Worth The Wait

But despite the five-year delay none of that stress was on show on the delivery of the Qantas Group’s first 787, VH-VKA, line number 123.

As the first of 14 787-8s took off from Boeing’s Paine Field at Everett on Monday October 7 at 11am local time Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce told Australian Aviation it was “a magical and emotional moment”. The 787 will set up Jetstar for another decade of growth. Despite the agonising and costly delays Joyce praised the relationship with Boeing and said it was the best the airline enjoyed.

“There is not one department at Qantas that does not speak highly of Boeing,” he said.

“We have been overwhelmed by the way Boeing has handled this difficult situation. ” Jetstar chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka echoed those sentiments.

“It has not been without its challenges but we have worked so well together with collaboration and transparency. ” And the emotion flowed at the delivery ceremony just before the 787 took off.

Joyce, Jetstar’s first chief executive, reflected on the relatively short time that Jetstar had been operating.

“In just 10 short years, Jetstar has grown to be the largest low-fares carrier in the Asia Pacific, carrying more than 100 million passengers. ” “The 787 will set up the airline for another decade of growth. ”But it was clear that there is a big future for the 787, in the 787-9, at Qantas as well.

“It is a historic milestone for the Qantas Group and Jetstar as we welcome the most advanced passenger aircraft ever constructed to the fleet. ” And Hrdlicka added that “from a Jetstar perspective the 787 is fantastic as it helps to keep costs down and brings innovation into long-haul travel. ” The handover ceremony was preceded by a delivery dinner on Sunday October 6 where the healthy relationship between Boeing and the Qantas Group was evident.

“A strong relationship with a manufacturer is critical and it doesn’t come easy. Boeing and Qantas have the best relationship I have ever seen,” Joyce said.

“Dinesh Keskar has lived and breathed this along with Rick Westmoreland, Stan Deal and Dara Schmidt (senior Boeing sales executives).

“You guys have generated so much goodwill at Qantas and it’s a credit to your personality, credit to your business acumen and credit to you as a company,” Joyce said.

“I know this aeroplane is late and I would have loved to have had it earlier but because of the way you have handled the relationship we are overwhelmed at how Boeing, Qantas and Jetstar have worked together. An unbelievable performance, and relationship. ” Boeing Commercial Airplane Company president Ray Connor waxed lyrical about the Qantas relationship.

“The relationship with Qantas is 60 years old. People may change but they do not leave the industry. What you do and how you do it mean more than you can ever imagine.

The way we have worked together as two companies is a model of how a partnership should work. We want to make sure we continue to do that moving forward. ” “In the nine years since you started what you have been able to achieve is phenomenal bringinglow-cost travel to Australia and Asia,” Connor added.

“The 787 is the perfect airplane for Jetstar with its long-range capability, passenger comfort and environmental features. I know the passengers will love the interior. ” Certainly Jetstar’s Boeing 787 program director Mark Dal Pra said the crew is enthusiastic about the aircraft and its interior.

“There is a lot of enthusiasm about the spaciousness of the cabin.

It is simply a much better product,” he said.

“We have power to all business class seats and two power outlets for every set of three economy seats. And there are USB outlets to all the seats. ”The enthusiasm for the 787 only grew throughout the first leg to Honolulu.

Joyce, who had only had a brief flight in a 787 development aircraft prior to the delivery flight, was taken with the quietness of VHVKA’s General Electric GEnx 1B- 64 engines.

“I am amazed at how quiet these are,” Joyce said.

On takeoff he quipped to GE’s GM South Asia Pacific Max York across the aisle; “Max did you only sell us one engine?” According to Boeing the 787’s low engine noise means that – under international guidelines – no airport boundary residents are impacted by engine noise.

And not only will the passengers and airport residents enjoy the quieter cabin, Jetstar 787 flying operations stream lead Captain Jeremy Schmidt said that in the cockpit the engines were almost silent.

“The quietness will reduce fatigue for pilots,” he said.

Joyce also lauded the smooth ride as the 787 flew through thick rains clouds after takeoff en route to its overnight stop in Honolulu.

“It is really smooth – passengers are going to love this plane. ” The 787 sports a gust suppression system which detects bumps and activates flight controls to counter the movement.

