rem fdr " Oh Grebe, the first 767 - VA001 - was
not sold to United. It was initially kept by Boeing for use as a flying test bed, before being modified to the AOA (Airborne Optical Adjunct) test aircraft as part of Reagan's 'Star Wars' initiative. "
My confusion/memory re VA001 came from an event in about 1992- . I had kept a copy of the 767 firing order published in 1982 or so, and had dug it out as part of my 1992-93 deposition on some specific tooling and patent issues. AS I recall ( but could be wrong ) the firing order showed VA001 as being ***assigned *** to UAL. The assembly dates were critical, specifically when the tool was first used on a part of the 767 ' production' aircraft versus when the firm that had patented the tool and claimed a design and manufacturing date of the tool as being about 6 months later. Eventually they lost the patent because I was able to show via records accurate to within a few M days the tool setup dates, load dates, etc . I have since thrown away virtually all my notes and depositions. So based on my memory I ** assumed** that UAL had eventually taken delivery. I left the 767 program in 1983 for what was known as WILO
and came back to everett on the 777 program about 1993 or so.
MY goof - my point was that that the static test and fatigue test airplanes ( at least at boeing ) are not planned to be put in flyaway condition other than basic structure- and not sold except for scrap or cutaways or whatever.
And FWIW the times article mentioned the loading on the fuselaghe as xx thousand lbs bending downward. Since the it was not pulled down while sitting on the landing gear, a simple force diagram would show that since plane was not moving up or down, somewhere the equal and opposite load up ward had to be available - that upward load was of course the wings bending upward by pulling on a bunch of cables etc
