Sunday, October 17, 2010

Saturday Update

ZA001 hasn't filed anything over the last 3 days from VCV, however that doesn't mean that she's not flying, but could be flying VFR similar to how ZA002 and ZA004 were both flying down there but not filing any flight plans. Her last flight took her to Las Vegas for the first time!

ZA002 however did make the trip over and back. She went and added about 6 hours to the test total and flew around Oregon and Eastern Washington before touching down for a short break at Moses Lake. Then made a quick hop back to Boeing Field.

ZA003 flew 2 days ago for about a 6 hour flight that took it over Oregon, Utah, California and Nevada before coming back to Seattle. It has some kind of alien looking equipment on her that I will be posting shots of soon.

ZA004 went into the air for about a 8 hour flight. Flew over Montana and back then about 3 quarters of the way down California before returning back to BFI to call it a night. Bird 4 is going to be out all next month as she gets equipped with Package B of the RR Trent 1000 engines that when finalized are expected to be with in 1% of what Boeing has promised customers in terms of fuel burn and efficiency.

ZA005 is still unknown when it will return back to the skies. She is still up at Paine Field in stall 101. She should return to the skies soon though.

Today ZA006 filed for a round trip from BFI to MWH, but we never saw her take to the skies.

Friday, October 15, 2010

New 787 Ad!

A few days ago Boeing released a new 787 ad. I show it to you here in HD. The video shows some air to air video taken from the flight testing over Washington and down the Oregon coast. It jumps between that and showing passengers inside one of the mock up interiors. I can't lie I am a big fan of this video. I would love to see some more of the air to air shooting and the song selection to me fits the video perfectly. I look forward to what Boeing has in store for some future ads! And Boeing, please share some more of the air to air footage!

Monday, October 4, 2010

ZA006 First Flight

Today Boeing celebrates as the sixth flight test aircraft finally got off the ground around 11:45AM PST. The aircraft was originally supposed to join the flight test program back in June but has been plagued with issues that delayed it to today.

The flight was supposed to be 3 hours with a touch and go over in Moses Lake, but just a little after an hour the aircraft diverted to Boeing Field where it was later found out that the aircraft had a maintenance and as a precaution diverted. Unnamed sources with the program are saying it was a liquid cooling leak cut the flight short.

Boeing however is still calling the flight a success. This is the second 787 to join the test program that is powered by General Electric Engines.