AEDC-tested Dreamliner makes first passenger flight

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  News of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's first commercial flight Oct. 26 apparently caught the attention of a lot of people, including AEDC's Doug Hodges.

In 2007, Hodges was one of the engineers working with a team to conduct ground testing on the Trent 1000, the engine that powered the first passenger flight.

"The Trent 1000 is the most fuel-efficient, cleanest, and quietest large engine Rolls-Royce has developed to date," Hodges said. "AEDC's ability to accurately measure thrust and fuel flow at altitude flight conditions greatly helped Rolls-Royce achieve these improvements.

"The AEDC test was the only altitude test of the Trent 1000 engine. We met a very demanding schedule to keep the overall Trent 1000 development program on schedule. It's exciting to be a part of this milestone in aviation history."

Earlier, AEDC had tested the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 high-bypass turbofan engine powering the company's first new jetliner to debut in almost 15 years.

"We did development, performance and icing testing [on the Trent 1000]," Hodges said. "It's exciting, that was a critical test that they had to pass to obtain their FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] certification, especially the icing [testing]. I'm proud to have been a part of that."

The mid-size airliner's first passenger-carrying outing was an All Nippon Airways flight that flew 240 passengers on a four and a half hour charter flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Two hour-long "domestic excursion flights" out of Tokyo took place before regular domestic flights commenced Nov. 1.