‘Endgame’ on testing

Published 11:13 am Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Boeing Co. said its 787 is rapidly progressing through flight testing as the company prepares to deliver the first Dreamliner later this year.

“We really are in the endgame on flight test,” Scott Fancher, general manager of the 787 program, said at the company’s investor conference Tuesday.

Boeing has completed 96 percent of the testing on its 787s powered by Rolls-Royce engines, said Boeing’s Jim Albaugh, president of commercial airplanes.

The company has finished 75 percent of the testing required on the 787s powered by General Electric engines, Fancher said.

A few other highlights on the 787 from the investor conference:

Albaugh hinted at bringing back the horizontal stabilizer work on the 787-9 to Boeing’s development center in the Puget Sound region.

Boeing will have about 40 787s built when it delivers the first Dreamliner to Japan’s All Nippon Airways, said James Bell, Boeing’s chief financial officer.

Albaugh thinks the company will go ahead with the larger 787-10 but Boeing isn’t making a formal announcement yet.

Boeing’s 787 final assembly site in South Carolina is still on track to open this summer. South Carolina’s “workforce has grown and has gone through training,” Fancher said.

On 787 production rates: “if we can get to 10 (airplanes monthly), we’ll get to 11. If we can get to 11, we’ll get to 12,” Albaugh said. He had hinted at exceeding the already announced 10 airplanes per month rate earlier this year in Everett.