Boeing's 777 Systems Integration Lab

Boeing decided that a separate facility was necessary to integrate all the electrical and electronic subsystems before the flight test airplane. They called it the 777 Systems Integration Lab (777 SIL). The 777 SIL included all the electrical power systems, electromechanical systems, avionics, environment control systems, propulsion systems, and a portion of the payload electronics. The integration testing included realistic simulations of flight modes to support verification and validation of production equipment before the first flight of the aircraft. It also provided support for certification and validated the correct performance of both the physical and functional interfaces in the electrical and electronic systems during concurrent operation of multiple subsystems and failures. Boeing built the Integrated Aircraft Systems Laboratory (IASL) building to support the 777 test program. IASL collected all the individual commercial labs distributed around the Puget Sound area under one roof. At first, plans called for a "virtual" airplane to be created by connecting these labs with the intent of providing full test capability at a high level of integration. It quickly became apparent that this approach would not work. Thus, Boeing designed and built a major new integration lab specifically as the 777 Systems Integration Lab within the IASL.