Singapore Airlines can take delivery of the first Boeing 787-10 on schedule after the US Federal Aviation Administration approved an amended type certificate, the manufacturer announced on 22 January.
Boeing has scheduled the entry into service for the 787-10 as broadly the “first half of 2018”, but the approval of the amended type certificate now means that the first delivery could happen by the end of the first quarter.
Four years after Boeing launched the third and largest member of the 787 family, the 787-10 with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000-TEN engines entered flight testing 10 months ago at Boeing’s factory in North Charleston, South Carolina. The smaller 787-8 and 787-9 models will continue to be assembled in North Charleston and Everett, Washington, and the 787-10 is exclusively assembled in South Carolina.
"After years of design and testing, our team has proven the quality, safety and reliability of the newest member of the Dreamliner family and we look forward to seeing the airplane in service later this year," says Brad Zaback, Boeing’s vice-presdient and general manager for the 787 programme.
The 787-10 received approval from the FAA after completing about 900 test hours. The aircraft is 5m (16.4ft) longer than the 787-9, but the two aircraft are nearly identical with a few exceptions. To accommodate the longer fuselage on takeoff, Boeing installed a 777-300ER-style semi-levered main landing gear.
Boeing also increased commonality by moving some design changes made for the 787-10 onto the smaller 787-9. The latter is now produced using the stronger wing designed for the 787-10. The 787-9 now also uses hybrid laminar flow control in the vertical tail only, after the same system was deleted from the vertical stabilisers in the 787-10.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
