Category: FlightBlogger

Everett’s Surge
Over the next two years or so, Boeing will continue to ramp up 787-8 production with the help of the newly-announced temporary surge line. The line will be established on the existing 767 line inside Building 40-24, two bays down from the current 787 line, say company sources. The 767, which will continue operating at around a 1-per month production rate, will be turned around in the back of 40-24 and roll out of Building 40-34. Boeing may have to make provisions to ensure a fully assembled 767 can transit to the flight line. Sometime in 2012, Boeing will begin final assembly and testing of the first 787-9 in Everett, where the aircraft will be built. Seven of the 10 787s assembled per month will originate in Everett.

Charleston Timeline
Boeing says that the Charleston line will
be up and running by July 2011, with groundbreaking in the next few
weeks. For the sake of comparison, Global Aeronautica ground breaking
was February 7, 2005, with tooling and equipment moved into the
facility by December 2006. Initially the plan is to have Boeing
Charleston build 3 787-8s per month as part of the 10 per month ramp
up. First delivery of a 787-8 from Boeing Charleston is planned for the first quarter of 2012.

Dreamlifter Dynamics
With the second line set to be up and running by 2012, the small fleet of modified 747 LCF Dreamlifters will be deployed differently than they currently are now. The number of inbound structural delivery flights to Everett is now seven per aircraft. For Charleston, best estimates show that that number would reduce to six. This is mainly because without the aft and center fuselages will be built on site in Charleston. Boeing saves flights of the horizontal stabilizer, however, the wings will have an additional flight from PAE to CHS and the vertical tail plane will also likely be flown from BFI (closer to Frederickson, WA) to CHS. The total distance traveled by the LCF is 16405 nm to Everett vs. 13933 nm to Charleston.

EVERETT	ROUTE	Flights	Distance
WINGS (Nagoya, JP)	NGO-ANC-PAE	2	4369
FWD FUSE (Wichita)	IAB-PAE	1	1258
HTP (Foggia, IT)	TAR-CHS-PAE	2	6574
CENTER & AFT (Charleston)	CHS-PAE	2	4205
	TOTAL:	7	16405	NM

CHARLESTON	ROUTE	Flights	Distance
WINGS (Nagoya, JP)	NGO-ANC-PAE-CHS	3	6471
FWD FUSE (Wichita)	IAB-CHS	1	891
HTP (Foggia, IT)	TAR-CHS	1	4472
VTP (Washington)	BFI-CHS	1	2099
	TOTAL:	6	13933	NM

Delivery Geography
Though not officially announced, there is a the possibility of shaping the 787 firing
order based on the geographical location of the customer. I
spoke with one program source yesterday who said that Boeing may
consider delivering European and African 787s through Charleston and
Asia/Pacific 787s through Everett to take advantage of the
relative proximity of each line.

The Tanker Wild Card
Hanging out in the not so distant future is the USAF KC-X tanker deal. If
Boeing wins this iteration of the competition, the KC-767 or KC-777
will be built in Everett, however the mission systems installation will
be done elsewhere. That location was always thought to be McConnell
Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, however, Boeing now says they will
choose the cheapest location for the modifications, which could now
mean that Charleston is in the mix. Boeing went to great lengths to say
that the Charleston line is only for 787 work, but let’s file this one
under wild card.

Photo Credit Boeing

UPDATE 6:45 PM: Reaction:

• IAM District President Tom Wroblewski
• Washington Governor Chris Gregoire
• Washington Congressman Jim McDermott
• Washington Congressman Rick Larsen
• US Senator Patty Murray WA
• US Senator Maria Cantwell WA
  
• Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon
• Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson
• US Senator Lindsey Graham SC (audio)
• US Senator Jim DeMint SC
• South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford
• South Carolina Gubernatorial Candidate Dwight Drake
• South Carolina Gubernatorial Candidate Gresham Barrett

UPDATE 5:18 PM: Internal message from Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh:

A few minutes ago the Board of Directors approved the selection of North Charleston, S.C., as the location for a second final assembly site for the 787. A news release will be issued shortly. At 2:30 p.m. today, Pat Shanahan, Ray Conner and Scott Fancher will hold an all-manager webcast from Everett to provide details and answer questions. A Q&A document also will be distributed to help you answer questions from your teams.

