First Flights (Dec-Jan)

Update 15- Boeing 787
ZA002 moved to the ramp today, where she was raised up on jacks and underwent landing gear retractions. She`s scheduled to undergo taxi tests and a mini gauntlet before her first flight, which is scheduled around the 22nd.
In the meantime, ZA001 is still scheduled for a 10am flight from Paine Field, recovering at Everette, after a 3-5 hour flight. Then the real tests begin. First she validates low speed/stall speeds at various weights. Once that is done, the FAA begins flying with her. At some point she moves to Edwards AFB for flight tests. Either ZA001 or ZA002 will go to either Norway or Iceland for cold weather testing. The airframe will have to be certified as low as -55, for Air Canada. The blog page on FlightGlobal has some great information on the flight test program.

Update 16- Weather and link
It looks like this system will bring rain in the morning with the possibility of it stopping in the afternoon, and another system moving in Tuesday night.
Those of you on computers (I`m so stinking jealous of you) go to newairplane.com and you`ll find a link to watch the flight.

Update 17- Boeing 787 News choppers are reporting 30-35 knot winds at 1500, and visibility is expected to drop by 11. After 12 it`s supposed to improve to 10 mile visibility, with scattered clouds to 2800 feet. We may be go flying today.

[edit on 12/15/2009 by Zaphod58]

Update 18- Boeing 787
Flightplan is loaded, Flightaware.com shows a 1010 local departure. You can track the flight there.

Media area for 787 first flight December 14, 2009

paineairport.com...

Contacts at Paine:

twitter.com...

twitter.com...

twitter.com...

Hopefully the weather clears up.

flightaware.com...

[edit on 15/12/2009 by C0bzz]

Boeing is planning on starting taxi between 940 and 950 local. They`re going over the aircraft and making sure everything is ready.

Update 19- Boeing 787
Fire trucks are lining up and getting ready. Boeing is expecting 20,000 people to watch the flight.
F minus 1 hour.

Aircraft lights are on! About 35 minutes to taxi. Looks like we`re going flying today!

We have engine start. Those of you with computers get ready. This is the kind of thing you don`t get to see often.

Ack! This is exciting! Thank you SO MUCH for the updates! We're watching...

Your pilots today are Scott Carriker and Randy Neville. Looks like final runway sweeps are underway.

Webcast is up and running. Flight Aware site says flight is scheduled for 10:10.

Taxi in the next 5-10 minutes. CNN will be covering it on tv as well.

Taxi in less than two minutes.

You guys should come into chat.

[edit on 15/12/2009 by C0bzz]

Stairs are still in place. Hopefully she`ll be rolling soon.

Main door is closed! We should have movement soon.

Here we go! She`s heading for the runway! God this is exciting!

BEAUTIFUL!! She`s heading off with two T-33s as escort. Gear still down, heading to 15,000 feet.

That was the coolest thing! Amazing! What a pretty monster!