Boeing 787 special - the fullest description yet of the Dreamliner

Flight International Online ^ | 26 September 2006 | Flight Int'l

[lowbuck]

With more pre-flight orders than any widebody in history, the 787 has transformed Boeing’s fortunes. But the twinjet is a game-changer in other ways, from its technology to its design and engineering process, with the US giant integrating systems of systems from dozens of global partners. In this 30-page special, Guy Norris delivers the inside track on the programme as the 787 races to first flight next year.

[lowbuck]

Go to the link there are about 15 links to articles about different aspects of the Dreamliner.

FI is a bit biased towards Airbus, but, this is a worthwhile read for those interested in this "game changer" called the 787. Enjoy

[siddude]

Yay for Boeing!!! Airbus isn't a real company anyway. Too much subsidies from their government.

[CWOJackson]

Compare this with the 380...and the French think they know style.

[baltodog]

See the leading edges of the vertical stabilizer?....

That is why I'm working through my lunch today.

That is why I've worked all Saturdays, and most Sundays this summer.

The damn thing better work.

[Paleo Conservative]

If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.

[So Cal Rocket]

Are those large teardrops on the windsheild HUDs? (I admittedly didn't read the article).

[JRios1968]

Those ARE the HUDs.

[Phsstpok]

Darn, that image is better than anything from Star Trek, Star Wars or Battlestar Gallactica.

 

You know Mike Okuda and his peers are going "gimme!"

Of course, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to hear the designers of this flight deck credit their childhood exposure to some of those designers work on their fictional bridges as influences on what they've done here.  I've heard the guys from NORAD talk about how they rebuilt the war room in Cheyenne Mountan after watching WarGames and how films like that influenced the redesign of the Pentagon's National Military Command Center when it was updated.

[Paleo Conservative]

I think so.

[Moose4]

Looks like it's using four REALLY BIG LCD screens instead of the five slightly smaller ones on the 777 and the 747-400. It looks very much like a refinement of the 777 cockpit, just not in Boeing Brown.

It constantly amazes me just how much real estate has been reclaimed in modern cockpits due to automation. You look at something like a 707 or 727 where you had to have a flight engineer sitting in front of two huge panels full of switches for fuel, hydraulics, pressurization, all that type of thing. Now all of that stuff has been condensed into part of that overhead panel on the 787. Simply remarkable.

}:-)4

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Yup... saw it, electronic de-icing instead of hot air from the engines.
How about the way they are countering the lightning strikes, they put a very thin mesh or light weight thin film of metal between the layers of composites in the wings and fuselage, that better work.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

yes. they are.

[RightWhale]

four REALLY BIG LCD screens

Seen the new printhead that prints the entire page at once and can print 1000 a minute or some ridiculous number? Not to mention the Citgo sign in Boston.

[Paleo Conservative]

You look at something like a 707 or 727 where you had to have a flight engineer sitting in front of two huge panels full of switches for fuel, hydraulics, pressurization, all that type of thing. Now all of that stuff has been condensed into part of that overhead panel on the 787. Simply remarkable.

}:-)4

Some military 707 derivatives and KC-135's have had glass cockpits installed primarily to get rid of troublesome to maintain mechanical gages and obsolete equipment but also to cut down down the cockpit crew size from tree to two. The glass 707 cockpit borrowed technology from the 737 NG program.

Also, the air force is getting the KC-10's updated with a two-man glass cockpit developed to retrofit DC-10's with a similar cockpit to the MD-11's. Fedex was the initial customer for the MD-10 update, because they want to be able to have one standard cockpit for their MD-11/MD-10 fleet to simplify crew scheduling.