787 Chief Pilot Mike Carriker looks out at the 747-8 Intercontinental. Click for larger. Photo by Boeing.
Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, recently posted this photo on his blog to help promote which Boeing aircraft will be showing up at the Paris Air Show later this month. Tinseth announced that the 747-8 Intercontinental, the 747-8 Freighter, the first 787 flight-test airplane ZA001, an Air Berlin 737-700 with the new Boeing Sky Interior, and a Qatar Airways Boeing 777-200LR will be present at the air show.
Boeing 787 Dreamliners for ANA, JAL and China Southern sit waiting for parts at Paine Field.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is about to start a new round of testing to prepare for its first customer, All Nippon Airways (ANA), during the third quarter of 2011. During the week of July 4th, the second Dreamliner, ZA002 is expected to start service readiness testing in Japan.
Both companies will help to simulate in-service operations at several airports throughout Japan. ANA’s maintenance crews will also have the ability to service the 787 during the testing, including fit checks for airplane jacks, towing and refueling the aircraft. The testing is expected to take place during the week of July 4th. This will also mark the first time that the 787 has flown to and with-in Japan.
At this point, ANA is expecting their first 787 Dreamliner sometime between August and September. Boeing is not officially talking about who will receive the next few 787s. However, Boeing President Jim McNerney announced that China Southern should receive their first Dreamliner during the fourth quarter this year.
Japan Airlines (JAL) has recently announced they will operate the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on a route from Narita Japan to Boston, starting in April 2012, but a JAL spokes person confirmed to me via email that this will not be the first 787 they will receive. “The first 787 will not be on the [Tokyo to Boston] route, but this route is the first one named by JAL to use the 787.” The spokesperson explained. “We haven’t announced where the first 787 will be deployed to.” JAL hopes to receive their first 787 by the end of 2011 and receive five Dreamliners by the end of the 2011 fiscal year.
It is not exactly clear if China Southern or JAL will receive the second 787, but this timeline suggests that ANA will not be flying the 787 exclusively for very long. With ANA’s pride in being the first customer for the 787 and all their advertising featuring the aircraft and even operating a site dedicated to the aircraft called “ANA We Fly 1st,” I can only imagine that the airline was hoping to be the only airline flying the Dreamliner for a bit longer than a few months at most.
Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA001 at Paine Field.
What is in a name? Well a lot actually. Could you imagine the Boeing 787 not being called the Dreamliner? Well, it almost happened. The 787 was almost called the Global Cruiser instead.
When the Boeing 787 was first discussed, Boeing named it the 7E7. Randy Tinseth, Vice President , Marketing for Boeing Commercial Planes, describes the naming process on his Randy’s Journal Blog.
Tinseth explains how there were many different naming sessions and workshops to come up with a proper name. After many different sessions and post the trademark and legal teams it seemed that the name Global Cruiser was leading the pack.
Boeing decided to hold a contest to see what the name would be. The finalists were: Dreamliner, Global Cruiser, Stratoclimber, and the eLiner.
Almost 500,000 votes came in from 160 different countries and it was a close race. Counting just votes in the US, the name Global Cruiser would have won. But with all the votes world-wide, the name Dreamliner won by only 2500 votes.
I couldn’t imagine the Dreamliner being named anything else — it fits the aircraft well. Although if Global Cruiser would have won, the DreamLifter probably would have been called the Global Lifter which sounds pretty sweet.
Do you think something would have been lost or gainedwith another name?
Boeing 787 Dreamliner wing inside the Boeing factory.
Jon Ostrower on his FlightBlogger site posted a story late last night on how thousands of improperly coated fasteners inside the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s wing need to be replaced to help protect against lightning strikes.
The FAA requires that all joints and fasteners not produce sparks around fuel after a lightening strike. Since the majority of the aircraft is made of composites, it is vunerable to arcing from one metal part to another. Boeing flies their test fleet of Boeing 787s with special anti-static additives. When the first Dreamliner, ZA001, was hit with lightening, it received no damage. 35 Boeing 787’s that have already been built which will require the re-work, which will take weeks per Dreamliner.
Check out Ostrower’s story for more information.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner (ZA001) and Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental (RC020) flying side-by-side. Photo by Boeing. Click for much larger.
If a picture is worth a 1000 words, this is worth probably around a million. This is the eye candy of eye candy for airline nerds, so please enjoy the 747-8 Intercontinental (RC001) and the 787 Dreamliner (ZA001) flying next to each other during flight tests. The photo was taken April 16 by flight test photographer Leo Dejillas over Washington state. Yea, he has a rough job huh? Click the photo for a larger version.
UPDATE: Boeing has a great link to make this image your desktop background. It is now mine!
