FAA rescinds precautionary order about Boeing's new jets

The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday rescinded an order issued just last week that mandated 10 miles of separation for aircraft landing behind either of Boeing's two new jets.

"It was issued prematurely," said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. "There were a number of errors."

The order applied to the 787 Dreamliner and the new version of the jumbo jet, the 747-8. Brown said the two aircraft should not have been included in a single order.

A new order giving the necessary separation distances for the 747-8 will be issued in the next few days, she said. A new order for the 787 Dreamliner will not be ready for more than a week.

The 747-400 jumbo jet now in service requires separation of only 4 to 6 miles from following aircraft, depending on the size of the airplane behind it.

The FAA document issued last week said studies showed the 747-8 and "possibly" the 787 created more turbulence spiraling backward from the wingtips than comparable aircraft. It therefore instructed air traffic controllers to increase the spacing between the Boeing jets and planes following behind.

Brown said the order was intended to apply only to Boeing's flight-test airplanes, although that qualification was omitted from the order. Boeing has six Dreamliners and four 747-8s in flight tests.

"We're gathering data on these test flights," Brown said. "There are likely to be modifications as we get more data along the way."

Another error was that the title of the FAA order used an incorrect name for one of the jets, referring to the 747-800 instead of the 747-8.

Separately, the document included incorrect data about the weights of the two planes relative to the Airbus A380 and to each other.

The 747-8 jumbo jet is 21 percent lighter than the A380, not 27 percent as the document stated. And the maximum takeoff weight of the 787 Dreamliner is just over half that of the 747-8, not one-third as the order stated.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com