787 logs 1,000 flights

Published 11:55 am Thursday, February 24, 2011

The Boeing Co.s Dreamliner made its 1,000th flight Wednesday with the fourth 787 test jet landing at Yuma International Airport in the afternoon.

There are seven Dreamliners in the test program that have flown a total of more than 1 million miles and nearly 3,000 hours.

“The team is making great progress,” Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program, said in a news release. “We are getting through the test conditions needed to certify this airplane with nearly 80 percent of the conditions for the first model, with Rolls-Royce engines, already complete. And, we’re more than 60 percent of the way through the test conditions for the 787s with General Electric engines.”

Mike Carriker, chief pilot for the 787, said the airplane continues to behave well.

“We’re really eager to get this airplane through its flight testing so our customers can see for themselves this airplane’s excellent performance,” Carriker in the release.