Boeing has submitted nearly two-thirds of the type- and production-certificate “deliverables” for the 787 Dreamliner to the FAA, program vice president and chief project engineer Mike Delaney told reporters gathered this past Wednesday in Everett, Wash., where eight of the largely composite airframes stand in various stages of completion. The company hopes to fly the first 787 prototype, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 turbofans, before the start of the Paris Air Show in mid-June, but the flying program accounts for only about 10 percent of all the documentation that must go to the authorities before they deem the airplane ready for revenue service, said Delaney. “We have a number of projects going on, so we’ve tried to work with the FAA as best as we can and they came to lay out a schedule, and that way they can plan their resources and we can plan our resources,” he said. “The FAA has told us that as a template about 30 days is their standard flow to approve something and sometimes they do it faster, sometimes slower, depending on whether they have questions or comments…[it depends on] if it’s a simple submittal or a very complex submittal, but by and large they’re pretty good….They quite honestly do a great job of supporting us if we put together a good plan for them.”

Delaney said Boeing has negotiated with the FAA 3,900 separate items it must present, 60 percent of which it has submitted for compliance. Of those, “a fairly significant number” have already gained FAA approval, he added. He also said Boeing has negotiated two rule exemptions and might need a third to waive an FAA amendment related to emergency lighting around exterior egress. All told, the program has also generated 152 so-called issue papers and 16 special conditions, including one that has drawn special scrutiny from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).