Saturday, December 15, 2012

No. 147 Dreams Take Flight

Paine Field
Everett, WA



Boeing 787 First Flight
December 15th, 2012 marks the 3rd year anniversary of Boeing Next Generation Heavy Commercial Airliner the "Dreamliner" taking its first self powered flight into the skies above Washington State.
On December 15, 2009, Boeing conducted the Dreamliner's maiden flight with the first 787-8, originating from Paine Field Airport in Everett, Washington, after a 2 hour delay for weather conditions to improve for the VFR experimental flight the 787 made its powered climb at 10:27 am PST, and landed at Boeing Field in King County, Washington, at 1:35 pm PST. Originally scheduled for four hours, the test flight was shortened to three hours because of bad weather. Boeing's schedule called for a 9-month flight test campaign (later revised to 8.5 months). The company's previous major aircraft, the 777, took 11 months with nine aircraft, partly to demonstrate 180-min ETOPS, one of its main features.
The 787 flight test program was composed of 6 aircraft, ZA001 through ZA006, four with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines and two with GE GEnx-1B64 engines. The second 787, ZA002 in All Nippon Airways livery, flew to Boeing Field on December 22, 2009, to join the flight test program; the third 787, ZA004 joined the test fleet with its first flight on February 24, 2010, followed by ZA003 on March 14, 2010. On March 24, 2010, testing for flutter and ground effects was completed, clearing the aircraft to fly its entire flight envelope. On March 28, 2010, the 787 completed the ultimate wing load test, which requires that the wings of a fully assembled aircraft be loaded to 150% of design limit load and held for 3 seconds. The wings were flexed approximately 25 ft (7.6 m) upward during the test. Unlike past aircraft however, the wings were not tested to failure. On April 7, Boeing announced that analysis of the data showed the test was a success.
The first 787 was officially delivered to All Nippon Airways on September 25, 2011. On October 26, 2011, the 787 flew its first commercial flight from Narita to Hong Kong on All Nippon Airways and on January 21, 2012 the 787 flew its first commercial long-haul flight from Haneda to Frankfurt on All Nippon Airways.

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Dreamliner 001 N787BA completes ground checklist
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High Speed Taxi before Takeoff
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N787BA Dreamliner takes to the skies
B787 First FLight
Dreamliner N787BA in Dirty Configuration head out over Possession Sound
ANA JA-801A BOE101 Heavy B787 Dreamliner
All Nippon Airways takes delivery of the first production Boeing Dreamliner
aviation art plane art

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