Boeing 787 Dreamliner - Mark Wagner [99]
Painted in the colors of launch customer ANA, ZA002 joined the test program on December 22, 2009. Although it was destined never to be delivered to the airline whose colors it wore because of the sheer amount of structural changes in the early aircraft, ZA002 would play a vital role in gaining certification. Mark Wagner
However, on June 19, a final review concluded that the flight envelope would be so small there would be virtually no value to any of the testing done, and certainly nothing that could usefully contribute to final certification. Boeing’s top management conferred with program engineers and, having conceded they were left with no option, reluctantly announced on June 23 that the first flight was once more postponed. Now began the urgent task of developing, verifying, and testing the beefed-up side-of-body join sections on ZY997 before installing the fixes on the flight-test aircraft.
Clearance of the modification would require component-level as well as full-scale tests on the static airframe, and all that would take time. “While we will proceed with urgency, we will not compromise the process for the sake of schedule,” said Scott Fancher.
Although the required fixes were relatively small, the most worrying aspect of the static-test failure was the apparent disconnect between the test results from the hardware and the computer-based predictions. The issue appeared to be emblematic of the more systemic problems encountered by the program as a whole and was one more trouble spot for Boeing to deal with as it moved to perfect the design and production process in 2009. “We will correct the situation with both care and urgency,” added Carson.
With thrust reversers, flaps, and spoilers deployed, ZA001 comes to a smart stop despite the wet runway at Boeing Field. Landing gear, brakes, and hydraulics-systems testing were key tasks for line number one and would culminate in critical evaluations in the much drier, warmer airfields of the American Southwest later in 2010. Mark Wagner
Despite the furor over yet more delays and speculation over the delays’ impact on the program’s spiralling development costs, optimism for the long-term future remained undaunted. The backlog showed remarkable robustness; only around 6 percent of orders were cancelled by mid-2009, and plans remained intact to push production to around 10 per month by 2012. On top of this, Boeing also revealed plans at the Paris show to develop a second assembly line, and the 787 facility in Charleston, South Carolina, was widely predicted as the most likely site. With one final hurdle remaining to the agonizingly delayed start of flight tests, the real adventure was about to begin.
Traffic hurries along the Interstate 5 on December 15, 2009, oblivious to history being made so close by, as ZA001 arrives for a flawless first touchdown on Boeing Field’s 10,000-foot-long runway 13R.
Putting the bitter disappointment of the latest delay behind it, Boeing marshaled resources from across the enterprise to tackle the urgent side-of-body reinforcement. A multidisciplined “design for manufacture and assembly” team of engineers and mechanics formed to work the retrofit.
The design of the beefed-up joint was partially developed using a structural model from the company’s helicopter specialists in Philadelphia. The model broke new ground for Boeing’s understanding of composite structural analysis and, just as vitally, helped reanchor the company’s shaken confidence in the models that were used for the rest of the design. “Models are the basis for certification. So if the models aren’t predicting what’s happening, you’ve got to understand it,” said Scott Fancher, Boeing vice president.
Throughout July and August 2009, several designs were considered, but the final reinforcements consisted of a selection of fittings that could be “held in your hand,” said Fancher. The most distinctive were four new, metallic “bathtub” fittings that