787 first flight - Northern Colorado Rocketry

This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 1 month ago by Chris LaPanse.

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December 13, 2009 at 8:14 am #40865
JetMechQC
Hi guys,
just to let you all know final gautlet tests are complete and ZA001 is ready to fly on the 15th at 10am pacific time, weather permitting.

Taxi test vids with the first rotation
http://vimeo.com/8142299

http://vimeo.com/8141721
you should be able to watch it here live

http://www.newairplane.com/
December 13, 2009 at 3:27 pm #51811
Jeffrey Joe Hinton
Moderator
OMG, that thing is huge! How soon till they are in service for cheap customers like me?
December 13, 2009 at 10:50 pm #51812
Chris LaPanse
If I remember right, it should be less than a year. It’s certainly an impressive aircraft. The version that they’re currently testing has a max takeoff weight of just under 500,000 pounds, and should seat around 250 people (max). Here’s boeing’s page about it:
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/

Oh, and it’s smaller than a 777. It’s main benefit is that it’s made primarily of carbon fiber, and because of the weight savings and some aerodynamic tweaks, it should use less gas on every flight. Airbus is working on a similar high-efficiency project:

http://www.airbus.com/store/mm_repository/flash/a350xwb/airbus/
December 14, 2009 at 1:49 am #51813
Adrian
Participant
Wow, look how long and skinny the wings are, and that they aren’t drooping. But is it just me, or do the engines look really close to the ground?

The plane has a brand-new avionics system (which is similar in several ways to Orion’s core computing system) and has nearly (or maybe completely) eliminated hydraulics in favor of actuators based on electric motors. The on-board electrical generation capability is enough for a small town. I visited the facility where they are testing out the the electrical power system in a full-scale mockup, and they had a cool display there, with a short steel I-beam that was holding up the sign for the facility. It looked like it was a few hundred pounds. That short section of I-beam was designed to have the same weight as all of the metal used in the plane’s structure. It’s not another aluminum aircraft with some composite panels and flight surfaces, folks. It’s about as close to 100% carbon fiber as it can be.

Boeing has gone all-in to make revolutionary changes in several areas at once, so it was inevitable that the plane would wind up behind schedule. Still an impressive achievement.
December 15, 2009 at 1:44 am #51814
mule
Participant
Impressive
The wings didn’t flex at all or droop, it wanted to take off really short and looked really stable. CF is amazing stuff.
I want to try it…. Curacao here I come….
December 15, 2009 at 8:05 am #51815
JetMechQC
It is smaller than a 777 but just a touch bigger than a 767. I was working the the bay tonight that has all three types 8)
We are using one piece fuselage barrels, as opposed to the Airbus A350 which is using CFRP panels over the main structure.
Also there is no bleed air coming off the engines, everything is electric.

I’ll try to get some pics of the flight tommrow and post them(if the weather lets us)
December 15, 2009 at 10:02 pm #51816
Chris LaPanse
The flight looked good – it had an incredible amount of wing flex though. Looks like it was cut short (to just over 3 hours) due to weather, but other than that, everything appears to have gone fine. I’m looking forward to hearing the results.
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