After months of delays, the Boeing Co.’s sixth 787 took to the skies Monday only to have its first flight cut short due to an unspecified maintenance issue.
The final Dreamliner designated for flight testing took off from Everett’s Paine Field and flew just one hour and four minutes before landing at Boeing Field in Seattle. The plane was scheduled to fly for two hours and then make a stop at Moses Lake, Wash., before heading down to Boeing Field, where the 787 flight test program is based.
But shortly into the flight, the pilot discovered a maintenance issue typical of a flight test program, said Yvonne Leach, spokeswoman for the 787 program.
“At that point, they decided to head over to Boeing Field just as a precautionary move,” she said.
Still, Boeing called the hour-long flight a success. The first flight of the sixth 787 had been pushed back several times because of undisclosed problems.
“It’s great to have our last flight test airplane join the fleet,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program.
Boeing’s 787 program is more than two years behind schedule. The company announced last month that it has pushed back the first delivery of the 787 to mid-first quarter next year.
Boeing is working toward gaining certification from the Federal Aviation Administration on its new Dreamliner. The jet maker said in September that it is adding two 787s on a limited basis for specific flight and ground tests.
The sixth 787 also is the second Dreamliner equipped with General Electric engines. The first four 787s featured Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. Boeing and Rolls-Royce officials met last week to discuss problems the Rolls engines encountered earlier this year.
“We are still working our way through the plan with them,” Leach said.
Boeing has been focused on flight testing with the Rolls-Royce engines because the initial Dreamliner delivery is for a 787 fitted with those engines, Fancher said.
“A great deal of the testing that we’ve done also applies to the 787s with GE engines and won’t need to be repeated,” he said.
Tests that have to be conducted on the GE engines include noise testing and extreme weather operations, as well as extended operations certification testing. Additionally, Boeing will need to verify that the 787 handles the same way regardless of engine type and that its systems work on both engine types.
The 787 flight test program has logged more than 1,900 hours over 620 flights and completed more than 65 percent of the flight test conditions for 787s with Rolls-Royce engines, Boeing said.
For more on the 787’s flight testing progress, visit the aerospace blog at www.heraldnet.com/boeing.
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