Boeing just released its third in an ongoing series of 787 milestone videos on its website. The latest chronicles the completion of destructive testing on the 787 test wingbox. The results of will be analyzed and applied to additional testing on the 787 static airframe (ZY997). The final validation of wing strength for FAA certification will be carried out on ZY997 when the wing is bent to apply 150% of maximum loads.

Boeing has not yet decided if it plans to break the wings of ZY997. One could speculate that the destruction of the test article helped in determining the extent of debris cleanup that might be required if the test was carried out on ZY997 inside the factory. In January 1995, the Boeing 777 was brought to 154% of maximum loads before it snapped in spectacular fashion.

Breaking the wing is not a requirement for certification, but would help in understanding the overall strength of the wing. If the wing survives well past 150% of maximum loads, it would provide a guide for weight reduction because the wing would be carrying too much structure, as well as assisting in understanding the growth potential for future 787 models.

With last week's announcement of the 747-8 delay, got me to thinking. Just how many 747-400s are left to be delivered? Boeing originally intended to build 747-400s and 747-8s side by side on the production line in Everett, but decided a year ago to close out the -400 line before launching -8 assembly.

The last passenger -400 was delivered to China Airlines back in April 2005, leaving nine 747-400 freighters left for delivery.

After poking around a bit and triangulating some data, the remaining nine will go to four cargo operators: UPS (1), Nippon Cargo Airlines (2), Cathay Pacific (4) and LoadAir Cargo (2) of Kuwait. UPS and NCA will receive -400Fs and CX and LoadAir will receive -400ERFs.

The final -400, an Extended Range Freighter, is destined for LoadAir and will be the 1419th 747 built since 1968.

Sluggish Deliveries Warning
This item went largely unnoticed last week from the EADS Airbus press conference:

Deliveries of Airbus A380 aircraft may be delayed: EADS
PARIS (AFP) - Deliveries of some super-jumbo Airbus A380 airliners scheduled for next year may be delayed until 2010, the head of the European aerospace group EADS said on Friday.

"We had planned to deliver 12 A380s in 2008 and 21 in 2009. Some of the 21 for 2009 may be delivered in 2010," EADS head Louis Gallois said in telephone press conference.

Airbus chief Thomas Enders had bet a magnum of champagne on delivering the 33 aircraft by the 2008 and 2009 time frame.

New customers Air France, Lufthansa and China Southern are among the airlines expected to get their first A380s in 2009.

Wave 2 did fly!
There was quite a bit of back and forth last week about whether or not the first Wave 2 A380 actually flew. MSN026 in fact did make its first flight as reported by Flight on November 12. Though, it raised a funny question: If a plane flies in Toulouse and no one is around to spot it, did it actually fly?

Well, the answer is yes. The aircraft left early in the morning and came back to TLS after a two hour flight rather than being ferried to XFW. No photographers were around to spot it at the time. The QANTAS A380 arrived in Hamburg earlier today with plenty of visual evidence to support that claim.

A380 No. 10 leaves the nest
Emirates got its 3rd (of 58) A380-800 (MSN016 A6-EDC) on November 15th, making it the tenth superjumbo to be delivered since the A380 entered service in 2007 with Singapore Airlines. The arrival of number three will launch service between Dubai and London on December 1. The commencement of that route will bring the total A380 city pairs to seven. QANTAS A380 no. 2 VH-OQB is next in line for delivery.

ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: A6-EDC [ ]
Message label: Q0 Block id: 4 Msg no: S27A
Flight id: EK7380 [] [Emirates]
----------------------------------------------------------[ 15/11/2008 09:17 ]-

QANTAS names its A380
Am I crazy or are there only 19 bullet points here? QANTAS ordered 20 A380s. Also, there are 21 names. I'm willing to bet that Keith and Ross McPhearson Smith each get their own superjumbo and John and Reginald Duigan get to share. Anyone care to clarify?