Boeing estimates this reduces the impact of turbulence by up to 70 per cent.

Fleet plan

Before the flight home media and analysts were given two days of briefings on the status of the Qantas Group fleet plan and 787 program.

Qantas has taken delivery of 160 aircraft over the past four years and will add another 109 over the next five while retiring up to 37 including ageing Boeing 767s and 737-400s.

“We now have the youngest fleet (7. 9 years) we have ever had since privatisation,” Joyce said.

“And once we have all the 787s our fleet will be younger than

Once we have all the 787s our fleet will be younger than Singapore Airlines. ALAN JOYCE

Singapore Airlines’. ” The arrival of the 787s into Jetstar will release the A330-200s back to Qantas which will enable the retirement of the ageing 767s.

The new aircraft, configuration changes and the simplification of the fleet will also lower costs, said Joyce.

Those configuration reductions are significant.

In 2008 Qantas had seven different configurations for the 747-400, which has been reduced to three currently and one next year.

The A330 fleet at Jetstar and Qantas has six configurations currently, reducing to two in 2016.

Part of that configuration process is to both increase seating and alter class mixes to better reflect market dynamics.

The 747’s capacity moves from a 307/353 seating mix to 364, an increase of up to 19 per cent, while the Boeing 717 moves from 115/117 mix to 125 – a nine per cent increase.

With a younger fleet the maintenance costs will be reduced by $100 million a year by 2016.

The Qantas fleet plan also calls for an increase in daily utilisation from 9. 4 hours in FY13 to 9. 90 hours in FY2014.

Qantas CFO Gareth Evans also gave a fascinating insight into future plans.

The Boeing 737 MAX is being evaluated as a natural replacement for the 737-800, the 777X, 787 and A350XWB for the 747-400s, and the 737-7 and A319neo for the 717. Interestingly, also in the mix for a 717 replacement are the E-Jet and CSeries.

Joyce added that the 787-9 would be a perfect aircraft to do the Sydney-Dallas mission both ways.

On the 787 Qantas has 20 options and 30 purchase rights. The options fall due thus: FY17 with five, six in FY18, seven in FY19 and two in FY20. The purchase rights go out to 2025.

It was very clear to the technical media that the 787 is to feature strongly in the long-term Qantas fleet plan.

787 travails

But the 787’s niggling technical problems – particularly with Norwegian – did not escape attention of the lay press.

Responding, Joyce said that he is “very comfortable that the 787 is extremely safe. ” Boeing vice president of the 787 program Larry Loftis also told Australian Aviation that the aircraft was almost as reliable as the industry benchmark, the 777.

“Reliability is within 1. 5 per cent of the 777,” he said.

The 787 has been under the microscope since overheating battery issues grounded the fleet earlier this year.

Joyce added that the Qantas had thoroughly investigated the reliability of the 787 and was completely satisfied.

One aspect today said Joyce is that social media platforms give much higher profile to incidents than ever before.

“Now everything gets reported and photographed. ” Giving that comment some perspective, the well published Ethiopian fire involved the Honeywell ELT – a beacon that it is fitted to thousands of aircraft and it just happened to malfunction on a 787.

“But this [787] is an outstanding aircraft,” Joyce said.

And he went further.

“The 787-9 has amazing range and thus a lot more opportunities. ” And Loftis gave that endorsement some context with some new numbers.

For accountants the 787-8 is burning 22 per cent less fuel than a 767 and the recently announced 787-10 will consume a claimed 25 per cent less than the A330. For the passenger the 787 has 40 per cent more overhead storage than its competitor.

“That translates to nothing around your feet,” Loftis said.

And seat capacity became a hot topic at the briefings.

Reality is that Jetstar is not the first airline to fit 335 seats into a 787-8 – that honour belongs to ANA with its domestic 787s.

The 787 in fact can accommodate 440 from a door perspective but Boeing officials were quick to point out that you can’t physically seat 440 in any model of 787.

Maximum seating on a 787-8 at 29in (74cm) pitch is about 360, 787-9 around 390 and 420 for the 787-10.

