Author: Jon Ostrower

Flightblogger 1.0
May 1 – September 21 (hiatus) November 2 – 9

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Flightblogger 2.0
November 9 – December 31

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2007 Totals:

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Not bad. Not bad at all.

I felt this was fitting in honor of the commencement of the year 2008.

Tail number 52-0008. Happy ‘Balls Eight’ everyone!

Following in the footsteps of the Boeing 787 tails poster that was first created back in early May, I have created another exclusive presentation of the tails that belong to all the present and future Airbus A380 operators. Half of the tails were adapted from other images and the other half were hand drawn my myself. We’ve already seen a few of these tails floating around Toulouse and I’m sure we’ll be seeing even more in the coming year.

I also wanted to wish everyone a wonderful year ahead in 2008. Barring any unforeseen major stories over the next few days, this will likely be my final post of 2007. Needless to say, 2007 was a big one for me, and I owe a deep debt of gratitude to all of you for making this adventure possible. After all, without you, I would just be talking to myself.

Onward.

Click to Enlarge

(Left to right)
Row 1: Thai Airways, Etihad, Kingfisher, Malaysian, Korean, British Airways

Row 2: China Southern, Lufthansa, Aerolineas Argentinas, Qatar Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Air Comet

Row 3: ILFC, Air France, Emirates, QANTAS, Sinagpore Airlines, Airbus SAS

I went back and looked at a post I published on April 4, 2007 when the 787 program crossed the 500 (and 14) order mark when JAL added five 787. Today, December 27, 2007, the 787 program crossed the golden mark: 787 orders, 790 to be exact. The milestone was crossed when British Airways firmed its order for 24 787 (8 x 787-8 + 16 x 787-9). This eclipses the 737 orders the 737NG program accumulated at the time of its first delivery to Southwest.

Somewhat ironically, I wrote this:

…by May 2008 when the first 787-881 is delivered to ANA the title may be revoked [for the 737] if Boeing hasn’t booked 738 firm orders. Why not shoot for 787?

Mission accomplished. Congratulations Boeing.

Image Courtesy The Boeing Company

There are other notable orders over the last few days also:

GOL: 74 737-800
Jeju Air: 5 737-800
Air Astana: 3 787-8

There are a few others floating around and the math is always fuzzy with firm orders, but the Boeing/Airbus order battle is even tighter than ever. Stay tuned.

On December 19, the second Qatar Airways 777-300ER was delivered to Doha. In case you were wondering, the trip from Everett, WA, USA to Doha, Qatar is a marathon on a 6413 nm route. However, the Qatar Airways delivery flight is only the fourth longest of this year for Boeing on the 777 line which has had an amazing 75 deliveries through November 2007.

Photo Courtesy Liem Bahneman

For those who are fans of flight plans, here’s the route:

KPAE-OTBD
QTR3052
777-3DZER – A7-BAB
FL330
YDC J503 YEG J517 YMM NCAD RIDOK NCAD 6014N 10000W NCAD DARUB 6600N 05000W 6700N 04000W 6600N 03000W 6500N 02000W 6400N 01000W VALDI UL621 UKOV UN616 DINRO UL601 TUNLA UL601 KTN R785 ZELAF UR785 TRF UP559 GADLI UT503 PAXAN UT503 TAMRO UN318 ALSAT UN318 IMGAS R659 DOH

Also, here’s the countdown of the top five longest delivery flights of 2007:

5. Paine Field (PAE) to Indira Gandhi International (DEL)
October 31, 2007
Air India Flight 164
777-300ER – VT-ALK
6111 nm

4. Paine Field (PAE) to Doha International Airport (DOH)
December 19, 2007
Qatar Airways Flight 3052
777-300ER – A7-BAB
6413 nm

3. Paine Field (PAE) to Dubai International Airport (DXB)
December 20, 2007
Emirates Airlines Flight 777
777-300ER – A6-ECE
6425 nm

2. Paine Field (PAE) to Changi (SIN)
October 29, 2007
Singapore Airlines Flight 777
777-300ER – 9V-SWL
6998 nm

1. Boeing Field (BFI) to Jomo Kenyatta Airport (NBO)
February 21, 2007
Kenya Airways Flight 772
777-200ER – 5Y-KYZ
7834 nm

On December 21st, MSN010 registered as F-WWSG, the 11th A380 and the 5th for Singapore Airlines made its first flight from Toulouse. The unpainted superjumbo was spotted taking to the skies by Hervé G. earlier this week. Delivery is scheduled for a year from now in December 2008.

