Story ID: 
AAC Completes First Head-of-state Boeing 787-8
By: James Wynbrandt
Caption: Undisclosed customer to take possession next month.
Word Count: 283

Completions specialist Associated Air Center (AAC) redelivered the industry’s first head-of-state-configured Boeing 787-8 to an undisclosed customer. (In 1989, AAC completed the first head-of-state-configured 757-200 for the same customer.) AAC’s in-house team designed the interior. Its 2,404 sq ft of cabin space can accommodate 82 passengers in three cabin zones, while the fourth, presidential, zone comprises an office, bedroom and lavatory suite. At the delivery ceremony, AAC president James Colleary called the project “new territory for VIP completions for composite, widebody aircraft,” noting the Scottsdale, Ariz. company “overcame significant new engineering challenges during this project.”

Every VIP passenger seat is equipped with a portable electronic device outlet and HD in-arm, 11-inch LCD touchscreen monitor, supplementing seven 42-inch LCD bulkhead mounted monitors connected to a variety of IFE sources that include six global and local Blu-ray players, Avod servers, passenger flight information systems and landscape camera system. Ensuring a quiet, restful trip for the principal passenger, the presidential bedroom boasts unprecedented 44 dB SIL cabin sound readings in flight.

The interior also features a forward cabin overhead flight crew rest area with two sleeping berths, an aft cabin overhead flight attendant rest area accommodating six berths, and 14 flight attendant seats, as well as eight passenger lavatories.

To speed the completion schedule, AAC designed, engineered and manufactured the bulkheads, monuments, furnishings and headliner grid system for the interior configuration prior to the green aircraft's arrival. The interior completion weight is 20 percent lighter than initially projected, according to the company, enabling the aircraft to carry additional fuel and fly longer nonstop missions. This is the eighth widebody completion project undertaken by AAC, StandardAero’s Large Transport Category VIP Completions Center.