• Nancy-Bird Walton - the first woman to fly a commercial aviation service in Australia. First woman to fly a commercial service in Australia.
• Hudson Fysh - one of the founders of Qantas and the airline's first Managing Director. A founder of Qantas and the first Managing Director.
• Paul McGinness - A Qantas founder.
• Fergus McMaster - A Qantas founder and the airlines first Chairman.
• Lawrence Hargrave - The inventor of the box kite and achieved a linking of four to fly sixteen feet in 1894.
• Charles Kingsford Smith - Achieved the first trans-Pacific flight that ran from the USA to Australia in 1928. He also formed Australian National Airways Limited.
• Charles Ulm - Charles Kingsford Smith's Co-pilot when he flew the trans-pacific flight and was also a founder of Australian National Airways Limited.
• Reginald Ansett - The founder of Ansett Airways in Australia.
• David Warren - The inventor of the Black Box Flight Recorder still used in modern airliners.
• Bert Hinkler - Achieved the first solo flight from Britain to Australia in 1928.
• John and Reginald Duigan - Both men were the first to design and build a flying powered aircraft in 1910.
• Phyllis Arnot - The first Australian woman to achieve a commercial pilots licence.
• Keith McPhearson Smith and Ross McPhearson Smith - both were winners of the 'air race' that ran between London and Australia held in 1919.
• Lester Brain - One of the pilots working on the first Qantas routes in 1925. He was responsible for transporting the first Catalina Flying Boat that was delivered to Qantas in 1941. Mr Brain was also given the position of General Manager of Trans-Australia Airlines in 1946.
• Lores Bonney - The first woman to complete a solo flight around Australia in 1932 and the first to fly solo from Australia to England in 1933.
• Norman Brearley - The founder of Western Australian Airways Limited. The airline were responsible for operating the first scheduled air service commencing on the 5th of December 1921.
• PG Taylor - Charles Kingford Smith and Charles Ulm's navigator and co-pilot on several occasions on flight between Australia and the USA as well as between England and Australia. Awarded the Empire Gallantry Medial in 1937 for acts of bravery.
• John Flynn - The Royal Flying Doctor Service founder.
• Gaby Kennard - The first Australian female to complete a solo flight across the globe.

The National Geographic Channel has produced some great aviation documentaries over the years and this one is no exception. This five part show covers the development of the Airbus A380. I bid your productivity a fond farewell. Enjoy!

Just released:

SPEEA and Boeing reach tentative agreement on new contracts

SEATTLE - Tentative agreement was reached today between the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, and Boeing on new four-year contracts covering 21,000 engineers and technical workers.

The two sides reached agreement early Friday. Union negotiators are recommending members approve the agreements. If approved by union members, the agreements will replace existing contracts that expire Dec. 1.

Two contracts are involved in the negotiations. The first covers 14,000 engineers in the SPEEA Professional Bargaining Unit. The second contract covers 7,000 technical workers in the union's Technical Bargaining Unit. While the majority of workers are in the Puget Sound region, the contracts cover employees in Oregon, Utah and California. Both contracts expire Dec. 1.

No details can be released until after union negotiators present the agreements to the SPEEA Professional and Technical bargaining unit councils at a special meeting set for 5 p.m., this evening (Friday, Nov. 14).

Main Table negotiations started Oct. 29.

Source: SPEEA.org

News of the delay just broke. I was getting word over last 48 hours of something big coming out today, it looks like this is it. No word on when roll out of first flight would be. Though one could speculate that first flight would be late 2009 or early 2010.

An industry source tells FlightBlogger that Boeing is expecting 6 747-8F deliveries in 2010 followed by a production ramp up to about 4 per month.

Boeing Adjusts 747-8 Program Production and Delivery Schedule

• Deliveries of 747-8 Freighter to begin third quarter of 2010; deliveries of 747-8 Intercontinental passenger model to begin second quarter of 2011.
• Company working with customers to minimize disruption. Intercontinental passenger model to begin second quarter of 2011.

EVERETT, Wash., Nov. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boeing (NYSE: BA) today announced an adjusted schedule for production and delivery of the 747-8 Freighter and Intercontinental airplanes.

The revised schedule is based on a production and flight-test plan developed in conjunction with the company's suppliers that provides additional time for addressing issues that have slowed the program's progress. Those issues include supply chain delays driven by design changes to the airplane, limited availability of engineering resources inside Boeing, and the recent Machinists' strike that halted production in the company's factories.

Boeing today confirms that the 737 programme faces a new challenge to return to full rate production. Thousands of small pieces of structural hardware must be replaced because of a lack of corrosive coating.

The airframer says the components, known as nutplates, do not present "an immediate safety of flight issue."

The problem impacts "thousands" of nutplates in each 737 fuselage. The company adds that about 30% will require replacement, a number that runs about 3,000 to 4,000 nutplates per fuselage according to a program source, though the number varies depending on the model of 737.

