Boeing 787 news

[sn26567]

Ethiopian Airlines backs Boeing 787 with new orders

Ethiopian Airlines. which saw one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners catch fire in London last month, has expressed confidence in the plane and will proceed with an order for eight more.

“The airplane is undergoing a challenging time to mature, but it’s improving,” said Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam. “I have strong confidence in this airplane. It is the future in aviation.

Read More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23890654

[RoMax]

Based on deliveries, August was a good month with 10 deliveries, though with mixed feelings. Due to the lack of deliveries from Charleston, that facilty is getting really full now. Charleston just delivered 4 787's this year, with the last one in early July (almost 2 months ago). The problem with Charleston is that all the early production aircraft at Charleston are for Air India, China Southern and Hainan...they all have difficulties with taking delivery of their aircraft (Air India due to problems with their financing and the Chinese airlines simply because...well it's China, due to strict government regulations and internal procedures, they are not able to take a lot of aircraft soon after eachother).
September may bring some relieve for Charleston with possible deliveries for LAN, United, Qatar Airways and at least one for Air India. The Chinese airlines may also take delivery of some extra aircraft, but probably not from the Charleston facility. JAL is not sure, but they may also take a Charleston aircraft.

Other highlights for September will be the first deliveries to Jetstar (ordered by Qantas, but allocated to Jetstar) and Royal Brunei (which may even take 2 in September).

All in all, Boeing may deliver 12-16 aircraft in September (probably 14 is a good guess).

Another September highlight will be (hopefully) the first 787-9 flight. ZB001 already had numerous ground tests including APU and engine runs. Gauntlet and taxi tests will be next, followed by a first flight. A first flight may be carried out in the first half of September, though that's just guessing from people closely following the program.

[Passenger]

Last week, from Monday till Friday, Norwegian grounded a 787 because of a brake issue.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/ ... 3M20130905

[RoMax]

Last week, from Monday till Friday, Norwegian grounded a 787 because of a brake issue.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/ ... 3M20130905

Immediatly after Norwegian noticed the issue, Boeing also started investigating the whole 787-fleet (delivered and non-delivered aircraft), the issue was only founded on that Norwegian aircraft.

[sn26567]

Last week, from Monday till Friday, Norwegian grounded a 787 because of a brake issue.

Norwegian Air Shuttle on Sunday announced another technical problem with one of its Boeing 787s: the plane was grounded due to a flaw in its electrical system. “The aircraft is not getting enough electricity,” said a Norwegian spokesman.

The plane was scheduled to leave Oslo for Bangkok on Saturday, but after waiting for more than 24 hours, the passengers were transferred to Stockholm, where they boarded a chartered plane.

It is the second incident that Norwegian has had this week with its Dreamliner fleet — which currently consists of two planes. So, each of their planes had an incident, and the electrical system seems to be the weak part of that otherwise superb aircraft.

[JAF737]

There we go again with typical media comments...djeeeeez...

[sn26567]

The first flight of the 787-9 is expected in the coming days, and could take place as early as Tuesday 17 September (subject to change due to weather and other factors).

[Flanker2]

OSLO, Sept 16 | Mon Sep 16, 2013 5:51am EDT

(Reuters) - Norwegian Air Shuttle has suffered another technical fault with one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners, the latest in a series of glitches to hit the new carbon-fibre jet.

"We had a technical problem with a hydraulic pump, resulting in a weight limitation and unfortunately we had to leave 70 passengers behind in New York on Sunday," Norwegian spokesman Lasse Sander-Nilsen said on Monday.

"We have not done the math yet, but we expect that Boeing will take their share of responsibility," he added.

Norwegian had to briefly ground both of its Dreamliners earlier this month due to various technical faults, including brake and power issues.

The Dreamliner was expected to be a game-changer for the aviation industry as its use of lighter materials and new engines promised 20 percent savings in fuel consumption.

But the programme has been troubled by more than three years of delays in getting the planes into service and several problems since then, including the temporary grounding of all planes because of overheating batteries.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/ ... P020130916

Another one of those "normal" problems... One of these days, one will fall from the skies, mark my words.
With so many problems at this early a stage, the problems will only increase as the aircraft build cycles and time. It's only a matter of time/statistics until an ugly issue shows its face and kills people.

According to airliners.net, today's OSL-BKK flight was also delayed.
Anyone had the chance to see if there is a Citroen logo on the front of the Dreamliner?

[Desert Rat]

I'm still trying to understand the relationship between the hydraulic pump and the weight/pax limitation....

[earthman]

Found your answer here. There was likely some kind of inop of the trailing edge variable camber (cruise flaps), which imposes weight/COG restritctions on takeoff.

[Passenger]

Boeing proudly announces the first flight for the 787-9 for today, 17th Sept:

"starting approximately 09:40 AM PST / 16:40 PM GMT"

Live webcast:
http://www.newairplane.com/787/787-9/

[RoMax]

https://secure.ana-g.com/anacom/cgi-bin ... vice_e.pdf
Interesting log of ANA's 787 operations since they restarted operating flights with the type after the grounding earlier this year.

