Boeing passed a major milestone today in the 787 Dreamliner program. Today's flight test of airframe ZA001, the first 787 to fly back in December, marks the end of flutter testing for the airplane. Wired.com was in Boeing's telemetry room today in Seattle and will have a full report of flight testing from the engineers perspective on Monday.
Flight test engineers and test pilots at Boeing have been performing flutter tests for the past several weeks concluding with a 3 hour 48 minute flight today (photo is ZA001 departing Boeing Field this morning). Flutter testing is a critical part of the envelope expansion for any new airplane. Until the testing is complete, flight test aircraft may be limited to certain speeds, altitudes and weights during various maneuvers.
During the flutter testing flights, pilots introduce a range of vibration frequencies to the flight surfaces and flight control surfaces to ensure the design of the aircraft dampens out the oscillations without further input from the pilots. These oscillations are introduced by hand as well as via computer.
With the successful conclusion today, the four 787 flight test aircraft currently flying can now fly throughout the complete speed range of the aircraft. During flutter testing, speeds as high as Mach 0.97 were flown and altitudes up to 43,000 feet.
On Monday we'll have the full story of flight tests from the telemetry room perspective and more details on flutter testing.
More photos from inside the telemetry room today after the jump.
Photos: Jason Paur/Wired.com
