Well after two holds at 8000ft it landed back Ok at Heathrow at 14:38.
The following IB A320 landed 5 minutes later, having allowed some time for the runway inspection perhaps.


So it wasn't Manston... most likely the pilots wanted to return to their cars after a successful flight.

Perhaps they have to sign off the repair work as acceptable.

Due diligence would surely require that the whole area of the repair is instrumented with strain gauges to check for load, stress and vibration over a range of flight configurations, speeds, altitudes,.....and then analysed in the lab with design engineering scrutiny leading to certification. Could be flown back stateside under a special cat CofA, tho'.

If the test flight was successful I think the plan was to go into revenue service.:8

Leaving my derrière in Blighty.

Both glued and bolted.

Yes, the plan was to completely replace it due to smoke damage.

Its back in operation, been flying since the 23rd.
It ferried to Frankfurt and did ET707. Been flying pretty much every day since.

So i would consider Boeing's repair as the permanent repair.

Pretty impressive

It appears that it's back in service Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker!

Some keen plane spotter who can take pictures of our flying friend? I would LOOVE to see a close up on the repaired part.

Quote... I would LOOVE to see a close up on the repaired part.


My bet is that it will not be painted blue, with yellow dots around the outside edge of it...

Have a look in Airliners.net photo Id 2362630, it's taken after the tail was put back on. Looks like a nice flush repair. No obvious bumps from this distance. I have seen another photo with all the scaffolding taken away, but not as high res but the repair is all but invisible.

Page 59, whew! So much content!

Some weeks ago following the fin removal, I visited the aircraft and iscussed the repair with the on-site Boeing project manager. Though he was officially unable to disclose any details about the repair, he did not deny that the repair would take the form of a splice repair, and that it would be full, permanent repair, with the aircraft re-entering commercial service upon completion.

Though the fin was removed to improve aircraft stability, I have never seen such a heavily trestled aircraft in my whole career. When Boeing carry out an AOG repair it is nothing but impressive; a tented facility/factory manned by 60 Engineers & Composite Specialists, with the aircraft shrouded in an environmentally controlled enclosure. Good stuff!

Though details were not forthcoming, I got the impression that the damaged area would be removed, and replaced with an identical piece cut from an existing (or purposely made) aft fuselage section and spliced together. Note: Being a 'plastic' aircraft does mean it is necessarily 'glued together', and as such does not exclude the use of near conventional fasteners.

With regard to the LHR-LHR test flight on the 23rd, this is nothing unusual, especially given the circumstances and depth of work carried out.

Commenting on the earlier 'metal vs plastic' arguements; had this been a metal aircraft it would have been repaired months ago, using conventional methods.

It might also be worth dwelling on the fact that to achieve certification from the regulatory authorities prior to EIS, Boeing would have been required have in place a working Structural Repair Manaul (or equivalent) and been able demonstrate a AOG Repair Scheme support program.

Good to see it flying again, and the speculation put to bed!

AAIB posted a Special bulletin

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources...4%20ET-AOP.pdf

It's quite damning to Honeywell - 6 months before they identified an issue in manufacturing the ELTs and changed the process, but haven't recalled the existing ones. As a result there were 28 ELTs (out of 3600) with crossed wires ready to start a fire in an inaccessible area in an airplane

AAIB final report published August 19th 2015
 

For all those interested, the AAIB published the final report regarding this incident on August 19th and it can be downloaded from aaib.gov.uk or you can PM me and I will forward it to you. It is 182 pages and is, I note, replete with detailed photographs of both the interior and exterior extensive structural damage and it had approximately 11 square yards of major fuselage crown damage and now the FAA , as a result of this AAIB report, is finally "reviewing their certification procedures and flammability testing for composite aircraft flammability" with obvious potential huge implications for both Boeing and Airbus.