Boeing has revealed the five completion centres for its Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) as the first aircraft made its maiden flight from Renton, Washington, on 4 September.
Completion of the "green" BBJ airframes will take place at Jet Aviation, Lufthansa Technik, Associated in Dallas, Raytheon in Waco, Texas and the Jet Center in Van Nuys, California - a recent purchase by General Electric. "We are now covered for 24 aircraft per year, but we see potential production at more than two per month, and in 1999 we will deliver 26," says BBJ president Borge Boeskov. Other than the initial BBJs involved in the flight test effort, all aircraft will be built at the newly announced Next Generation 737 line at Long Beach, California.
Once assembled, the aircraft will delivered to PATS in Georgetown, Delaware, for installation of long-range auxiliary fuel tanks, before delivery to a completion centre.
Flight tests of the Aviation Partners-designed winglets have meanwhile shown "significant" performance benefits, according to Boeskov. "We are very pleased, and it will be between 5% and 7% depending on how it gets tuned out with the extra structure we will have to build into the wing. For an aircraft that is designed to fly 14 hours, that is a huge deal," he says
Production winglets will be installed on BBJs from the first quarter of 1999 onwards, though a development version may appear on the prototype when it is displayed at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, next month. Meanwhile, BBJ sales stand at 35 aircraft, with the promise of further orders to be announced at NBAA.
Source: Flight International