Boeing is currently ramping up 737 production to its normal rate of about one per day, following the 57-day strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). The nutplate quality issue, however, means assembly workers must scramble to replace the parts before each aircraft now on Boeing property can be delivered.

Boeing emphasizes that no 737 will be delivered unless it meets proper conformity standards. Boeing declined to specify what impact the nutplate replacement would have on the pace of production and deliveries.

Boeing says it is devoting significant resources to solving this problem quickly.

Spirit AeroSystems is responsible for development of the 737 fuselage at its Wichita, Kansas facility. Once completed, the green 737 fuselage is shipped by rail to Renton, Washington, for final assembly.

Once completed, aircraft are flown to Boeing Field near downtown Seattle for delivery to customers.

Boeing says that one of three of Spirit's nutplate suppliers had been delivering parts lacking anti-corrosion material, adding that a root-cause analysis will be undertaken in conjunction with Spirit to prevent the problem from recurring.

Spirit was unavailable for comment.

Boeing adds that all non-conforming nutplates that have yet to be installed at Spirit have been returned to the supplier.

Staff from Spirit have been dispatched to the Seattle area to help identify and fix fuselage sections that are not yet in the final assembly phase.

However, the problem is not limited to only those aircraft waiting to be assembled and delivered.

According to Boeing, 737s delivered to customers since August 2007 contained non-conforming nutplates. Boeing's delivery website says that 394 737s were delivered between August 2007 and October 2008.

The company is working with the FAA to address the in-service fleet. Boeing says that only areas exposed to moisture could potentially present problems in the long-term by corroding prematurely.

737-800 Assembly Video after the jump
Photo Credit: FlightBlogger

Submitted without comment.

You may remember this infamous aircraft from the brutal accident that severely injured the ground test crew of Etihad's A340-600 (MSN856) last fall. This appears to be all that is left of the aircraft at Toulouse. The aircraft was going to be A6-EHG, but was heavily damaged during and engine run up while it was still in test registration F-WWCJ.

The accident happened almost a year ago (Nov. 5, 2007) and was reported here live as the accident details became available. Coverage of this accident generated the highest traffic this blog has seen to date.

From the Archives
November 5, 2007: Etihad A340-600 Severely Damaged in Engine Test
November 20, 2007: Etihad A340-600 Accident Photos

UPDATE: It looks like the tail made it to Paris for an environmental exhibition on the Place de la Concorde. Hat tip to LS for the find.

Sometimes the best resources are hidden right under your own nose! I went trolling across flightglobal.com yesterday and found some extraordinary features of this website that I don't utilize nearly enough and you really should take a look at.

Five things I didn't know about flightglobal.com

1. Cutaways - Flight has always been known for its cutaway drawings. Okay, I knew about this one already, but trust me, go exploring, you won't be sorry. I've got more than enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that they have inspired many a child to become an engineer. We've got most of the database online. It's definitely worth taking some time to explore. Each one is about 1000 pixels wide so you really get a good view.

When you throw apture in the mix you get a better look at things like the tail section of an Airbus A300 or flight deck of a Lockheed L1011.

http://flightglobal.com/cutaways

2. 100 Years of Flight Archive - Every issue of Flight International from 1909 to 2004 is available in a searchable PDF database. Every page, every issue. What about the August 16, 1945 issue at the end of WWII? Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969? Want to see when the idea of the 787 was born? Watch the 20th century unfold in the sky.

http://flightglobal.com/archive

3. Incident Watch - Hidden beneath a few layers of content, I discovered that we keep a  constantly updated log of incidents with any powered aircraft (GA and above, including military) that happen around the world. It's an excellent resource for boiling down an incident to its core elements. It also includes links to news stories and photos if they're available.

http://www.flightglobal.com/staticpages/incidentwatch.html

4. Commercial Aircraft Directory - Flight has compiled an impressive database of the vital statistics of a huge number of commercial aircraft. It even includes the thrust rating for all the possible type of airframe/engine combinations. For a data junky like me, it's a goldmine. Best yet, it's available in metric and imperial.

5. Videos, videos, videos - I had no idea how many we actually had. Some recent ones like the delivery tour of the QANTAS A380 or interviews with airline CEOs provide an often unseen glimpse into the workings of the aerospace industry. There are even a few on there that were produced by yours truly. You can even upload your own to be featured on flightglobal.com.