I know this decision may be of concern to many of our employees in Puget Sound, and I am counting on all managers to help everyone focus on the larger picture. Establishing a second 787 assembly line in Charleston will expand our production capability, diversify our manufacturing base and ultimately drive down the cost of the 787 — sustaining our competitiveness. We are adding jobs in South Carolina, not taking them away from Puget Sound. We expect there will be speculation among employees and in the media about what role the IAM played in this decision. While the union did not give us reasonable assurances or sustainable economics, this ultimately came down to a strategic decision for the long-term growth of the company.

Puget Sound has and will continue to be our center for design, flight test and manufacturing. We have exciting programs to work on, including the majority of the production for the 787. Our long-range business plan shows increasing airplane production across all of our product lines here in Puget Sound.

The 787 is an airplane that will improve the way airlines operate and people travel. The second assembly line for the 787 in Charleston will help us deliver more of these great airplanes to our customers who want and need them…JIM

UPDATE 5:05 PM: It’s official:

Boeing to Place Second 787 Assembly Line in North Charleston, SC

SEATTLE, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Boeing (NYSE: BA) today
announced that it has chosen its North Charleston, S.C., facility as
the location for a second final assembly site for the 787 Dreamliner
program. Boeing evaluated criteria that were designed to find the final
assembly location within the company that would best support the 787
business plan as the program increases production rates. In addition to
serving as a location for final assembly of 787 Dreamliners, the
facility also will have the capability to support the testing and
delivery of the airplanes.

“Establishing a second 787 assembly line in Charleston will
expand our production capability to meet the market demand for the
airplane,” said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial
Airplanes. “This decision allows us to continue building on the
synergies we have established in South Carolina with Boeing Charleston
and Global Aeronautica,” he said, adding that this move will strengthen
the company’s competitiveness and sustainability and help it grow for
the long term.

UPDATE 4:58 PM: The second 787 line will go to South Carolina, according to Snohomish Country Executive Aaron Reardon:

“The Boeing Company’s announcement to locate a second 787 line in North Charleston, S.C., signals that other states want what we have – a strong manufacturing base. We must all work together and fight to keep it. Washington state must make a conscious decision to do whatever is reasonably necessary to aggressively compete to keep the jobs we have and grow our economy or risk more losses.

“The loss of the second line of the 787 will most certainly result in finger pointing. I urge all parties to resist that temptation as it is counterproductive and does nothing to further our objective to be the most competitive state in the country.

“What’s important moving forward is that we all understand why these two parties could not reach an agreement so that we may play a role in rebuilding this relationship. In addition, we must bring all the necessary parties together in Olympia to reach agreement on removing the barriers that prevent new investment and job creation.”

UPDATED 4:38 PM: Boeing says that a final decision on the 787
line has not yet been made and reports regarding employee meetings are
“not true.”

UPDATE 4:27 PM: Word from Boeing Charleston: Mandatory managers meeting now scheduled for 5PM ET.

4:11 PM: SPEEA’s tweet just came across the ‘tubes’ and it reads:

Boeing calls emergency meeting for 787 employees in Everett.

According to SPEEA, the all-hands meeting was called at 12:30 PT and is apparently still underway right now.

SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth believes that it is connected the selection of a second 787 final assembly line.

I’m working all sources to find out more.

Anyone have more information? Prelude to a second line announcement?

As the clock passed midnight on the East Coast last night, the Seattle Times reported that negotiations between Boeing and the IAM had broken down, all but assuring that Charleston would take joint custody of Boeing’s 787 final assembly operations.

An announcement, thought to be days – if not hours away, say program sources – will finally bring to a close the “will they, won’t they” discussion. Boeing is set to make a decision that could represent not only an existential transformation in its nearly century-long history, but a seismic shift in the North American commercial aerospace industrial center of gravity.

The last time Boeing opened a new commercial final assembly operation, it was in Everett for the 747 in the late 1960s.

