Up early this morning to get all prepared (ie get like 10 gadgets charged) for Boeing’s fifth 787 Dreamliner (but first with GEnx engines) to take flight. In about an hour, I will be heading over to the Future of Flight to get set up. ZA005 is scheduled to take off at 10am PST, but it could be delayed due to weather, low cielings, technical issues or a number of other things. When she does fly, I will be providing a live streaming video from my iPhone. If you want towatch, follow these steps:
1) Make sure to have this webpage open: http://qik.com/airlinereporter/ Just leave it open through the morning until the first flight happens.
2) When there is no live video it will just show my most recent videos (it should look like this). It looks like it might be the wrong page but don’t worry, it is correct…
3) When I go live, a video will automatically start (so make sure you have sound where you want it, otherwise it will be a shock).
4) After I go live, it will go back to the previous view and the video will be viewable from that page.
I will probably do a check-in or two throughout the morning. Be sure to check my Twitter, @ImperfectSense, @PIBoeing, @FutureofFlight and #ZA005 for details. I will try to update this blog as often as I can until lift off.
UPDATE 11am: ZA005 had its strobes on and engines started, but at this point they are all off. Word is things are still going to happen. Flight Aware is still showing take off at 10:40am (that was 20min ago). The weather was misty and foggy earlier, but it is clearing up. I had to do a few tests, but I now have my iPhone attached to my camcorder. Check out my engineering skills (thanks Sandy for taking that).
UPDATE 11:10am: Now hearing 11:30 ZA005 should make movement, Noon for take off. Still no strobes.
UPDATE 11:35am: Lots of rumors going around with Boeing people, GE people and the media. But word now is Boeing will cut the high speed taxi test and fly at noon.
UPDATE 12:10pm: Waiting on just 100 more feet of ceiling (cloud level) until take off. No strobes.
UPDATE 12:20pm: Bad news. I have to leave. I have another engagement that I must make. The good news is Sandy at the Future of Flight (@FutureofFlight) has agreed to do the live feed, so you won’t miss out on anything!
UPDATE 4:45pm: Everything went great, even though delayed. You can find out more and see videos and photos here.
Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA005 at Paine Field. I took this photo earlier today from the Future of Flight
I have received word that the fifth Boeing 787 Dreamliner (ZA005) will be conducting taxi tests early next week and hearing first flight maybe mid-week. Being the fifth 787 to take flight, it might just seem like another day for most people, but the ZA005 is significant. It will be the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to lift off using General Electric GEnx engines. The first four (ZA001, ZA002, ZA003, ZA004) have all flow with Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines.
You can be sure I will be there to cover the lift off. I am interested to see how the GEnx engines sound versus the RR ones.
I was looking around for some photos of ZA005 with the GEnx engines, but wasn’t finding any. It is such a beautiful day, I decided to head to Paine Field and get some of my own. While getting ZA005 photos, I also got quite a few other ones. One of the benefits of living in the Seattle area!
I was also playing with streaming live video and got it to work, so I am hoping to offer this during first flight of ZA005 as well. If you want to be notified anytime I am doing a live feed, make sure to create a QIK account and add me as a friend.
MEDIA:
* All photos of trip to KPAE today
* Test videos from today
* Photos I Tweeted
* Aerial shot of ZA005 from a Cessna by Liz Matzelle
Capt. Ishii and Capt. Carriker relax in the flight deck between missions. From Boeing.
To be one of the lucky few that get to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Until recently, only Boeing folks got the opportunity to fly the airplane. Two All Nippon Airways, who will be the Dreamliner’s first customer, pilots got to take the Dreamliner for a spin.
The flight lasted about two and a half hours, but won’t count towards the Dreamliner’s certification.
This also we are one step closer for the first Boeing 787 to be delivered and the general public gets to start flying in them!
Check out more photos at Randy’s Blog.
Last week I posted photos of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 40C flying in formation. They looked unreal, but were very much real. Many asked “how’d they do that?”
Picture of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner from the Boeing 40C
Well, very carefully. From the AntiqueAirfield website, “The plan was for the Boeing 787 to intercept our flight of three with an overtake on our right side with the Boeing 40 in the foreground and 787 Dreamliner in the background of the photo. The Bonanza was lead for our flight of 3. Two conference calls with Boeing flight test were conducted the morning of the flight to confirm details. The Boeing 787 was light and could overtake us dirty at approximately 150 kts and clean at 190 knots. Our flight of 3 was stabilized at 90 knots. This would provide a 3-7 second photo window during each overtake pass.”
The Bonanza with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in the background
Learn more about this amazing photo shoot (and see another photo) at AntiqueAirfield.com’s initial blog and newest blog.
