787 - Page 2

> bigKam wrote:twizzstyle: this is super cool and thanks for sharing!

After reading your post where the word "control" came up, I got excited.

I'm a controls and dynamic systems guy by training, and this semester I'm teaching a course on controls to seniors in mechanical engineering, and also teach a senior capstone design course -- a few of the design projects, believe it or not, are ski designs.

Anyway, in my controls class (I've taught this class about 5 times now) I try to bring in examples where control systems are used. So, I'm intrigued by the control system(s) on the 787. Can you elaborate a little? How complicated are they? What's the structure? Are they as simple as PID loops, or something more sophisticated? I'm assuming the simulations use models -- what kind of models are they? I'd really like to share this information in class, if you don't mind....

That is VERY cool!

For obvious reasons I can't go into much detail about what you've asked about, but I will send you an email with some very generic information that is ok to share. It's a very impressive control system, and as a result one of the safest airplanes ever made. (I've just come off a flight on ZA006 today, I have now flown on all six of the dedicated flight test 787's, woohoo!)

Just wrapping up a 2 week stay in Kona, Hawaii where we've been testing one of our jets.

(that's me on the left)

Ironically, we came to Hawaii to test handling qualities with ice. You can see the yellow bits on the leading edges in the photo, those are artificial ice shapes. The weather is cold and rainy back in Seattle, so we had to go somewhere where it was clear and dry with the shapes on.

It's been an awesome trip, but a busy one, and I'm anxious to get home and build some skis and watch the snow levels drop (not to mention get back to my wife and dog!)

I still love this jet.

Wow, thats a beutiful airplane! Interesting job you have

This is my office view...from on top of a wind turbine.

> twizzstyle wrote:Just wrapping up a 2 week stay in Kona, Hawaii where we've been testing one of our jets.

(that's me on the left)

Ironically, we came to Hawaii to test handling qualities with ice. You can see the yellow bits on the leading edges in the photo, those are artificial ice shapes. The weather is cold and rainy back in Seattle, so we had to go somewhere where it was clear and dry with the shapes on.

It's been an awesome trip, but a busy one, and I'm anxious to get home and build some skis and watch the snow levels drop (not to mention get back to my wife and dog!)

I still love this jet.

Love the Big GE meatball on the turbine cowling!!

Nice twizz, I work at the composite manufacturing center in frederickson wa. We make the 777 empennage and the 787 tail fin. I program the NC composite tape laying machines.

I have never stepped foot in a 787 though.

> petemorgan(pmoskico) wrote:Nice twizz, I work at the composite manufacturing center in frederickson wa. We make the 777 empennage and the 787 tail fin. I program the NC composite tape laying machines.

I'll show you mine if you show me yours

I'll send you a message, I'd love to see what you guys do and would be happy to show you around ZA005 sometime.

They got my name wrong (it's Sean, not Shawn), but I got a shout out in a Wired article!

A little something I've been working on the past few months.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/06/te ... -air-show/

What an awesome job. How do you even get a job like that?

I work for GM in Australia. In my job I work in future programs, and I get to drive pre-production cars from time to tie. I had one of only 12 Chevrolet SS cars in the world that were registered for normal road use as my daily driver for a few months earlier this year.

Not quite as awesome as flight testing though

Still sounds pretty awesome!

We're busy testing the new, longer, 787-9 right now. I'll be heading back to Hawaii pretty soon for a week or so for some more testing there. It's rough.

Thank God we have guys like you to do that kind of dirty work... in Hawaii no less.

I'm in Hawaii now for a few weeks testing. Snowfall back home has been really bad this winter, and wouldn't you know it - as soon as I leave it starts dumping, and my ski mountain finally opens

That's ok... having the beach as an office is not a bad substitute.

Instead of skiing, I'm flying airplanes in the tropics. It could be worse.

The little plane I flew a few times, with my jet in the background:

"My other plane is a dreamliner"

And now I'm back home... and of course as luck would have it, there is a huge temperature inversion, it hasn't snowed in over a week, apparently the snow is so icy and chunky at the mountain it's not even worth going up for a few hours

I helped put together an airshow routine for the third year in a row now. During one of our practice days we had a air-to-air videography crew flying a helicopter around our jet.

Some of this looks computer generated, but I promise you everything in this video is real. Around the 1:45 mark in the video you'll see a white pickup truck on the side of the runway. I'm next to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZRKm6PG918

Ho

Ly

Sh it

Yeah! Nice one.