Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner took to the skies for the first time on Friday from Boeing's South Carolina 787 assembly line.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner took to the skies for the first time on Friday from Boeing's South Carolina 787 assembly line.
The airplane, which is the newest and longest model of the 787 family, completed a successful flight totaling four hours and 58 minutes.
Piloted by Boeing Test & Evaluation Capts. Tim Berg and Mike Bryan, the airplane performed tests on flight controls, systems and handling qualities.
The 787-10 will now undergo comprehensive flight testing before customer deliveries begin in the first half of 2018.
As an 18-foot (5.5-m) stretch of the 787-9, the 787-10 will deliver the 787 family’s preferred passenger experience and long range with 25 percent better fuel per seat and emissions than the airplanes it will replace and 10 percent better than today’s competition.
“From takeoff to landing, the airplane handled beautifully and just as expected,” said Berg, chief 787 pilot. “The 787-10 is a fantastic machine that I know our customers and their passengers will love.”
The aircraft is 68.27 m (224 ft) long and spans 60.17 (197 ft) wide. In a two class configuration, the cabin can seat 330 passengers and fly up to 6,430 nautical miles (11,910 km).
The 787-10 is powered by the new 340 kN thrust Rolls Royce Trent 1000 TEN engines, which draws technologies from the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine developed for the Airbus A350 XWB, and the Advance engine program, delivering thrust and efficiency improvements.
The all-electric architecture of the Boeing 787 aircraft requires that no bleed air is taken from the engine, but up to 500 kW of power is extracted from each engine to drive the aircraft systems. Over 85% of the engine’s thrust is generated by the 2.8 m diameter fan.
The 787-10 has won 149 orders from nine customers across the globe including launch customer Singapore Airlines, Air Lease Corporation (ALC), All Nippon Airways (ANA), British Airways, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and United Airlines.
