Boeing retires final 787 test aircraft after 16 years

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Boeing has decommissioned its last 787-8 test aircraft, a workhorse for the plane maker for over a decade and a half and a symbol of the company’s massive investment in development of the advanced jetliner.

The aircraft, which first flew on Feb. 24, 2010, was formally celebrated by Boeing in an internal ceremony last Friday. It is expected to leave Boeing Field as early as Wednesday, Feb. 11, two weeks shy of its 16th “birthday.” Captains Heather Ross and Craig Bomben, veteran Boeing flight test pilots who flew ZA004 on its maiden flight in 2010, are expected to take the aircraft to its final destination at Pinal Airpark in Marana, Arizona. Boeing said it has not yet determined what will become of the airframe as it heads to its final storage location.

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ZA004’s retirement comes after more than 15 years as a propulsion-centric test bed for multiple iterations of improvements to the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines. While many of those early propulsion test campaigns focused on fuel efficiency, work in recent years has centered on certifying improvements to the Trent 1000’s durability as part of the latest Trent 1000 XE effort to triple the engine’s time on wing, according to the engine maker. The second of two phases of improvements are expected to enter service this year.

ZA004 was never supposed to spend its life as a test aircraft. The aircraft entered final assembly in Everett, Washington in the summer of 2008 with a red painted rudder, intended to be one of the 18 787-8s that were then on order by U.S. launch operator Northwest Airlines. After its merger with Delta Air Lines in 2008, the order was in limbo as the program’s development dragged on.

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