The production update has been changed accordingly to reflect the new information.

The Chinese AVIC I Advanced Regional Jet for the 21st Century (ARJ21-700) rolled out on Friday afternoon in Shanghai. This is a major milestone in Chinese aerospace. This is the first commercial jet offering in Chinese history. AVIC announced a 100 aircraft order by Kunpeng Airlines, a joint venture between China and Mesa Air Group, bringing the order total to 170. The 70 to 95 seat aircraft is powered by two General Electric CF34-10A turbofans at 15,332 lbs. of thrust each.

Bombardier and AVIC have decided to collaborate on the development of the larger ARJ21-900. This collaboration may actually lead to trouble for Bombardier if the -700 begins to eat into its market share on the CRJ.

One thing that deserves special attention is the design of this aircraft. Though it does bear a striking resemblance to a western counterpart, what strikes me when looking at these photographs, which were taken by Flight’s Leithen Francis, is the very troubling location of the aft emergency exits. If you look closely as these photographs, you’ll notice that the aft exit is directly in front of the engine inlets. In the event of an emergency evacuation, passengers will be exiting dangerously close to the engine, which could be potentially spinning and/or on fire at the time. I cannot imagine that safety regulators will be content with this design, nor should they.

Overall, the introduction of a new national player in commercial aircraft design and manufacture is a very bright point for the industry which will only serve to drive new partnerships, innovation, research and development. The more choices the market has, the better the products the flying public gets to enjoy.

All Photos Courtesy of Leithen Francis

Many more photos below the fold.

I felt like last week’s open thread experiment went pretty well, so let’s try it again.

Also, one question to ponder. Where do you see IFE in 2008? With American, Alaskan, jetBlue and Virgin America all upping the stakes with in-flight Wi-Fi in the year to come, the introduction of a potentially profitable frill is an exciting development. Flight Senior Editor Mary Kirby sat down with Addison Schonland at IAG to discuss the matter in a great podcast. Also, if you have 60 seconds, head over and take this survey about IFE and weigh in on what you’d like to see happen with in-flight internet.

Week In Review (In No Particular Order)
Rough List

JFK Traffic Control
Big Sky Closes Down
Airbus/Boeing Order Battle
Scott Carson’s End of the Year Interview
QANTAS 737 Order
Airbus Divests to GKN, Latecoere and MT
Branson Opts for Serious A380 Amenities
Vietnam Firms A350 Order

And for your enjoyment, this IFE gem from Virgin America.

If you’ve got 32 minutes to spare, I highly recommend listening to the complete interview with BCA President Scott Carson by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s aerospace reporter, James Wallace. His write up is primarily about the 787, but the interview covers a broad range of topics including the 737RS, 777X and the 747-8I.

The interview should really be taken as an additional supplement to last week’s call. The ebullient optimism of last week is more tempered with a little more insight and color about key suppliers, which demonstrates the confidence but also the realities of the challenges ahead for 2008 and 2009.

Lastly, listen for Carson’s comments on the 777 replacement program. He talks about the potential offering looking at a seat range that starts above the 787-10 and spans to an aircraft larger than the 777-300ER.

This kind of planning makes it look as though the 747-8I wouldn’t have nearly as long a life as they are forecasting. Any new aircraft with more seats than the -300ER would be targeted as a 747 replacement as well. Boeing’s market forecast anticipates fewer than 1000 747 and larger aircraft and greater than 6,200 twin aisle aircraft sold between now and 2026. That’s a staggering difference. Their product planning here would reflect this trend.

With this line of thinking, the 787-10 ends up taking the 777-200ER’s spot at the bottom of the 777 family and everything moves up a notch on the 777 replacement program. Ultimately you go from a four aircraft product line to a three aircraft product line by 2020. Boeing’s core products would be the 737RS, 787 and 777RS on the passenger side.

Singapore Airlines two painted A380s. Can you spot the difference? Images zoomed and scaled and courtesy of Yvan Panas and Helmut Schnichels.

9V-SKA

9V-SKB

First the logos go missing on the nacelles, now this. Who’s painting these, and which one is right?