FLIGHT testing of the Boeing 787 could begin as early as next month as Boeing remains on track with its fastest big-jet production program ever.

Boeing expects to deliver its first 787 to launch customer ANA in May next year, with Qantas getting its first plane in July-August.

“We are getting really focused on the start of the flight test program, which will happen sometime, we think, late August or early September,” 787 program chief Mike Bair told journalists at last weekend’s rollout of the new plane.

“But I think as all of you know, we don’t schedule first flights: the airplane flies when it’s ready.

“If you put a firm date on the calendar then I think you do something you don’t want to do, so we’re pretty careful about how you approach the first flight of a brand new airplane.”

Six 787s will be involved in the flight tests: four powered by Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines that will do the basic flight tests and two powered by the General Electric GenX engines chosen by Qantas.

The aircraft will enter flight tests just weeks apart. The certification of the Rolls-powered aircraft and GE planes is expected to be similarly spaced.

The flight test program will last eight months, compared to 11 months for the 777, with Boeing officials hoping the compressed program will be relatively trouble-free.

The aerospace giant has been trying to anticipate problems using analytical tools and the 787 flight control software had also been flown in a 777 to eliminate potential surprises in the flight control laws.

“We have a relatively short flight test program, shorter than what we’ve done on past programs,” Mr Bair said.

“The way we are accomplishing that is by putting everything in place that we need to have in place in order to fly the airplanes than we have in past programs. So we’re pretty confident that we can do that.

“We’ve spent a lot of time looking at the results of the 777 flight test program and have made some adjustments to approaching how we fly the airplane in order to accommodate the real high flight rates that we needed in order to support this relatively quick certification process that we have.”

Challenged about the possibility of delays, Mr Bair said Boeing had no intention of being late into service and had plans to ensure its delivery to ANA was on schedule.

This was subject to any big surprises cropping up in flight test, but this was not anticipated.

He said comparisons between the 787 and the massive delays suffered by the Airbus A380 were “apples and oranges” and the wiring problem that led to them had not slowed up the European aircraft’s flight tests.

“We’ve done a lot of testing of this airplane leading into flight testing that gives us a high degree of confidence that we’re going to have a pretty smooth flight test,” he said.

“But it is a flight test and so we are anticipating something - there is always something that happens.”

The Boeing boss said the manufacturer had also been working carefully with the US Federal Aviation Administration on the rules that would apply to certification.

He said the regulations did not restrict how the aircraft was built and, while there remained a few “open pieces of paper”, the two had technically agreed on everything needed in order to demonstrate compliance with the regulations.

“We are actually in better shape than we have ever been in that regard,” he said.

“On past programs, we’ve had open cert issues after we’ve gone into the flight test program.

“Again because of all of the novel systems, all of, obviously, the composite structure and stuff, we wanted to make sure that we didn’t get ourselves into a position where we were in the middle of a flight test and we hadn’t agreed with what we had to do.”

In addition to the intense flight test program, Boeing is also working to make sure its production system will support the big ramp-up needed to deliver big numbers of aircraft in a relatively short time.

The second airframe is being put together in Boeing’s Everett factory north of Seattle and seven or eight big pieces of composite structure are already in process, with other smaller pieces in the production flow.

The manufacturer is also starting to sell and deliver the spare parts needed by the airlines.

The production process for the 787 is more complicated than previous Boeing planes because of the way major components are spread all through the world with a more lightly tooled final assembly in the manufacturer’s Everett factory.

The aim of the global network was to get the best possible suppliers from all countries to contribute to the plane.

But it has not been without its problems: Boeing has had to move in to assist suppliers and it is still grappling with a shortage of fasteners.

“You always have challenges when you have a program this complicated going together in what is really record time, this is a very fast-paced program,” Mr Bair said.

“So we’ve had challenges with some part supplies. It’s stuff that we know what to do with - we are experts at expediting parts and we are expediting a lot of parts right now to make sure we get the production system running the way it needs to run.”

The manufacturer is also looking at increasing production rates to help it cope for the strong demand for its new plane. New orders from Qantas and Air Berlin during the rollout weekend brought the total to 677 from 47 customers and gave Boeing its biggest European foothold to date.

Demand is such that Boeing officials say a new customer could now wait until 2015 to get the first aircraft.

The current production schedule already calls for the delivery of 112 aircraft, including those under construction, in 2008-09.

The plan calls for that rate to remain stable for several years and peak in 2010.

Mr Bair said boosting the rate would not be a problem at final assembly in Everett but depended on the supply base. He said there were no physical restraints on increasing production provided Boeing had sufficient lead time.

“The real issue that we’ve been working on is how much investment would have to be made in order to support higher rates,” he said.

“And what we’re trading off right now is clearly market demand to go to higher rates versus … our knowledge of what this production process can yield.”

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