Dreamliner N7874, originally uploaded by Rick Schlamp.

Boeing (Chicago, Seattle, Wichita and Charleston) has sent the second Boeing 787-881 Dreamliner, ZA002 (N787EX, msn 34488 in ANA’s colors), to Victorville, CA for testing. The new airliner landed at 10:53 a.m. local time yesterday (March 9) at VCV. VCV is the former George Air Force Base. This marks the beginning of the first flight-test operations outside of Washington state for the program.

The airplane will be stationed at Victorville for approximately three weeks. The crew will conduct ground effects testing among other activities.

A crew of more than 150 employees will be stationed at Victorville while the airplane is there. These include the flight test engineers and support personnel required to prepare the airplane for each day’s flights and to monitor performance and test equipment.

During ground effects testing, the pilots fly the airplane very close to the runway to gather data regarding the aerodynamic effects and performance of the airplane during the takeoff and landing phases of flight. Quantifying this performance is part of the certification requirements for all new airplanes.

Copyright Photo: Rick Schlamp. The latest 787-881 test aircraft is N7874 (msn 40693) pictured at Seattle (King County-Boeing Field) on February 24, 2010.