Boeing 787 ET-AOP Returns after maintenance overhaul on aircraft fuselage
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 aircraft has made its first flight
after aircraft maintenance overhaul since suffering structural damage on
the aircraft fuselage at London’s Heathrow Airport in July. The
fuselage also serves to position control and stabilization surfaces in
specific relationships to lifting surfaces, required for aircraft
stability and maneuverability.
Boeing test pilots took aircraft ET-AOP on a test flight from Heathrow on December 21, flying racetrack patterns over the North Sea at 39,000 ft. The aircraft landed at Manston Airport in the afternoon and then return to Heathrow later in the day.
It is not clear whether more flights will be required, but Boeing is hopeful of returning the aircraft to passenger operations in the coming weeks.
The fire, which erupted in one of the 787’s Honeywell-made emergency locator transmitters (ELT) while the aircraft was parked between flights on July 12, scorched the crown of the fuselage forward of the tail fin leading edge and caused major smoke damage to the interior as a whole.
Engineers erected scaffolding and cranes to work on the aircraft in the cargo cul-de-sac of Heathrow where the aircraft has been stranded since the fire on July 12. They removed the aircraft’s vertical stabilizer in order to enable a large area of the Section 47 crown to be cut out and replaced with a new section.
As well as the major structural repair, which is understood to be one of the largest and most significant ever undertaken on a composite fuselage primary structure, the refurbishment is also believed to involve complete replacement of the interior paneling, sidewalls, overhead fixtures, lining, seats and other fittings.
The fuselage is an aircraft’s main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo.
Boeing test pilots took aircraft ET-AOP on a test flight from Heathrow on December 21, flying racetrack patterns over the North Sea at 39,000 ft. The aircraft landed at Manston Airport in the afternoon and then return to Heathrow later in the day.
It is not clear whether more flights will be required, but Boeing is hopeful of returning the aircraft to passenger operations in the coming weeks.
The fire, which erupted in one of the 787’s Honeywell-made emergency locator transmitters (ELT) while the aircraft was parked between flights on July 12, scorched the crown of the fuselage forward of the tail fin leading edge and caused major smoke damage to the interior as a whole.
Engineers erected scaffolding and cranes to work on the aircraft in the cargo cul-de-sac of Heathrow where the aircraft has been stranded since the fire on July 12. They removed the aircraft’s vertical stabilizer in order to enable a large area of the Section 47 crown to be cut out and replaced with a new section.
As well as the major structural repair, which is understood to be one of the largest and most significant ever undertaken on a composite fuselage primary structure, the refurbishment is also believed to involve complete replacement of the interior paneling, sidewalls, overhead fixtures, lining, seats and other fittings.
The fuselage is an aircraft’s main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo.
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