Suspected windshield crack grounds Air India’s B787

Air India’s woes with the Boeing 787 aircraft in its fleet continued on Thursday with the Delhi-Kolkata flight returning to the capital after a suspected windshield crack.

The aircraft was over Lucknow when the captain suspected that the windshield had cracked and decided to turn back. Kolkata-bound passengers were transferred to another Air India aircraft and sent on their way a short while after they returned to Delhi.

This is not the first time that the airline has reported a windshield crack in the Boeing 787. There have been previous such incidents with AI’s Boeing 787 aircraft when they were on flights to the UK and Australia.

Meanwhile, a General Electric engineer is expected to reach Seoul on Friday to inspect both the engines on AI’s Boeing 787 aircraft which is stranded in the South Korean capital. The airline was forced to ground the flight in Seoul after the US aviation watchdog, the Federal Aviation Administration, asked all airlines to ground aircraft which are mounted with a particular series of a GE engine. The aircraft that AI was using to operate the Seoul flight had engines which were from the particular series which FAA wanted to check.

Airline sources said that the passengers who were to travel from Seoul to India had already been transferred to other airlines. The stranded aircraft will do a ferry flight, that is, return empty from South Korea except for the airline crew.

It is not unusual for a new aircraft, like the B 787 which entered commercial service for the first time in 2011, to face problems. The world’s largest commercial jet, the Airbus A-380, which has been produced by Boeing’s European competitor Airbus, also faced problems after it entered service in 2007.

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Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner earns FAA and EASA certification

Boeing (Chicago and Seattle) has released this statement:

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner has been certified by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for commercial service. Boeing is now in the final stages of preparing for the first 787-9 delivery to launch customer Air New Zealand.

Boeing started its flight-test program with the 787-9′s first flight in September, 2013.

To earn certification for the 787-9, Boeing undertook a comprehensive test program with five airplanes and more than 1,500 hours of flight testing, plus ground and laboratory testing. Following the rigorous and thorough certification process, the FAA and EASA each granted Boeing an Amended Type Certificate for the 787-9, certifying that the design complies with aviation regulations and is safe and reliable.

The FAA also has granted Boeing an Amended Production Certificate, validating that the Boeing production system can produce 787-9s that conform to the design. EASA accepts FAA oversight of Boeing production certificates, just as the FAA accepts EASA oversight of European manufacturers’ production certificates.

The new 787-9 Dreamliner will complement and extend the super-efficient 787 family. With the fuselage stretched by 20 feet (6 meters) over the 787-8, the 787-9 will fly more passengers and more cargo farther with the same exceptional environmental performance — 20 percent less fuel use and 20 percent fewer emissions than similarly sized airplanes. The 787-9 leverages the visionary design of the 787-8, offering passengers features such as large windows, large stow bins, modern LED lighting, higher humidity, a lower cabin altitude, cleaner air and a smoother ride.

Twenty-six customers around the world have ordered 413 787-9s, accounting for 40 percent of all 787 orders.

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Selfie with Dreamliner: F-16 pilot takes self-portrait photo with Boeing 787 on his left wing

Here’s an interesting series of selfies, taken by GoPro cameras, showing Arkefly airline’s first 787-8,  the first Dreamliner in the Netherlands, welcomed by the RNlAF (Royal Netherlands Air Force) F-16 Demo Team.

The RNLAF F-16 Demo Team 2014-2015 is made of personnel from both the 323 and 322 Squadrons, based at Leeuwarden Airbase. The team consists of one display pilot, Captain Jeroen “Slick” Dickens, four display coaches, eight technical specialists and a webmaster.

As the images shows, the Boeing 787 was intercepted by two Dutch F-16s in standard QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) configuration (that is to say, by armed aircraft) whose pilots wore JHMCS (Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System)instead of the characteristic Demo Helmet you can see in these images.

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Thai Airways reveals new Boeing 787 business class seat

Thai Airways has provided a sneak peak of the new and predictably rather purple 'Royal Silk' business class seats of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

This snap, shared via the airline's Instagram account, confirms the airline has gone with a different seat design to the rest of its fleet.

It's the B/E Aerospace Diamond business class seat, which some travellers will already be familiar with through its appearance on United Airlines' own Boeing 787s.

Thai's Boeing 787-8s will sport 24 of these Royal Silk business class seats which are 21 inches wide with a 60 inch pitch and recline to a 78 inch fully-flat bed.

The layout is a standard 2-2-2 abreast configuration, and each business class passenger will see a 16 inch video screen.

We're yet to see the economy seats but Thai tells us there will be 240 of them, "designed in vivid gold and purple and arranged in a 3-3-3 abreast configuration."

The economy seats will be 18 inches wide, with a 32 inch pitch and 11 inch video screen.

Thai expects to take delivert of its first Boeing 787 at the end of month, which will be followed by a series of domestic flights between Bangkok and Chang Mai to bed down the aircraft and train up its crew before the Dreamliner's planned international debut to Perth and Tokyo at the start of September.

Thai Airways will receive its full order of six Boeing 787-8s between July 2014 and June 2015, and also has signed for two of the longer 787-9.

However, rather than buying them outright from Boeing, all of the jets are being leased from International Leasing Finance (ILFC).

The US company is Boeing's largest Dreamliner customer with orders placed for 74 of the next-gen jet, ahead of the 71-plane deal inked by Etihad Airways.

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FAA Review Says Boeing 787 Dreamliner Safe

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, grounded for months last year after battery overheating problems, is soundly designed and safe to fly, a joint review by the plane maker and the Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday.

The review, which was initiated by the FAA after a battery fire aboard a 787 in Boston in January 2013, encompassed the

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