pre delivery flights
pre delivery flights
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 2,188
Likes: 6
From: La Belle Province
As short a time delta as possible (from the OEMs perspective; the sooner the customer takes it, the sooner we get paid 
)
With the degree of solvency of some customers, an aircraft can sit waiting for acceptance for ages, though - months isn't impossible, if they don't have the readies to take the plane.
For airliners the typical time is probably in the small number of weeks; depending on when you count "delivery" for a business jet, it could be months, even years (since the plane may spend many months in a completion centre before the owner ever finally takes delivery)
)With the degree of solvency of some customers, an aircraft can sit waiting for acceptance for ages, though - months isn't impossible, if they don't have the readies to take the plane.
For airliners the typical time is probably in the small number of weeks; depending on when you count "delivery" for a business jet, it could be months, even years (since the plane may spend many months in a completion centre before the owner ever finally takes delivery)
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 132
Likes: 0
From: UK
Some owners, like Cargolux and Delta get involved quite early on in the pre-delivery process, I know Delta have had probs with some of their aircraft so they have in the past sent engineers/crew out 6 weeks prior to scheduled handover to work with Boeing.
My Ex used to work for Cargolux and he was saying they had so many probs with their last 747 that when their next one was delivered they were going to send an engineer out for the last 3 months if it's build and flt crew out for last 6 weeks
Sounds odd but it happens
My Ex used to work for Cargolux and he was saying they had so many probs with their last 747 that when their next one was delivered they were going to send an engineer out for the last 3 months if it's build and flt crew out for last 6 weeks
Sounds odd but it happens
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 31
Likes: 0
From: UK
Not wanting to blow one's trumpet (much), but you may be interested in my thread here.
Average turnaround for a 73NG from departing Renton to the delivery centre at Boeing Field to leaving on its ferry flight to the customer's home base seems to be around 14-21 days.
Cheers,
Rob K
Average turnaround for a 73NG from departing Renton to the delivery centre at Boeing Field to leaving on its ferry flight to the customer's home base seems to be around 14-21 days.
Cheers,
Rob K
Joined: Oct 2002
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 8,208
Likes: 351
From: London UK
There are a whole range of answers to this but among other simplifications is that Boeing seem to take less time between first flight and delivery than Airbus do (no, please DON'T start an A vs. B war just now!)
As with any complex manufactured product (and they don't get much more complex than this), despite the best test equipment there will be a range of assembly issues that are only discovered upon first flight. Extent of any rework required is a guess. So that's the first variable; it's why the first aircraft of a type (not just the prototypes) take longer to get right, there's more to find/learn from.
Production (and first flight) is best done in a continuing even stream. But delivery dates will be agreed in the commercial agreement, tied in to all sorts of factors. So aircraft may be ready some days before delivery is due. Some airlines for example notably take delivery of new aircraft (and make the final payment) on the last day of their financial month. Early Airbus (A300) took this to extremes and built aircraft for which they still had no customer at time of completion, and they hung around in some cases for years before delivery. Later regarded as financially mad. Boeing seems never to have done this.
Some commercial agreements may stipulate penalties if the aircraft is not ready on the contracted date. A manufacturer will probably allow a little spare time (bearing in mind paragraph 2 above) just in case. It's a complex calculation offsetting the penalty cost against the cost of borrowing the money for the production of the aircraft, even for a few days, before delivery is due.
As with any complex manufactured product (and they don't get much more complex than this), despite the best test equipment there will be a range of assembly issues that are only discovered upon first flight. Extent of any rework required is a guess. So that's the first variable; it's why the first aircraft of a type (not just the prototypes) take longer to get right, there's more to find/learn from.
Production (and first flight) is best done in a continuing even stream. But delivery dates will be agreed in the commercial agreement, tied in to all sorts of factors. So aircraft may be ready some days before delivery is due. Some airlines for example notably take delivery of new aircraft (and make the final payment) on the last day of their financial month. Early Airbus (A300) took this to extremes and built aircraft for which they still had no customer at time of completion, and they hung around in some cases for years before delivery. Later regarded as financially mad. Boeing seems never to have done this.
Some commercial agreements may stipulate penalties if the aircraft is not ready on the contracted date. A manufacturer will probably allow a little spare time (bearing in mind paragraph 2 above) just in case. It's a complex calculation offsetting the penalty cost against the cost of borrowing the money for the production of the aircraft, even for a few days, before delivery is due.
