|
|
| The Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" |
For years, me and many others in the aviation industry have been following developments from the two largest airplane manufacuturers today with great interest. Current production of the Airbus A380 and future production of the Boeing 787 already cause interesting rumours. While Airbus is still struggling with cable installation, Boeing is ramping up production as it moves toward assembly of the first 787.
After years of preparation and development, the Boeing 787 is finally poised for launch. Boeing sees the next three months as the most crucial as everything depends on the succes of a series of upcoming milestone events including the actual aircraft assembly. Moving from the engineering and testing part to the assembling part of the programme has always been an exciting step as the initial design finally comes to "live". As aviation enthousiasts are awaiting its first public appearance, Boeing experiences enormous pressure to deliver. Since its launch in 2004 over 700_orders have been recorded, meaning Boeing is well on-track to achieve its 500 sales target at entry into service. This is unique since never before has any commercial airliner program had such a succes long before the first aircraft has even flown. Up to now a great succes but never before have expectations been so high. With regard to the all new A380 and its delivery problems, gossip about development delays, technical problems and such is growing. Of course not everything is going as succesful as its order book. At the moment Boeing is still struggling with some engineering programs and compresses the schedule to accomodate this.
|
|
|
| Boeing 787 Development |
With the development of the new aircraft. Boeing once again chose some different paths in order to streamline all different processes. Unlike previous programs where the suppliers list numbered into the hundreds, the Boeing 787 is being put together with a team just over 30 major companies. With this system the suppliers perform more of their own development, design and manufacturing while working the process in association with Boeing. Beneath each supplier a number of sub-suppliers are active for the particular part or system provided by the supplier team. This means Boeing can focus on final assembly without having to worry about developing sub-systems. With this approach Boeing is more of an integrator.
| With so much activity going on everything hadto be well planned. Designing, building and testing carries an inherent risk which could result in dramatic consquences in case not closely monitored. At this moment Boeing has everything going on pretty well. A key design area still being worked on is the final configuration of specfic fasteners penetrating the wing. This revised design, developed by an internal Boeing safety team, evaluated the fuel tanks protection against the effects of a lightning strike. Loose fasteners penetrating the wing skin could "shoot" a gap between itself and the drill hole which could lead to the formation of sparks thus creating a source of ignition. The reason why Boeing is focussed on making the 787 lightning-proof is that it is the first new aircraft which has to comply with new regulations regarding ignition sources. This is quite challenging since the Boeing 787 wing is made up of composites. |
|
A crucial thing in aircraft design, especially for the Boeing 787, is its weight. Less weight means improved efficiency thus lowering operating costs. At this moment, the aircrafts weight is predicted to be 2 to 3% over target with still 3 months ahead from knowing the total production value of the weight of the aircraft.
Overall, Boeing is not in a hurry with its production program. Recently, questions raised regarding the issue of a second planned production ramp-up on top of the already aggressive plan sanctioned by Boeing. A strong market demand is seen for 2011-2012 but no decisions have been made so far. First things first and so Boeing awaites until they have a clear understanding of how the aircraft behaves. A safe approach, though well-considered, since it avoids spending large amounts of money on expensive production processes that could change.
|
| Boeing 787 Competition |
| The competition continous as Airbus already launched a counterpart, the Airbus A350XWB, to compete against the Boeing 787. Since the design of the A350XWB is still in its early phase, Boeing has not seen enough of the intial design to know exactly where it will compete against and whether it will affect the 787-10 series. At the moment the A350 seems to be a larger aircraft thus no direct threat to the -8. Options are open since Boeing has three variants, -3 -8 and -10, in front with plenty of chances for optimisation. Management resources unveil that several airlines already expressed interest in the 787-10 and expectations are that no drop-off in demand for this series will be seen. The initial A350 design has already been revised and is now designated the A350XWB. Possible customers for the aircraft expressed their needs and after all Airbus concluded the original design would not be able to do so.
The competition aside, Boeing is primarily focussing on four main targets. First of all it is important to complete the first composite airframe. Second, manufacturing of all parts in the supply chain. A third target is to keep on track with system development and testing their functionality. Finally, it is of utmost importance to supply the engine programmes the data they need and keep building hours.
|
| Boeing 787 Advanced Systems |
Okay, enough about how great the aircraft is. Let us have a look at the systems present in the aircraft. Boeing has always been an innovator regarding new technologies and so we expect much from the 787 system architecture. The 787 is all about efficiency and functionality and it is these systems which play a vital role in achieving a 3% overall efficiency.
Lets start with the flightdeck where it all comes together. The overall goal was to improve situational awareness and eventually resulted in an astonishing cockpit lay-out. The largest flight displays ever used are present together with dual head-up-displays (HUD) and dual EFBs or Electronic Flight Bags. Although with most designs, things like HUD and EFB are optional, the 787 will have these functions standard. In other words, the customer cannot chose whether to take them or not. Besides this, the traditional narrow Boeing windows will be replaced by much larger windows in order to enlarge visual reference and thus improving situational awareness.
|
|
Another interesting development are the engines used on the aircraft. Currently GE is ramping up its GEnx turbofan development and expects to be ready in 2007 for test flights. By now, several airlines have ordered the new engines for their new airplanes. Among these airlines are China Southern, Hainan and Shanghai Airlines, that are awaiting delivery of their first 787 in June and July 2008 to meet expected demand due to the Olympic Games in China the same year. Since the GEnx engine is a revolutionary development, we are working on a detailed article on how it works and how it will look like.
Overall, the 787 is expected to be a real succes. More and more airlines are considering the aircraft as a long term replacement for older generation aircraft. With the revamped Airbus A350 as a direct competitor the up- coming years should be interesting. Stay tuned as we'll keep you updated......
In the next article we'll get back on the transportation of the 787 by the Boeing 747LCF (Large Cargo Freighter) with a detailed description of its specifications.
The DutchOps.com Team |
|
