Moses Lake gets 747-8 tests to make room for 787 tests

Published 11:34 pm Friday, October 8, 2010

EVERETT — The Boeing Co. will shuffle its 747-8 flight test program between sites in Washington and California as the company juggles an overlap in flight testing with its delayed 787 jet.

Earlier this week, Boeing announced a delay to the first flight and delivery of its 747-8 Freighter, an updated model of Boeing’s classic jumbo jet. The jet’s sliding schedule, which now overlaps the 787’s flight test program, forced the company to reconsider where it will conduct testing for its 747-8, which will take to the skies early next year. Boeing’s new 787 is expected to make its first flight by year’s end, more than two years behind schedule.

“Our Puget Sound field locations lack capacity to perform flight test on these concurrent programs,” wrote Dennis O’Donoghue, vice president of Boeing’s test programs and Mo Yahyavi, 747 program vice president, in an e-mail.

Boeing will move the first 747-8 Freighter to Moses Lake, for air worthiness testing, said Tim Bader, spokesman for the 747 program. The remainder of flight tests on the 747-8 Freighter, which includes two additional flight test aircraft, will be conducted out of Palmdale, Calif.

Boeing typically bases its commercial jet flight test programs out of Boeing Field in Seattle. But Boeing has used Moses Lake for flight testing previously, said Jennifer Hawton, spokeswoman for Boeing’s flight test group. And the company has workers from its defense division stationed in Palmdale.

The shift in flight test location sites for the 747-8 means some Boeing workers will accompany the new freighter to Moses Lake and Palmdale.

“We don’t know how many people yet,” Hawton said. “Part of it still will be dependent on timing.”

This most recent delay in Boeing’s 747-8 program means the company will take a $1 billion charge against its third-quarter earnings. Boeing now plans to deliver the first 747-8 Freighter in the fourth quarter of next year. The delivery schedule for the passenger version of the 747-8 remains unchanged with first delivery taking place in the fourth quarter of 2011.