787 Makes First Test Flight

MTCTIGUY Trusted Member The 'Boro

Finally, here's a video of the first 787 test flight. Video

GolfJuliet F*** Terrorism

Pretty sweet! I only watched it one time so I might have overlooked it but was there was a parallel runway or was that smaller plane right on it's tail?

Unmanedpilot Rookie Mesa, Az

It had a few escort aircraft. Not sure what they were though?

SnowAviation Senior Member Escondido, CA

Was it an optical illusion or did those wings bend - A LOT?

scott523 Junior Member Philadelphia (Upper Darby), PA, USA

PHOTOS: Boeing 787 Dreamliner takes flight - latimes.com

Gotta capture every moment of the first test flight!

Yes it's for real! I've been waiting to see if that flex was really possible after seeing too many in-flight animations.

luna75 I am THE Pocket Ninja farmingdale ny

im no pilot but yeah those wings bent up a LOT!!!!...

GolfJuliet F*** Terrorism

787 wingflex.jpg
As one of the many fuel saving measures the wings are carbon fiber making them flex. There is no universal amount they will flex in flight but 10' seems to be about average, although Boeing hasn't said for sure. How much they will actually flex will depend on a number of factors. 787 Vice President of Engineering and Technology Randy Harley told a group of reporters that the wings would deflect a full 26 feet when 150% of the maximum loads were applied to the 787 wings. As a requirement by the FAA, all commercial aircraft must be able to withstand at least three seconds of 150% expected maximum loads on all major structures. In January 1995, the 777's wings deflected 24 feet at 154% max load before they snapped.

Rosstafari Daaaang. /X

I learned to fly on a Diamond DA20, an all-composite plane. Because of that, you weren't supposed to take it up past a certain temperature, since too much heat could make the wings a little... shaky. Even with central Texan heat during the summer, the indicator never went off, but on hotter days you had to throttle back a bit or it'd vibrate like crazy.

Anyway. The 787 isn't subject to the same restrictions, obviously, but I wonder how the flight characteristics differ than aluminum bodies.

sylvas Newcomer

Chase planes were T-33s, Boeing owns 4 for use for that.

GolfJuliet F*** Terrorism

Meyers Aircraft has a list of pros and cons for both aluminum and composite. I couldn't find a whole lot about the flight characteristics but there are some interesting points none the less. From the looks of it, it was published back sometime in 2000. Notice at the bottom of the page it says a Boeing engineer stated in a recent Aviation Consumer article, "The more we learn about composites, the better aluminum looks." I hope they've learned something new since then.