Boeing 787 withstands lightning strike tests
Boeing Co.'s new composite-plastic 787 Dreamliner survived its first lightning strike with no damage as the plane approaches the halfway point in flight testing, program manager Scott Fancher said.
The jet was flying last month above Puget Sound, near Seattle's Boeing Field, when it was hit unexpectedly by a lightning bolt during a rare thunderstorm in the area, Fancher said yesterday in a telephone interview. The aircraft's systems, fuselage and wings all appeared to be unscathed, he said.
"Post-flight inspections revealed absolutely no damage," said Fancher, who took over the Dreamliner testing program in December 2008. "I walked around the airplane an hour after it landed and you couldn't tell a thing had happened."
Engineers are still studying how lightning affects the 787, the first jetliner to be built from composite materials instead of traditional aluminum. The Dreamliner is more dependent on electricity for controls and other systems, with power levels five times higher than on Boeing's 767.
Scheduled lightning-strike simulations and tests, mostly on the ground, are planned later this year as Chicago-based Boeing completes the U.S. certification for the plane to carry passengers, Fancher said.
Crews have finished 40 percent of the so-called test points needed for U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approval during more than 1,000 hours of flying since the plane's maiden flight in December, Fancher said. The first delivery, to Japan's All Nippon Airways Co., is on target for year-end, he said.
The 787 is more than two years behind schedule amid Boeing's struggles with new materials, parts shortages, redesign work and a new manufacturing process that relies more on suppliers. The plane's 860 orders valued at $148 billion have made the Dreamliner Boeing's best-selling new model.
Lightning poses a threat in flight because it can damage a plane's structure or internal controls. In 1998, a US Airways Group Inc. Fokker F-28 had to make an emergency landing after a strike caused electrical arcing that melted holes in the plane's hydraulic system. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the plane needed better lightning protection.
The Dreamliner struck by lightning last month was the first of five 787s in the flight-test program, Fancher said. The sixth and final jet will fly next month, he said.
The first model with General Electric Co.'s GEnx engines made its debut flight yesterday, staying aloft for 3 hours and 48 minutes above Washington state, home to Boeing's commercial manufacturing hub. Previous planes were equipped with engines from Rolls-Royce Group Plc.
Boeing has promised that the 787 will be 20 percent more fuel-efficient than comparable jets, thanks to the lighter- weight carbon-fiber construction of the fuselage and wings, new engines and the greater use of electricity for power.
Engineers are starting to collect performance data from the test flights and will release details "fairly soon," after independent reviews verify the analysis, Fancher said.
"We have found almost no areas where the airplane has performed any different than we expected," said Fancher, who led four major military flight-test programs for Boeing before taking on the Dreamliner. "It's meeting our modeling predictions very accurately."
Boeing test pilots, who are now flying under FAA supervision, have taken the 787 as high as 43,000 feet and traveled as fast as 98 percent of the speed of sound during a dive, Fancher said.
The Dreamliner may make its public debut next month, at the Farnborough air show in England, provided the tests are going well enough that a plane can be spared, Fancher said.