[Streetstream]

And the take off of the new 787-9 is delayed by almost an hour.

[Bralo20]

https://secure.ana-g.com/anacom/cgi-bin ... vice_e.pdf
Interesting log of ANA's 787 operations since they restarted operating flights with the type after the grounding earlier this year.

Nice to see that no battery malfunctions occurred after the repairs however very troubling to see that most of the issues happening with the 787 are related to the electrical systems... Also quite some amount of cancellations and/or aircraft swaps with large delays...

I still think the 788 (and probably the 789 also) was (and will be) put to early into service...

I'll think I'll stick with the 747/767 and especially the 777 (or the A330 in the case of Airbus) when I need to take a longhaul flight, maybe the 787 will be reliable in about 10 years or so.

[RoMax]

Nice to see that no battery malfunctions occurred after the repairs however very troubling to see that most of the issues happening with the 787 are related to the electrical systems... Also quite some amount of cancellations and/or aircraft swaps with large delays...

I still think the 788 (and probably the 789 also) was (and will be) put to early into service...

I'll think I'll stick with the 747/767 and especially the 777 (or the A330 in the case of Airbus) when I need to take a longhaul flight, maybe the 787 will be reliable in about 10 years or so.

The transition from the traditional bleed air systems to the current extreme electrical system for sure caused Boeing and its customers a lot of trouble and it will probably take quite some time before its really reliable (though I hope it will not take another 10 years xp ).
Also, Qatar Airways once again complained about the reliability of the 787. They call it teething problems and not that serious that they would have to ground aircraft, but it hurts their dispatch reliability. They want to convert their 30 options into firm orders for the 787-9, but only if Boeing can prove they can handle the problems. Otherwise they'll probably order more A350-1000's, which is another size of aircraft, but having a beter seat-mile cost and fitting their plans better than more A359's.

btw, about that ANA document, I would also like to see percentages and comparisons with their other fleets. They state 34 remarks in the June 1-September 15 period, but that's on more than 6000 flights. Though it has to be noted that ANA always has some 'spare' 787's to keep their shedule on track.

I'm very curious about the 787-9 for sure...contrary to the 788 its running on time (final design was finished some weeks ahead of shedule and their supply chain is MUCH more mature than 4 years ago with the 788), contrary to the 788 that continued build up delays) and the initial aircraft will even be below the expected weight and meeting or even exceeding expected specifications due to extensive engineering of 'over-designed' 787 parts and the introduction of even newer technology (like laminar flow technology).

[galaxy]

First flight of the B787-9 on http://www.flightradar24.com/BOE1
Just now.

[RoMax]

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Boeing/B ... 2318174/L/
It certainly looks good already.

[RoMax]

ZB001 started its return, estimated arrival time is 4PM (PDT). So if he indeed arrives around that time, it will have flown for about 5 hours.

Eventually it landed at 4:18 PM (PDT), finishing a flight of 5 hours and 16 minutes.

[RoMax]

Interesting WSJ article (of the Boeing-specialised journalist that previously worked for flightglobal).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 51254.html

Some interesting notes about the 787-9:
- Only 40% of the 787-8 was designed by Boeing itself, with the -9 they returned to 60-70%, a similar percentage as their previous program, the 777. This decision was taken after all the design problems with the 788.
- A bigger percentage of the aircraft is build by Boeing itself again (initially Boeing manufactured just 25-30% of the Dreamliners itself, this increased to 35% already for the whole 787 production and an even bigger share when talking about the 789 only). A perfect example is Alenia that f*cked up the quality of the horizontal stabilizors of the 788 (causing months of delay), Boeing re-designed that section for the 787-9 and produces it in a new facility owned and controlled by Boeing itself.
- Thousands of multi-piece components where changed to sing-piece components to save weight and make assembly easier.
- The 787-9 was planned for 2010, but the 788 problems pushed it years behind shedule. The current shedule is relatively stable since late-2011 (when the first 788 was delivered).

[Streetstream]

Some interesting notes about the 787-9:
- Only 40% of the 787-8 was designed by Boeing itself, with the -9 they returned to 60-70%, a similar percentage as their previous program, the 777. This decision was taken after all the design problems with the 788.
- A bigger percentage of the aircraft is build by Boeing itself again (initially Boeing manufactured just 25-30% of the Dreamliners itself, this increased to 35% already for the whole 787 production and an even bigger share when talking about the 789 only). A perfect example is Alenia that f*cked up the quality of the horizontal stabilizors of the 788 (causing months of delay), Boeing re-designed that section for the 787-9 and produces it in a new facility owned and controlled by Boeing itself.
- Thousands of multi-piece components where changed to sing-piece components to save weight and make assembly easier.
- The 787-9 was planned for 2010, but the 788 problems pushed it years behind shedule. The current shedule is relatively stable since late-2011 (when the first 788 was delivered).

Romax, i know you are a big fan of Boeing, so i can see why you post this, but it seems like a desperate attempt to shift blame from Boeing. Nobody forced thel to outsource production you know. And i appologize if it wasn't meant that way, but it does seem like it.