On the 787’s increased humidity Loftis said that number was an increase in the order of from five per cent on today’s aircraft to 13 per cent.

“You really can tell the difference and on a long flight you get off feeling much, much better. ” Loftis was keen to highlight the noise footprint of the 787, hinting that it is a curfew breaker.

“It is the quietest in its class and60 per cent quieter than the aircraft it replaces. ” “It could be a curfew breaker. ” Putting a number on that suggestion Loftis said that the 787’s 85db footprint is confined to the airport boundary.

And on its green credentials Loftis said that the 787 is the greenest aircraft in the sky in the Jetstar configuration.

Reflecting on the program’s colorful history, Loftis said there is a lot of new technology in the 787 and “Boeing underestimated the time taken to do this. ” “We were also a little bit too aggressive bringing in the industrial partners. ” “When we do have a failure the planes performs as designed with backup systems,” Loftis added.

“The 787 is the biggest step [forward] change since the jet engine. ” The complexity of the problems and the rework required is underscored by the extraordinary delivery schedule of the 787 with rework still outstanding on early build machines that are still in storage at Everett.

ANA took the first five 787s delivered but the sequence was line numbers 8, 24, 31, 41 and 9.

Thankfully for Boeing those days are rapidly receding, although at the time of writing the US political impasse had stopped the FAA from signing off on aircraft deliveries.

Loftis said the ramp-up of the 787 is going well.

“Twenty months ago we were at 2. 5 787s a month and in May 2012 we went to 3. 5 a month. ” “By November of that year the rate was up to five a month and by May this year seven a month. ” Loftis said that by December 2013 the rate would be at 10 a month with three coming from Charleston and seven from Seattle. However, for a short time that would be a 2/8 mix.

Boeing has now delivered 94 787s to 18 customers and sales are now sitting at 980. Building a step-change new aircraft like the 787 is not for the faint hearted. The cost of developing and testing the 787 is now put at over US$20 billion by leading analysts, but offsetting that number are the orders worth US$224 billion.

Traditionally it takes the profit on 300 planes to wipe off the development costs but for the 787 Boeing will have to sell 1,200 before it makes money.

But Boeing is not worried as analysts predict the company will sell an additional 1,500 over the next 20 years.

According to Boeing’s vice president marketing Randy Tinseth the world’s airlines will need 4,500 aircraft of the 787 size over the next 20 years. Briefing media, Tinseth said that airlines would need a total of 35,000 new aircraft worth US$4. 8 trillion by 2032.

Acceptance

Preceding the historic flight home to Australia there was the not so small task of shaking the aircraft down and kicking the tyres. Jetstar’s team in Seattle was headed by chief pilot Captain Mark Rindfleish, along with Captain Peter Terrill, Jetstar 787 training development project pilot; Captain Jeremy Schmidt; and Captain Kester van As, Jetstar 787 head project pilot.

Boeing conducted three test flights of VH-VKA designated B1, B2 and B3 before turning it over to Jetstar for two customer flights.

During those test flights every system on the aircraft is tested with a variety of failure modes explored.

In the customer flights once again every aspect of the 787 was given the once over and sometimes twice, including the testing in flight of every IFE system.

“We had eight IFE testers on board,” Captain Terrill said.

The two customer flights were of 3. 5 hour and one hour durations and the pilots conducted numerous system checks and manoeuvres such as engine shutdowns and relights (one at a time!) and stalls.

The Jetstar pilots then flew the 787 over two days operating from Paine Field to Spokane and Moses Lake, reversing the order on the second day.

For Terrill there are many standouts on the 787.

“The HUD is a great safety feature that keeps your head out of the window.

“Your initial thought is how am I going to get use to this but very quickly you became what Boeing calls a HUD cripple – how can I do without it!” “For instance if you get a TCAS Resolution Alert the HUD displays this as a box you have to fly to, to avoid the other traffic. ” Terrill also gives more detail on the turbulence mitigation feature.

“The ride is definitely smoother and it’s a combination of spoilers and ailerons that work to suppress the bumps. ” Still on the 787’s extraordinary wing, Terrill highlighted the variable camber trailing edge flaps which are set at two to three per cent in cruise to give a one to two per cent fuel burn improvement.

