The Boeing Co. has donated another early 787 Dreamliner to a museum.
The 787 program’s second test plane flew Thursday morning from Palmdale, California, to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson to join the nearby Pima Air &Space Museum, which announced the donation in a news release.
The airplane, known as ZA002, racked up more than 960 flight hours during more than 300 flights as part of the program’s testing and certification of the 787-8, according to the blog All Things 787.
The plane first flew Dec. 22, 2009.
Nearly a year later, on Nov. 9, 2010, it had an onboard fire while in flight, forcing an emergency landing in Texas. No one was injured, but the event prompted further delays to the program, which was already behind schedule at the time.
Later that month, the plane returned to Seattle, where it was repaired.
In the news release about the donation, the museum’s director, Scott Marchand said the plane’s arrival “is an extremely exciting and monumental time for the museum, the Tucson community and Arizona in general. We are honored to be selected by the Boeing Company to be the custodian of such a significant historic next generation aircraft and to be able to display it to the public from the USA and from around the world.”
The museum has not yet announced dates for a formal induction ceremony and opening of public static display.
Late last year, Boeing donated the third Dreamliner, ZA003, to the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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