working hard together with Honeywell to achieve an FMC with the same functionality than on the B744. But anyway this is not what Boeing wanted and they want that Honeywell solves all the problems.

First delivery is expected to Cargolux somewhere in September. When exactly? Will depend on when the FAA grants certification.

But testing is not finished for the team, the B748i needs to be certified also.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... sting.html

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... -some.html

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

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Also interesting is what Boeing said about the B748F. Delivery is still sheduled for September (probably before the B787) and Boeing expects more order activity in the comming months. Albaugh speaks about 111 firm order for both variants currently and 22 more commitments "to be announced soon". Now I wonder if these are new commitments or the 15 Hong Kong Airlines B748i's and the 5 B748i's of Air China (and two more) wich are to be firmed. Probably the last, but new commitments would be wonderfull.

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

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According to some sources (familiar with the subject), the B748F will be certified today. According to these people, the announcement will be made in the morning (local time in the US of course). If this is true, first delivery to Cargolux is comming very close.

According to the same two people, Boeing expects certification of the B787 next week. They say a ceremony is sheduled for 26 August.

And something else about the B748. After Airbus said Aeroflot is looking at the A380 (altough they also said a new order should not be expected immediately). Now also Transaero said they are looking at the A380. But they said they also look at the B748i. The new A380/B748's will replace the older B747's and expand the fleet from 2015 onwards. A final decision about the order will be made "closer to the date".

Transaero will start to retire their B743's as from 2015, as from 2020 most of their oldest B744's will also leave the fleet. To replace them and expand the fleet they want to order the A380 or B748i for deliveries between 2015 and 2025.

Transaero is a close Boeing customer, but that means nothing as they recently signed a MoU for the A320neo. And United Aircraft Corp. said they look at the possibility to build a brand new Russian long haul aircraft. Transaero said they will also look at this.

And about the B787, JA801A (ZA101, the first B787 to be delivered) has run its engines for the first time yesterday. See the link for a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn-_1S-J ... r_embedded

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

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It's official now, the FAA and EASA jointly awarded Boeing with an Amended Type Certificate (ATC) for the B747-8F!! Finally! :mrgreen: So now the way is free for first delivery to Cargolux wich is about to happen in early September.

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

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Some sources say first delivery of the B748F will happen on September 7. The first aircraft will be for Cargolux as said several times before. Some other B748F's for Cathay and Cargolux should be ready for first delivery very soon.

And probably also interesting, in October the first B748F for Atlas Air will be delivered. These first frames will be leased by British Airways Worldcargo to replace the current leased B744F's. Contrary to the current leased aircraft the new B748F's are said to be painted in BA colors. Altough I'm not sure this is officially confirmed. Not sure how many aircraft BA will get, but I tought it was 3, but I'm not sure at all.

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Re: Boeing 787 and B748 nearing first delivery

Post by RoMax »

earthman wrote:These must be happy days for MR_Boeing. ;)
Talking about me? :mrgreen:

I think these are happy days for every aviation enthousiast (except for the die-hard Airbus fans who would like Boeing Commercial to go bankrupt) and every airline that ordered the B748 and B787.
But I was also happy to see the A380 being certified and enter into service with SQ. And I will also be happy to see the A350 in service. But ok, I'm a little bit more happy with the B748/B787. :mrgreen:

But that doesn't change something to the fact that the delays are a big disaster: for Boeing (altough they caused the problems themself, together with some of the contractors like Alenia), for the airlines that ordered the B787, for the airports (new long, thin routes like Tokyo-BRU are possible with the B787) and even for the pax (maybe some are not convinced, but read the comments about the B787 cabin... this is unseen, altough the A380 stays heaven based on cabin space and maybe some other things).

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