Riding home on VKA

Seeing is certainly believing, but in the case of the 787 the experience is believing.

There has been much hype about the impact of the 787’s pressurisation system and humidity on passengers.

The 10 hour journey from HNL to MEL was the acid test for this writer. I had work to do and spent the whole flight in interviews, setting up photographs and crafting this article.

But to make it a fair test I had breakfast with a glass of champagne and lunch with two glasses of wine. Two glasses of water and three coffees rounded off the fluid consumption.

Throughout the flight there were no headaches or dehydration or sore eyes. I arrived in Melbourne relaxed and as if I had just done a Sydney to Melbourne sector.

My experience was echoed by my fellow travellers and we all commented on how quiet the 787 is.

Make no mistake this is an exceptional aircraft and a quantum leap forward in the travel experience.

And in the days after the flight my sleep pattern was normal instead of the usual disrupted sleep after a long flight through many time zones.

Another major plus was the 787’s smooth ride! We had an excellent test of the 787’s gust suppression system in the landing at Melbourne where we had 70km/h winds buffeting the aircraft.

Photographers on the ground captured a silky smooth touchdown (see front cover) compared to the landing of a Thai 777 just minutes before.

The 787 is clearly an exceptional aircraft and a quantum leap forward in the travel experience. It joins the Vickers Viscount, Boeing 707 and 747 and Airbus A380 as game changers. On reliability Terrill said the 787 had been flawless up til now.

“The only problem we had was the windscreen wipers were fractionally offset. Boeing fixed it. ” Captain Mark Rindfleish said the 787 is extremely pilot friendly.

“If we are doing a VOR/DME approach the navigation system will represent it similar to an ILS approach and the autopilot will fly it laterally and vertically to the VOR minima with the selection of the just one pushbutton. ” Giving more detail of the CASA certification Captain Rindfleish said that Jetstar has been working on the 787 pilot training for the past two years and all the documentation has been completed and ticked off by the regulator.

For the lead check and training pilots transitioning to the 787 from the A330, there is a 30-day course with 10 fixed-based simulator sessions of two hours each followed by eight full flight simulator sessions of four hours each.

This is followed by three simulator sessions for Jetstar-specific transition and then 25 hours of line simulator time for the lead check and training captains over five or six sessions. Line pilots will do their line training in the aircraft.

“CASA has been very helpful and it has been a collaborative arrangement.

We have kept them advised of every aspect of the program. ” During October Jetstar lead pilots were to conduct about 30 sectors to complete line training ahead of CASA certification due in the first week of November.

This will be followed by two route proving flights involving up to 170 “passengers” and six CASA staff.

These proving flights will involve every aspect of a commercial flight and include one that rarely happens these days – a diversion. Also under scrutiny is a cold start after an overnight stop.

Homeward bound

The flights home were under the command of Boeing’s Captain Wayne Ridenour with Captain Terrill being the pilot flying.

Also along was Boeing’s Captain Brad Johns and Jetstar’s Captains Mark Rindfleish, Kester van As and Jeremy Schmidt as part of the augmented crew.

From engineering were Paul Cramer, Jetstar 787 engineering stream lead, Robert Bibb 787 technical projects manager, and 787 engineers Dan Stauffer and Andrew Hufer.

The cabin team, led by Kerri Hollingsworth, comprised Brooke Sutton, Rachel Clarke, Gillian Hamilton, Emma Betteridge, Jeremy Hirt, Brad Childs and Terry McCombie.

The flight was callsigned JQ7878 and the first leg was Paine Field, Everett to Honolulu, Hawaii.

Takeoff weight was 170,000kg, well below the max 227,930kg, and the flight had 45,000kg of fuel on board compared to the maximum of 101,000kg.

A planned visual departure via Mt Rainier was thwarted by cloud.

The average track was approximately 214-deg and the distance was 2,547nm (4,700km).

Average speed over the ground/water was 500kt (900km/h). Wind aloft was 300-deg at 45kt and temperature a nippy -55°.

The STD (scheduled time of departure) was set down for 1800UTC (11am local) but a problem with the pushback tug delayed the departure from the gate in light drizzle to an ATD (amended time of departure) of 1807UTC.

