airplane

Boeing completes the first flight of GE-Powered 787 Dreamliner

The first Boeing  787 Dreamliner with General Electric (GE) engines, the airplane referred to as ZA005, completed its first flight at 6:29 p.m. (Pacific time) yesterday, following a 3-hour-and-48-minute flight over the state of Washington.

GE executives and Boeing employees were on hand to welcome Captains Mike Bryan and Mike Carriker to Boeing Field in Seattle following completion of the flight.

“The airplane handled just like I expected,” said Bryan, who captained the flight. “It was just like every other 787 flight that I’ve flown in the last several months – smooth, per plan and excellent.”

The first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to be powered by General Electric GEnx engines took off from Paine Field in Everett, Wash., at 2:41 p.m. (Pacific time) today. It completed a 3 hour 48 minute flight, landing at Boeing Field in Seattle at 6:29 p.m.

“We’re pleased to introduce the fifth Dreamliner to the flight-test fleet and to start flight testing with GE engines,” said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “It’s taken the collective resources and dedication of our teams to get to this day. There’s just nothing like a first flight to validate that it has been worth the sacrifices we have all seen our teams make in the past several years.”

ZA005 will be used to test the General Electric engine package and demonstrate that the changes made with the new engine do not change the airplane’s handling characteristics.

The sixth, and final, 787 to join the flight test program is expected to fly before the end of July.

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ZA004, is undergoing a short series of tests that require a combination of hot weather and low-altitude conditions

The 787 flight test fleet, currently comprised of four airplanes, has logged more than 820 hours of flying in the last six months. Two more airplanes are expected to join the flight test fleet soon.