Found via IAM751 — Thanks!
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Boeing facility at Paine Field. Photo taken by me during my Boeing 787 interior tour.
When the Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner first took flight back in December 2009, there were those who questioned if Boeing really missed out on a customer relations opportunity.
Yes, Boeing had a live video feed on the internet and posted some wonderful photos and videos on their special newairplane.com website, but it still left some wanting more. People questioned why weren’t they on Twitter? Why didn’t they provide more for those that love Boeing? I somewhat agreed and felt that Boeing was making an effort, but was still distant from their fan base.
However, I think things are changing.
I have always been a frequent visitor to boeing.com, however I have been very impressed with their newer website newairplane.com. It isn’t just dry information that airlines or engineers might be interested in, but something that can really build passion for the Boeing brand. You can check out what new liveries will be on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, take a virtual tour of both the Boeing 787 or the Boeing 747, find lots of great multimedia, and much more. It looks like I am not the only fan. Bernard Choi, with Boeing Communications, tells me that newairplane.com gets about 5-6million page views each month. That alone is a great indication, people want a closer relationship to Boeing.
Boeing facility at Paine Field where the Boeing 767, 777, 747 and 787 are made.
Boeing has also stepped into the world of Twitter. They now have three accounts: @BoeingAirplanes, @BoeingCorporate, and @BoeingDefense. And really, they are doing an outstanding job, especially only being on it for about two weeks. This week, they had their first real test of social media and I think they passed.
John Windsor, who specializes in marketing and advertisement, blogged that his son sent a photo to Boeing of a new airplane with a pretty cold response. Boeing sent a canned reply stating they do not take any outside ideas and have destroyed his son’s information. Of course this is a form letter sent to anyone who submits an idea and they didn’t have a specialized form letter to reply to a child. Honestly, it made Boeing look like it has no compassion.
A few people Tweeted the blog and it got to Boeing. Boeing Tweeted, “The letter Mr. Winsor posted is, as he said, a required response. For kids, we can do better. We’ll work on it.” Cool. They could have defended their actions, but admit that it was not appropriate and they want to improve the way they do things.
Also, Boeing Corporate Communications director Todd Blecher, also made a comment on Mr. Windsor’s blog:
“Mr. Winsor…I think I can address your comments. As you state, we have to respond to the thousands of unsolicited ideas we receive in a way that protects us against possible infringement claims. Having said that, we can do better when the idea clearly comes from a child as enthusiastic as your son. We will work on this. I hope Harry remains fascinated by airplanes and grows up to be an airplane designer. To help him and others like him we maintain the following website. I hope he enjoys it.”
The Boeing 747-8 during taxi testing at Paine Field before its first flight.
To me, that is quite awesome. He made his comment right after I made mine and I like to think I am quite quick. With all the changes and this Twitter incident, I started to wonder if Boeing was trying to directly interact with customers more than they have in the past.
I decided to try and find out. I wrote to a few folks at Boeing and heard back from Todd Blecher (remember he is the Boeing Corporate Communications director that made the blog comment) very quickly. I asked if Boeing was consciously making an effort to connect better and how they were going to respond to Mr. Winsor’s son, Harry.
Blecher assured me that Boeing will be sending Harry some items and he actually spoke with him on the phone, thanking him for his drawing and he hopes when Harry grows up, he will design airplanes for Boeing.
He also confirmed my hunches that Boeing is making a real effort here. “We spent much of the past 12 months developing and now executing an approach to online communications that makes sense for Boeing and our audiences. We figured out what we could bring to the table and how we would be willing to engage. We drew inspiration from many areas, including Randy’s Journal, newairplane.com, our corporate advertising, and other organizations.”
They realize they are new to this game and the transition won’t happen overnight. “We are learning as we go but I have no doubt that are on a journey that will see us really change the way Boeing communicates…the bottom line is we’re changing.” When I asked Blecher about their future plans he told me they are looking at Facebook, thinking about a future mobile app and possibly even a Boeing TweetUp (where people on Twitter get together, ie Aviation Geekfest). Boeing talking about a TweetUp? That’s amazing.
Blecher realizes they might not make everyone happy. “Not everybody in our audiences will like our approach. But, to paraphrase Sinatra, we’re doing it our way because to try it any other way, to expect an organizational mindset to change overnight, is a sure way to set yourself up for a lot of frustration and aggravation and mistakes.” Even if they might make a few mistakes and frustrate a few people, I think it will be worth it in the long-run.
Who knows, if Boeing can really build that brand loyalty, maybe more people will be saying, “If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t Going!”
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