JQ7878 was effortlessly airborne at 1821UTC and arrived in Honolulu at ATA 2340UTC (1340 local).

Fuel consumed was 24,000kg and the 787 cruised at FL400 at Mach 0. 85 with cabin pressure equivalent to 6,000ft AMSL.

Including the four Jetstar pilots, two Boeing pilots, eight Jetstar cabin crew and three engineers there were 55 persons on board.

The early afternoon arrival ceremony in Melbourne on Wednesday dictated an even earlier departure from Honolulu.

On departure Captain Terrill informed us that the last hour of the flight would be bumpy and that we would be greeted by one of Melbourne’s famous northerly busters with 70km/h winds which would again test the 787s turbulence suppression system.

Distance between Honolulu and Melbourne was 5,122nm (9,200km) with an average speed over the ground/water of 500kt (900km/h).

Pushback was scheduled for 1530UTC (05:30am local) but Flt 7878 was underway at an ATD of 1520UTC and airborne 1536UTC.

The flightplan called for a STA of 0205UTC (1305 local) and the actual arrival was 0215UTC.

Making a telling comparison, Captain Schmidt noted that Jetstar operations produced a payload adjusted flightplan for an A330 which was following us to Melbourne and it would have burnt 15 per cent more fuel (8,000kg) with 25 fewer seats. (The A330 in fact had a full payload. ) “It would also take 35 minutes longer to complete the journey,” Captain Schmidt said.

“The 787 cruises a lot faster at Mach 86 compared to Mach 80 to 82 for the A330. ” On arrival into Melbourne the 787 being flown by Captain Terrill was buffeted by 70km/h winds as forecast but the ride and landing was more like the winds were just a gentle zephyr.

And on the two legs to its new home the 787 performed flawlessly according to Captain Schmidt. “Not one squawk. ”

The long countdown to delivery January 2003: The 7E7 is announced July 2004: All Nippon Airways becomes the 7E7s launch customer with an order of 50.

May 2005: Renamed the 787 as detailed designs sent to global partners.

November 2005: Qantas orders up to 110 787s.

June 2006: Concerns raised about readiness of global suppliers.

July 2007: 787 rollout.

0ctober 2007: Delay of six months to first flight announced.

January 2008: A further three-month delay blamed on suppliers.

April 2008: Another six month delay added.

November 2008: News that 8,000 fasteners in five test aircraft need to be replaced.

December 2008: Yet another six-month delay.

May 2009: Structural defect found where wings join fuselage causes more delays.

Dec 2009: First flight takes place on December 15.

Aug 2010: First delivery delayed because of engine availability problems.

September 2011: First delivery to ANA.

January 2013: Lithium ion batteries overheat. 787 fkeet grounded for two months.

October 2013: First Jetstar aircraft delivered.

Riding home on VKA

Seeing is certainly believing, but in the case of the 787 the experience is believing.

There has been much hype about the impact of the 787’s pressurisation system and humidity on passengers.

The 10 hour journey from HNL to MEL was the acid test for this writer. I had work to do and spent the whole flight in interviews, setting up photographs and crafting this article.

But to make it a fair test I had breakfast with a glass of champagne and lunch with two glasses of wine. Two glasses of water and three coffees rounded off the fluid consumption.

Throughout the flight there were no headaches or dehydration or sore eyes. I arrived in Melbourne relaxed and as if I had just done a Sydney to Melbourne sector.

My experience was echoed by my fellow travellers and we all commented on how quiet the 787 is.

Make no mistake this is an exceptional aircraft and a quantum leap forward in the travel experience.

And in the days after the flight my sleep pattern was normal instead of the usual disrupted sleep after a long flight through many time zones.

Another major plus was the 787’s smooth ride! We had an excellent test of the 787’s gust suppression system in the landing at Melbourne where we had 70km/h winds buffeting the aircraft.

Photographers on the ground captured a silky smooth touchdown (see front cover) compared to the landing of a Thai 777 just minutes before.

The 787 is clearly an exceptional aircraft and a quantum leap forward in the travel experience. It joins the Vickers Viscount, Boeing 707 and 747 and Airbus A380 as game changers.