Posted on 12/11/2009 8:25:28 AM PST by wolf78
Boeing said Thursday evening that the first flight of its 787-8 long-range jet is set for 10 a.m., Dec. 15 in Everett, Wash.
The first of six test airplanes, ZA001, is due to take off from Payne Field next to the airplane's final assembly factory north of Seattle. Chief Pilot Michael H. Carriker and copilot Randall Neville will conduct low- and high-speed taxi tests that take the airplane to the threshold of flight in preparation for Tuesday's events.
Once airborne, Carriker and Neville are not expected to return ZA001 to Everett. They will land at Boeing Field in Seattle, headquarters for all of Boeing's commercial airplane flight tests.
The full flight program is nominally expected to last 8.5 months and follows about three years of pre-flight certification procedures that Boeing has conducted with the FAA.
If the flight schedule holds, FAA certification and delivery of the first production airplane - the seventh produced - to launch customer All Nippon Airways will be achieved late in 2010. But it is an aggressive schedule.
Normally, Boeing allows a week to 10 days after first flight for analysis before taking to the air again. With the Christmas-New Year holidays fast approaching, ZA001 may not fly again until January.
(Excerpt) Read more at aviationweek.com ...
Did Boeing checked the weather report?
I hope and pray this is a success. I moved to the Peoples Republic of Washington 7 years ago and never realized what Boeing means to this state before I came here.
I love the airplanes but I believe the unions will eventually ruin the company if they do not move all production to right to work states. The recent failure of the machinists union to guarantee that they would not disrupt the 787 production stunned me. I don’t think it will be good for WA in the long run as Boeing can’t keep the union happy while competing with the heavily subsidized Airbus.
South Carolina is welcoming them with nonunion employees.
Of course, it’s not great news for the approximately 10,000 Boeing workers whose layoff hit today.
I should know, I’m one of them. . .
Terribly sorry to hear it.
Reality: every door that closes, another opens.
All the jobs I’m interviewing for, are substantial pay raises.
So it’s all good. I just worry a bit about my fellow ex-employees who aren’t having the success in finding another position that **I** am, and especially at this time of year.
Unemployment at Christmas is maximal suckage. . .
Who do you juxtapose being a Freeper and working for Boeing with it's union? It must not be an easy balance?
Have you considered the FAA?
Us Engineers aren’t Union. That’s all Boeing Commercial Aircraft. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, at least around here, is a total non-union shop. . .
Why would I ? I’m a network security type. . .
bump
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