✵✵ 787 Power On ✵✵

We have been hearing for a year about this critical milestone being delayed. It arrived to the sound of one hand clapping.

AVIATION WEEK:

Boeing has finished the long "power on" sequence of tests of the 787's electrical systems, an essential step in its drive for the aircraft's first flight, which is expected in late October, or by yearend at the latest.

Besides its breakthrough in the use of composite structures, the 787 is commercial aviation's most "electric" airplane. Electric power is distributed in a network throughout the aircraft rather than being concentrated in an electronics bay behind the cockpit.

Additionally, an electric system powers cabin environmental controls instead of the traditional bleed-air pneumatic system fed by the engines.

So Boeing's power-on check-out, which began June 11, ...