BAE Systems « Plane Crazy Down Under

PCDU Episode 88: Dreamtime

By Grant (Falcon124), on May 30th, 2012%

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:02 — 26.7MB)

787 ZA003 provides our Cover Art for this episode

Boeing have been taking their 787 Dreamliners on the DreamTour, a series of 7 multi-stop flights, or segments, that take one of the 787 test aircraft around the world. Each segment visits multiple countries, allowing airlines & invited guests to get up close to the advanced new airliner. Perhaps saving the best for last, the DreamTour came to the Dreamtime during it’s 7th segment. As part of this segment, the aircraft visited Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Auckland (yes, that’s New Zealand, we know) and then on to Cairns before heading north of the equator once again.

Team PCDU were invited to tour the 787 while it was in Melbourne as guests of Qantas & Jetstar. Despite the cold, grey weather & occasional rain, our spirits were high & we were excited to once again encounter the Dreamliner. We’d met ZA001 at Oshkosh 2011 but been too busy to go through the interior so with ZA003 parked on the BAe Systems ramp, this was our chance to finally check out the cockpit.

After chatting with Reid Templin, one of Boeing’s flight test engineers, we recorded an interview with Captain Todd Abraham, one of the Boeing 787 technical pilots flying the aircraft on segment #7. Todd answered our questions about the training program, the electric brakes, the engines, the fly-by-wire system, adherence to the Boeing philosophy and the tactile feedback provided by the control yoke & throttles. Like the other Boeing airliners, the computer systems on the 787 supplement & assist the pilot but do not override, despite being fully computerised.

Our interview with Todd starts at 02:11.

Steve & Grant on the Flight Deck of 787 ZA003

Following this interview we climbed on board and checked out the cockpit (cool!!!!!) before heading back through the demonstration interior which featured example seating arrangements, galleys, toilets, large dimmable windows, high ceilings (with the new storage bins) & crew rest areas. All very impressive but the chance to hang out & chat with some more Boeing flight test engineers at the rear of the aircraft & talk about systems, structures & designs was fascinating.

Eventually we left & went back down to the tarmac to get some more photos of engines, landing gear, vents, inlets & more. From there we returned to the bus & went back to our vehicles, coming back to the reality of a cold, grey Melbourne day.

Team PCDU would like to thank Qantas & Jetstar for inviting us to join the 787 DreamTour here in Melbourne. We’d also like to thank Boeing for bringing the 787 down under and for allowing us to interview Captain Todd Abraham as well as spend so much time chatting with their flight test engineers.

Naturally, we’ve loaded our photos from the day as a 787 set on our Flickr stream for you to check out. We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode and that you can appreciate the need to balance a short-length ‘quick-cast’ episode against getting our interview published while the DreamTour is still underway.

Notes:
* Cover art image courtesy of Steven Pam from SmartShots
* Thanks to Owen Zupp and also the crew at Junior Flyer for technical help with this episode
* Intro by Andrea Crook of Scripts & Voices

PCDU Episode 60: Now the Party’s Over

By Grant (Falcon124), on March 26th, 2011%

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (55.8MB)

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The Australian International Airshow (aka Avalon 2011) is over but the show must go on. We have mountains of content from Avalon 2011 in addition to the interviews we released in each of our daily episodes.

Yes, that’s right: If you haven’t downloaded & listened to each of the daily episodes then you should stop right now and go do it. There is some amazing content in those episodes that will NOT be in the post-show Avalon episodes, including F22 Raptor pilots, B1B crew, Dr Brendan Nelson, remote tower systems, Simmo & the CA27 Sabre plus much much more.

This episode we focus on the Trade Show aspect of Avalon 2011, gathering together the interviews we recorded with various corporations during the first few days of the show:

Dan Schroter, head of strategy & business development at BAe Systems, talks to us about BAe Systems’ work in Australia
Paul Cooke, director of business development in defense avionics at BAe Systems, talks to us about their amazing Q-Sight system
Walter Kreitler, direct of BAMS UAS business development at Northrop Grumman talks to us about the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance system
Mike Fuqua, director of tactical unmanned systems at Northrop Grumman, talks to us about the MQ-8B Fire Scout helicopter UAS
Paul Levett, CEO of Levett Engineering, talks to us about landing more work with Pratt & Whitney on the F35 JSF’s 135 engine

After some intense trade show coverage, we also step back a bit with the latest ‘View from the Lounge’ update from Anthony Simmons before winding up the episode with some Listener Mail:

David Thornton says “Hi” from the UK and thinks our Avalon Quick Cast episodes were just like being there.
Mac Coble from Florida
Bruce Dickerson from Georgia

We also have a few important shout outs:

Gary Towart who helped escort us at the KC135 and warbirds tarmac, preventing us from getting hassled :)
MozzMan from SRS Photography who escorted us during our interviews with Nikolay, Bob, Kent & Chris plus took a few photos of us in action
Ian Kershaw who’s put together our new audience survey
We now have a PCDU Flickr stream where our Avalon 2011 photos are being loaded along with others from past events

Thanks once again for downloading & listening to our show. Be sure to catch up with our Avalon Daily episodes as there is lots of great content in those too.