787 Coming to SYD and MEL

[John Arena]

Thanks Jayden

John

[Grahame Hutchison]

After a last minute email to my contact at Boeing, and a few emails back and forth to
Dreamliner Captain Mike Bryan in Auckland, we organised a tentative plan for an inspection
of ZA001 today. A big thank you to Boeing, and Mike in particular for going out of his way
to make sure today happened.

Once on board and in the left seat, Mike gave me the run through on the flight deck systems,
followed by a personal walk around the aircraft while discussing the various features and
innovations on the aircraft.



The 787 uses a mouse to operate the various displays, the overhead fuse panel is gone, instead the fuses are shown on one of the
centre console displays, and can be operated electronically using the mouse. The cockpit windows are very large, particularly the side
ones, and all are fixed. Escape from the cockpit is via a roof hatch on the right side, using a device with a coil of wire that clips onto
the hatch and lowers you down safely to the ground. The HUD is a standard feature (either side at the top of the image) and just pulls
back an up out the way when not in use. Standard approaches and departures can be diaplayed on the HUD along with all the other
necessary instrument readings. Like the 777 there is an Electronic Flight Bag on either side of the cockpit, however this is an enhanced
version of the EFB. Radio frequencies can be keyed into the displays rather than turning knobs, and ground steering is via a traditional
tiller. Flight performance is superb, with Mike mentioning that they have had the aircraft down as slow as 78kts, not something you
want to do very often. The very back section of the centre console is only for testing and is not part of the production aircraft.




The Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines are massive with chevrons to mix the hot and cold gases and reduce noise. The cowls also appear
to be made of carbon fibre. Qantas have ordered the GE engines.


Rather than bleeding hot air from the engines to supply the cabin, the 787 has fuselage mounted intakes (bottom right) to supply cabin
air, and pressurises the cabin electrically. The panel in front of the intake lowers to prevent ingestion of foreign material whel landing
and taxiing.


The wing on the Dreamliner is a beautiful piece of work, all the actuators for flaps and ailerons
etc. and very small compared to earlier aircraft, and the wing is one perfectly formed shape
right out to the raked wing tips (and they are made in Japan). They are also looking at the
use of more composite in the wings structure, in particular some of the ribs, which will further
reduce the overall weight. Currently, 50% of the aircraft by weight is composite.


The brakes are electrically operated rather than hydraulic, and the actuators can automatically
compensate for an individual failure. Mike said that when he took the 787 into Farnborough's
short runway, some firm braking was required and the brake temperature reached 1200 degrees.


As queried earlier in this thread, the red windows have sensors installed for test purposes.


A lot of attention has been paid to the finish of all surfaces on the wing, and this shows how small some of the mounts and actuators
actually are.


Again, the transition from tail to rudder is almost seemless, and ZA001 has a series of vortex
generators in a vertical line up the tail. This came out of flight testing and they are required
to disturb the air just a little as it passes over the tail. They have been playing around with
different combinations of the vortex generators to determine the best option.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Apart from a few seats up front, the aircraft is mainly filled with test equipment. You can actually see right through to the rear pressure
bulkhead, which is also composite and much flatter than normal. This allows more room at the rear for galleys or toilets etc.


The overhead setup is quite purpose built, with large flat sections of sheeting bolted to the centre section. This is done so they can
locate special lighting directly overhead the flight data monitoring consoles.


This is the join between the main fuselage section and the nose section. The light sections
are the external composite skin, which are overlaid with a double layer of fasteners.


A series of water tanks in the cabin are used to vary the centre of gravity, and also load the aircraft weight wise.


On static display was a window panel section so you could try out the dimming feature of the Dreamliner. The left side is fully clear
and right fully dim. It takes about one minute for the transition to complete, and at completely dim you can still just see through the
window. There are five small indicators on the left of the button to display the current setting, and you press the top of the button
to go to the clear setting, and bottom to go to the dim setting.


The Dreamliner production line does not really have a set rate at present, as they transition from testing to production. There are
apparently about 50 aircraft in various stages of construction and waiting on particular components. The crew on this "Down Under"
tour was around 30 in total, and the route home will be Melbourne, Honolulu then Seattle. They cannot go direct Melbourne - Seattle
as ZA001 has fuel limitations in the wing tanks.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Also in the hanger with the Dreamliner was 737-800 VH-VZT which was only delivered a couple of weeks back and features the new
sky interior.


Economy seating with seatback IFE.


Business deep red/brown leather seating with a larger seatback IFE.


The cockpit features an after fitted HUD (just visible in the top left corner), and not standard like the Dreamliner. Qantas have
apparently been fitting the HUD to their B737-800 aircraft over the past four years.


And outside and just opposite was John Travolta's B707, just beautiful to have a walk around the aircraft, bring back memories of the
60's and a great First Class flight to New Zealand. I remember being in the cockpit and the navigator was taking a sextant reading
through a special port in the cockpit roof. We also passed a Pan Am B707 heading in the opposite direction, the closing speed was
massive, and I could easily read Pan Am on the fuselage.




The good old JT3D-3&3B.


It was a grey old windy day in Sydney but the Dreamliner and B707 definitely made up for that.

[Sarah C]

Nice photos Graeme, I am in one of those shots

[A McLaughlin]

Great pics and commentary Grahame, thanks

[damien b]

Great photos Grahame, Thanks.

[John Arena]

Interesting read Grahame!!

Would the 707 be visible from either the T1 Observation deck or the T3 Heritage Collection?

John

[Oliver Gigacz]

Originally Posted by Sarah C

Not moving anywhere today Oliver.

Well whats this then? Very happy to finally see her.

[Jayden Laing]

Calm down Oliver!!! Obviously info had changed since Sarah was last told about it! Just be grateful she even told you anything (even if it was old news!!)