Boeing began work on there 787 back in the mid 1990's. It was born from there scrapped Sonic Cruiser program and started with the idea of building 50% of it's structure out of composites (There previous best i believe was 15% on the 777) and having a 25% fuel savings. Targeted as a replacement for there aging 767's the aircraft was designed towards the point-to-point philosophy of travel rather than the traditional hub and spoke method.
On top of the radical concept of using such a high percentage of composites for weight savings they also came up with the idea to use wild AC electricity throughout the aircraft. Instead of using a constant speed drive on the engine driven generators they would be directly connected. This would change output frequency with engine rpm and would be rectified at the load. This system saves weight by doing away the the heavy constant speed drives as well as being able to use smaller wire in the power feeders. This may not seem like much but when you think of the miles and miles of wire used in an aircraft it can save a lot of weight by using smaller wiring.
The final new breakthrough is the no bleed system. this aircraft will use no bleed air in running aircraft systems. This makes the aircraft more efficient and also simplifies systems. My experience in working on airplanes is that the bleed air systems are one of the most common systems to fail. For more on this you can read this link http://boeing.net/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_4_07/article_02_3.html
These breakthroughs have the potential to not only save fuel costs but also save on maintenance costs by doing away with some of the most expensive and troublesome systems. This revolutionary idea has the ability to change how aircraft are designed and built in the future. While airbus may have built something bigger they used standard construction material in methods, While Boeing went above and beyond to make a truly smarter system and aircraft.
Ummm...I'm assuming you didn't finish your post.
ReplyDeleteI like the technical approach you used in your post. However, I was surprised when you mentioned that the Dreamliner is using no bleed air at all in its systems. Now although it says so in the link you provided as a headline, the aircraft still uses the bleed air in two systems; engine ice-protection and hydraulic reservoirs pressurization (page 2 of your link). So again, just for correction, bleed air is essential in any aircraft but I’m really amazed from how the 787’s designers came up with this little reliance on the pneumatic system after decades of utilizing it in “almost” every system in aircraft.
ReplyDeleteWhen I meant no bleed air I meant in running the high demand systems of the aircraft. Anti Ice obviously is run off of bleed air and the hydraulic reservoir is pressurized with bleed air but the system itself is not run off of bleed air.
ReplyDeleteThe aircraft using more efficient methods to what they all ready have in place, will help increase the more productivity they get for their dollar.
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