Originally Posted by
Bobster
Even with special preflight testing and in-flight monitoring an airliner certified by the FAA is too dangerous to fly over populated areas. That part.
That's a standard provision in the regulations for an airplane operating as an experimental (non-certified) aircraft.
14CFR91.319(c) Unless otherwise authorized by the Administrator in special operating limitations, no person may operate an aircraft that has an experimental certificate over a densely populated area or in a congested airway.
All this shows is that the FAA is treating the B787 as an experimental aircraft for the purposes of these flight tests.