See additional photos from Airplane 23's new home in Texas
SAN ANTONIO -- With the opening of the Boeing's 787 change incorporation and refurbishment facility at its Global Services & Support site San Antonio, Texas, the airframer is at once providing a location to set the early Dreamliner on a path to delivery, as well as leverage expertise from the defense side of its business.
Almost as soon as its formal ceremonies with local dignitaries and the media concluded, ground power units and access stairs were brought in as crews wasted no time beginning the work left to complete Airplane 23, which is likely the first aircraft to be delivered to General GEnx-1B engine launch customer Japan Airlines.
The activation of the new site is the latest sign that Boeing is nearing the finish line toward its early 787 deliveries, a milestone pushed seven time and more than three years beyond its original target to the third quarter of this year.
"We're not far away," says David Pickering, director of field operations at the Everett site. "This signifies a point in the program where this airplane is getting darn close. A few months worth of work down here and managing the end of flight test, and then we're looking at interiors."
The activation of the facility marks also the first time Boeing has brought a commercial aircraft to a defense facility for a commercial purpose, using a workforce already accustomed to working with large military aircraft.
While the aircraft met a fully flyable experimental configuration to make the March 7 3h and 21min flight down to San Antonio from Everett, the aircraft is about to undergo significant changes from nose to tail to bring it in line with the latest design modifications that match FAA and customer requirements.
Right now, Boeing says six aircraft will come to San Antonio to start. Test aircraft ZA004, the only Rolls-Royce powered 787 currently slated to come to Texas, will be joined by the GEnx-powered ZA005 and ZA006. The remaining two aircraft, also GEnx-powered aircraft, were not identified by Boeing.
'The six is the current plan, its based upon phasing of where airplanes are in their build status, when they need to be delivered and the flow to get the airplanes down here and reworked and that plan could change, just as its changed in the last year. It's a dynamic situation,' says Scott Fancher, 787 vice president and general manager.
While Everett continues to overflow with production 787s, San Antonio - which was selected in 2007 - offers additional capacity to perform change incorporation work in addition to its primary Washington State facility.
San Antonio was selected among a myriad of other sites, including Moses Lake and Kent in Washington State, as well as facilities in California, Kansas and other options in Texas.
Pickering says all of the aircraft that 'will be out of the production line at the conclusion of flight test' will require some level of change incorporation 'the early ones will have more, the later ones will have a lot less.'
Pickering adds Boeing will know if additional aircraft will be coming to San Antonio at the conclusion of flight test around "early summer" in June or July.
Airplane 23, also known as ZA177, is expected to remain in San Antonio for change incorporation until mid-summer, before returning to Everett for final installation of the aircraft's interior and repainting with JAL's new colors.
Pickering says the change incorporation work is intended to "optimize and enhance the features of the airplane" and the work to will give particular attention to the aircraft's electrical, environmental and flight control systems.
Pickering says as a result of extreme weather flight testing, Boeing will be modifying the environmental control system air conditioning packs, and modifying ducting and baffling in the aircraft's cabin, as well as the motors and fan work and updates to the related controller software.
Among its first tasks, says Scott Vieweg, director of operations for 787 work in San Antonio, Boeing will remove the aircraft's wing-to-body fairing to gain access to the Hamilton Sundstrand-build environmental control systems, which will be packed up and shipped back to Rockford, Illinois for modification.
Modifications will also be made to the aircraft's flight control system hardware and software with changes to 'our ailerons at the outboard side, our outboard flaps, our flaperons and our inboard flaps, you'll see work done on that to optimize and enhance the features of the airplane as well as the elevator and rudder on the back of the airplane," says Pickering.
Airplane 23 will also feature a new wiring configuration installed. Boeing previously introduced another iteration that builds on the NC5 wiring block change introduced in with Airplane 13 in fall 2009.
Additionally, the aircraft will have certifiable configuration electrical power distribution hardware and software - also supplied by Hamilton Sundstrand - that reflects changes stemming from the 787's November 2010 electrical fire near Laredo, Texas.
Pickering says as a result of extreme weather flight testing, Boeing will be modifying the environmental control system air conditioning packs, and modifying ducting and baffling in the aircraft's cabin, as well as the motors and fan work and updates to the related controller software.
Among its first tasks, says Scott Vieweg, director of operations for 787 work in San Antonio, Boeing will remove the aircraft's wing-to-body fairing to gain access to the Hamilton Sundstrand-build environmental control systems, which will be packed up and shipped back to Rockford, Illinois for modification.
Modifications will also be made to the aircraft's flight control system hardware and software with changes to 'our ailerons at the outboard side, our outboard flaps, our flaperons and our inboard flaps, you'll see work done on that to optimize and enhance the features of the airplane as well as the elevator and rudder on the back of the airplane," says Pickering.
Airplane 23 will also feature a new wiring configuration installed. Boeing previously introduced another iteration that builds on the NC5 wiring block change introduced in with Airplane 13 in fall 2009.
Additionally, the aircraft will have certifiable configuration electrical power distribution hardware and software - also supplied by Hamilton Sundstrand - that reflects changes stemming from the 787's November 2010 electrical fire near Laredo, Texas.
Right now, three 787s are able to occupy the 400 building - formerly home to KC-10 tanker maintenance - at the former Kelly Air Force Base, which sits adjacent to Lackland Air Force Base.
If the number of aircraft heading to San Antonio increases significantly, Pickering says the site could expand to a four slot pulse line, with each station performing a discrete upgrade task for the aircraft.
"If we get more airplanes, pulsing makes a lot of sense," adds Pickering. "You can break the work up into your structures work, your electric work, your systems work and your production test. We'd have to get more aircraft to make it fully efficient to run the pulse."
Currently, each aircraft will remain stationary and surrounded by scaffolding at the wings and tail allowing access to the flight controls.
Pickering says aircraft only built in Everett will undergo change incorporation in San Antonio and the Charleston, South Carolina line - set to come online in July - will handle its own change operations prior to delivery.
ZA005, the first of two GEnx-1B-powered text aircraft is likely to be a late arrival for refurbishment in San Antonio, as the aircraft will be used to flight test engine configuration updates intended for the larger 787-9.
Pickering says the original plan for aircraft updated in San Antonio was to have the delivery engines fitted to the aircraft before ferrying to Texas, though with the new Z23 production schedule timing may allow for incorporation of engine performance improvements prior to delivery.
'We would want to make sure those enhancements were incorporated on to this airplane. With the release of the new schedule I think it opens up the door for potential optimization of those engines,' says Pickering, though the new engines would not be installed in Texas.
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