Boeing 787 Draws Name & Logo

[Garry Russell]

Have they lost touch with reality???

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/dr ... 27660.html


BTW they appear to have forgotten the 'L' in 7 l8 7

[Chris Trott]

Well, if you actually read the article Garry, you'll find that they were doing a required certification test for the 787-8 with the GE powerplants for ETOPS operation. The flight required them to fly a 19 hour sortie, so someone within Boeing had the idea to do something "useful" with the 19 hours instead of just flying a holding pattern the whole time. I think it was an excellent idea.

BTW, they did a similar thing with the 747-8F a few months ago on one of its max-range test flights, so it's not the first time.

As a pilot, I'd go stir crazy flying loops out off the coast of Washington for 19 hours (or even over Idaho where they usually do it), so I'd jump at the chance of doing something different.

[Garry Russell]

Hi Chris

Yes I did read all the article before I posted and I still think it was a bit pointless

Pilots might get bored but so do most people at work

[Chris Trott]

Yes, but pilots can sometimes do something about it.

You are correct that all-in-all it's pointless, but it's a nice bit of PR for both Boeing and FlightAware (whom I've been a Charter member of since 2004). I mean if you want to get down to it, what was the point of flying the Spirit of St. Louis from the US to France non-stop? To prove you could do it. Same here. They wanted to prove the plane could fly 18 hours ETOPS and that they could be creative in doing it.

Frankly, whenever I've been involved in planning test flights (post-Maintenance), I usually try to come up with something interesting for the crew other than just flying from here to here. Had one crew fly a cloverleaf. Impressed Cleveland Center when they realized what the flightplan looked like.

[FlyTexas]

I find it amazing that the 787 can stay aloft for 19 hours on one tank of gas. I don't think one of our 737's could pull off that trick. I wonder if they brought along Boeing employees to simulate a typical pax load or did they fly an empty 787?

Brian

[Garry Russell]

A Yukon stayed up for a few minuets under 24 hours..I think the 747SP beat that.

[Chris Trott]

One of the first DC-8-72's flew something like 14 hours and landed with 8 hours of fuel still in the tanks on a test flight.

Also, I don't think they had any simulated payload on the flight beyond the test equipment and test personnel aboard as this was a max endurance flight so minimum payload was a major consideration.

[Garry Russell]

The first QANTAS Boeing 747 on delivery flew direct from Heathrow to Sydney ( I think it was Sydney) but there was little load.