William Atkins
Tuesday, 19 January 2010 23:26
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 2
For the last four weeks, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner program has tested two aircraft for a total of fifteen flights of nearly sixty hours. It passed its latest test, achieving 'initial airworthiness' status.
The first test flight of the new mid-sized, wide-body 787 Dreamliner, designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, was made on December 15, 2009, when the jet airliner was flown for about three hours.
Since then, another Dreamliner, owned by Nippon Airways, has flown, with both of them up in the air for almost sixty hours of testing.
The top speed achieved for these airplanes has been Mach 0.65 (65% the speed of sound) at an altitude of 9,144 meters (30,000 feet).
Mach 1 (the speed of sound) is considered to be 340.3 meters (1,116 feet) per second, or 1,225 kilometers [761.2 miles] per hour, in the Earth's atmosphere at a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius.
On Friday, January 15, 2010, Boeing executives announced that the Dreamliner had successfully achieved the status of “initial ariworthiness.”
This achievement allows the program to now allow more personnel onboard the aircraft while it is being tested in the air. Boeing flight engineers will join the two pilots on the flight deck.
According to the January 18, 2010
USA Today article
Boeing: 787 passes initial airworthiness testing,
“Boeing said Friday that the two test planes have completed 15 flights to check out aircraft systems, performance, stability and handling. In the next phase of the testing, engineers will fly along to conduct detailed tests. The successful initial flights also will allow more planes to enter the flight test program.”
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