Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner is in Japan for a week of flying some of the routes the new airliner will fly for launch customer All Nippon Airways. The flights are part of the final testing for the 787 ahead of its expected delivery some time in August or September.
Unlike many of the flight tests up until now that are aimed at proving the performance and safety of the Dreamliner, the tests in Japan are about flying within ANA’s existing system to ensure the airplane is ready to enter passenger carrying service.
Today the Dreamliner touched down in Hiroshima. The airplane making the trip is ZA002, the second 787 to fly. During the week long stay ZA002 will touch down at 5 different airports in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Okayama and Osaka (above at Osaka’s Itami airport).
During the flights ANA’s employees will be handling the Dreamliner’s activities as if it were in normal service. This includes being dispatched by ANA as well as being handled by ANA mechanics and ground staff. The trip started with a non-stop flight from Seattle to Tokyo on the fourth of July.
The first actual passenger flight for ANA is expected to be between Haneda and either Hiroshima or Okayama after the first airplane is delivered later in the year.
Boeing is also making progress at its new factory in Charleston, South Carolina. The first set of 787 wings arrived on Wednesday and the first 787 to be built outside of Washington state is expected to roll off the assembly line in South Carolina some time in early 2012.
The wings are built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan and are ferried to the factories in Washington and South Carolina in the special 747 known as the Dreamlifter. Boeing expects to build three 787s a month at the Charleston factory and seven at the Everett factory north of Seattle when the production is at full speed. Boeing currently has 835 orders for the long delayed Dreamliner.
Photo: Boeing
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