Alenia Aeronautica has completed destructive testing on the horizontal stabilizer of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the companies announced today. The test took place at Alenia’s Pomigliano plant in Naples, Italy, in the presence of Boeing engineers and representatives of the FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Alenia manufactures the stabilizer at its plant in Foggia, Italy.
Previous tests that gauged the structure’s capability to withstand various extremes in aerodynamic pressures, such as upward and downward deflection and extreme asymmetric loads, showed that the horizontal stabilizer meets its certification requirement to withstand 150 percent of the maximum aerodynamic load it could conceivably encounter in flight. Alenia engineers then stressed the horizontal stabilizer to its failure point, which proved well in excess of the required 150 percent of limit load, according to the company. The destructive test marked the culmination of seven months of testing conducted by Alenia and Boeing.
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