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Boeing Prototype Testing

Next time you are flying and hit a little turbulence, you can believe the Captain when he or she says that “the aircraft will take a lot more than this".

Dr Nicholas Agnew, Former Manager - New Product Division of Gilmore Engineers attended an interesting presentation by Mr Peter Cousins, QANTAS Manager Line Maintenance Brisbane on the experimental testing program for the new Boeing 777. Despite being the first jet liner ever to be 100% “digitally designed” using solid computer modeling by up to 238 separate engineering teams at one stage, a traditional prototype testing program just as comprehensive as for previous models was initiated. No matter how sophisticated the modeling and how detailed the design of a new product, one essential stage of development is comprehensive experimental prototype testing. We recommend such testing for such attributes as safety, strength, durability, and functionality for all products, big or small. Extra time spent in the prototyping stage has a huge potential to save dollars at the time of manufacture, during introduction to the market, and through reduced after-sales and warranty service.

One particular strength test on the Boeing 777 involved hydraulically loading the aluminium alloy wings (with a span of 60.9 metres) of a final production aeroplane on the ground. Vertical loading was taken to 1.6 times the design load until spectacular rapid failure occurred. Incredibly, the wing tips had been deflected some 9 metres from the original positions before failure! In addition to this and specific in-flight testing, the airframe design was also subjected to an equivalent of 1000 flight cycles to demonstrate reliability.