Latest 787 Dreamliner news

[Starter Crew]

A link to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner interior tour (http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/archives/193336.asp) in Wednesday's Seattle Post Intelligencer aerospace blog. Highlight of the week is the rollout of airplane #3 which is (half) fitted with pax interior for test and evaluation.

The page linked to has a short video clip of the interior showing flight deck, fwd cabin, aft cabin and aft crew rest area.

[trident3A]

Have to say the passenger cabin looks fantastic.

[TSR2]

Those seats look extremely narrow. Overall, not very inspiring.

[ManofMan]

Hmmm wouldnt like to be sat in-between two of me on one of them flights !!!

[smudgethecat]

Impressive machine no doubt, however one thing worries me about a composite passenger aircraft is the fact you can do serious internal damage to a composite structure without a lot of surface evidence to indicate whats happened in contrast to a conventional structure which hides nothing, problem i can foresee is it as happens all the time, catering /baggage/toilet truck smacks into the fuse, no sign of much external damage, culprit decides to say nothing which is not unheard of im afraid, couple of hours later crew/engineer does his walk round all looks well , but alls not well ,that structure has in fact suffered serious internal damage... , any composite experts care to comment.

I know there aremilitary composite aircraft out there but they tend to operate in a much more controlled aircraft friendly enviroment than you find at a lot of civil airports around the world

[Starter Crew]

from a Seattle Times article

Still, to win its key launch order, Boeing had to convince All Nippon Airways' chief engineer, Shinsuke Maki.
In October 2003, Maki told Boeing's sales team that going with composite plastics was a mistake. With the new material, he thought the dings and dents typical on airplane loading ramps would be a nightmare to repair.
Months of shuttling composites experts to Tokyo failed to convince All Nippon Airways (ANA) of the material's viability.
"We just weren't closing the credibility gap," said Joe McAleer, Boeing's sales director for ANA. "Something else was needed."
So in February 2004, Boeing flew a 6-foot by 3-foot composite panel over to Tokyo and invited a team of ANA engineers to beat on it with hammers as hard as they wanted.
They barely managed to scratch the panel. Then Boeing offered a live demonstration of how to repair the minor damage.

[ManofMan]

any composite experts care to comment

I have this sneaky feeling that Boeing might just have thought of that and had a look into it.

[smudgethecat]

Thanks starter,interesting article, obviously this is an issue with engineers, having worked on quite a few aircraft with some composite structural components as well as having compleated a basic composite repair course im well aware the latest composites are fantastic materials, however im also aware they can absorb very high energy impacts which have caused serious internal damage with very little external witness evidence, this is what concerns me with the most vunerable part of the aircraft entirely composite.

Man of man thanks for the comment, however i did ask for someone with some technical knowledge to comment , that clearly rules you out, so wind yer neck in theres a good chap:8, anyway hopefully i will be going out to seattle for a 787 type course next year so im sure all will become clear

[MAN777]

Theres a slight difference between a group of Japanese hammering a piece of carbon fibre and a slow speed 7 tonne catering truck embeding itself into a 200 ton aircraft.

No comparison I know but in my younger days I wrote off a brand new £1500 carbon fibre racing kayak by wrapping it around a large rock. It sprang back into shape but was completely destroyed internally and could not be repaired. A standard glass fibre version would have simply been patched up.

[simonchowder]

I believe this very issue was the subject of some very iinteresting debate some time ago in the tech log forum

[DADDY-OH!]

Smudge'

Have you had a look at the Bleed Air system on this beast... or lack of it...? Electrically it looks a bit 'advanced' to say the least. It makes any Airbus look like a DC3!!

Good luck!
:ok:

[smudgethecat]

Hi daddy , yes the electrical system is certainly very advanced, interestingly enough the HS 748 in the sixties used a similiar method of providing pneumatic power ie engine driven compressors, it certainly looks a great craft, however i have to say i do have my reservations about the totally composite structure , it will be interesting to see how it shapes up to the A350, or should i say how the A350 shapes up to the 787

[rog747]

the interior looks naff

would rather fly in a 737

[11Fan]

anyway hopefully i will be going out to Seattle for a 787 type course next year so I'm sure all will become clear

smudge, I'll presume BFI for the sake of this response. That said, ask to go up to Everett and I suspect they would be happy to address any concerns you may have.