Boeing 787 flight testing, originally planned to begin shortly, remains on hold as the clock continues to tick on the company's ambitious commitment to certificate the widebody twinjet in May 2008.
The window to complete flight testing on time is narrowing from the original record-setting goal of nine months to perhaps as little as seven months.
As the timetable tightens, it increases the pressure on completing roughly 2,000h of certification flight tests and proving the service readiness of the major design innovations in the 787, including the carbonfibre-composite fuselage, "bleedless" engines and more-electric systems.
Added to these challenges in the flight-test programme is the requirement to log significant - and trouble-free - time on one of the flight-test aircraft to validate the 787's extended-range twin-engine operations requirements. While launch customers are expected to demand ETOPS capability "out of the box" on delivery, All Nippon Airways, the first customer, plans to delay such routes for 12-18 months to meet the meet Japanese certification requirements.
Meanwhile, the certification schedule remains at the mercy of another 787 innovation - a manufacturing strategy that relies on subcontractors more than on Boeing. The major sections for the first aircraft reportedly arrived at the final assembly line with about 3,000 missing fasteners.
"The problem is mostly to do with the lack of floor space," said Michele Merluzeau, managing partner at the Seattle-based G2 Solutions aviation consultancy. Until all unfinished work is completed and the first 787 fully assembled, Boeing cannot press ahead with subsequent aircraft.
Boeing continues to insist a first flight in late September is still achievable, but acknowledges that contingency plans are in place in case the date slips into October. Boeing is withholding further comment on the 787 until a comprehensive programme update scheduled on 5 September.
But certification experts warn Boeing faces a massive challenge because of the delays. "You've got to be fair and say that, if you look at what they have to do today, the schedule they originally put together has slipped by a couple of months at least...and it was a very ambitious schedule to start with," says a source familiar with certification programmes.
The 787 will mark the introduction into commercial airline service of a fuselage made from carbonfibre instead of aluminium and aircraft systems such as pressurisation and air conditioning that use electrical power rather than bleed air from the engines.
Both technologies are key to Boeing's claims for improved fuel efficiency and comfort over conventional airliners, but could still create surprises during flight test.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