Not to mention, a second 787 line might be the biggest positive economic deal this country has seen after a recession that began just days after the IAM authorized its strike in September of last year.

South Carolina’s silent treatment of the competition is quite telling in comparison to that of Washington state, which as a century-old hub of aerospace expertise has had to awkwardly justify its existence. Washington state, for all its logistical and technical advantages, couldn’t override the one political roadblock that dominated Boeing’s thinking.

The hushed tones of Charleston County Airport Authority meetings and the mystery economic incentives passed by the South Carolina State Senate finance committee only served to reinforce the “worst kept secret” approach to the Lowcountry’s bid for the 787 line.

The $170 million economic incentive package, passed yesterday out of committee, would exempt manufacturers from the state fuel tax for test flights and transporting aircraft. The package known as Project Gemini, after the Zodiac symbol ‘Twins’, didn’t name Boeing, but then again, it didn’t have to.

The silence from Charleston, one senior executive says, is a quiet confidence created by a document known as the Master Charleston Campus Plan. Those who have seen it say it outlines a massive expansion of the Boeing Charleston site including a final assembly line, delivery center, flight line and paint hangars. The plan is so compelling that the US Senators who quietly visited Boeing Charleston earlier this fall, and the normally vocal Mayor of Charleston, have virtually remained silent on the matter.

The reality is that Charleston has not always been the front runner for the 787 line. In 2007 and 2008, Charleston, it appeared, could do no right. Cash-strapped Vought sharing responsibility with Alenia Aeronautica at Global Aeronautica was nothing short of a crippling bottleneck for the program. Poor workmanship, arbitrary processes and an unstable design and oversight by omission did nothing to untangle Boeing’s ability to manage the program. Boeing would eventually be forced to purchase 50% of Global Aeronautica in March 2008. Charleston was the last place Boeing wanted to lay down its roots.

Yet, as Boeing began to come to grips with the management of its global supply chain, coupled with the cost of doing business in Charleston with partners with their own bottom line to bolster, Boeing began to see the existing arrangement as a losing proposition. Negotiating the incorporation of design changes was an expensive and time consuming process and financially unstable partners presented an unacceptable risk to the program.

By early summer, it had become clear that the ownership of Vought’s aft fuselage fabrication and integration plant would change hands. There were at least some high-level indications that the announcement of the acquisition could have come as early as the Paris Air Show, but “emergent first flight issues”, now known to be the side-of-body issue, took precedent.

When the deal was announced on July 7th, it represented the company’s biggest commercial expansion since its merger 12 years earlier with McDonnell Douglas. Yet, what had been quiet speculation about the future of Charleston, Boeing’s purchase of Vought’s 787 operations amounted to a proverbial starting gun for the competition for the second line.

Late Summer brought the filing of permits for the Charleston line and the de-certification of the IAM at Boeing Charleston, the last of the major hurdles for Boeing’s competition. Both events would set the stage for the secret negotiations between Boeing and the leadership of the IAM, which appear to have ended in stalemate. For now.

Washington state elected officials are now frantically working both sides, trying to bring Boeing and the IAM back to the table, while Boeing maintains that no final decision has been made on the location of the line.

In the words of Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over till it’s over.

Underlying the whole selection process is a shifting justification for the second line. As Boeing was accumulating orders at a stunning pace, the company entertained the idea of using a second assembly line to raise production rates to as high as 16 787s per month, beyond the 10 per month it had planned for the end of 2009. However, as the reality of the production troubles set in, the difficulty in ramping up made the second line imperative to get to the originally targeted 10 per month, now set for the end of 2013.

It cannot be far from Boeing’s mind that the “assurance of delivery” their customers seek is as much about labor relations as it is about program execution.

When the final announcement is made, congratulations will be offered, fingers will be pointed and blame will invariably be cast. The decision is both the close of another chapter for the 787, and the beginning of an entirely new one. All of this comes before a single hour has been flown by the Dreamliner.

What’s past is prologue

Been writing like a madman all day and came across this ad from Frontier Airlines on USAToday.com. They’ve used their animal-adorned Airbus tails in advertisements before, but I came across a new one and I thought it would be fun to share. This recession has gone on for over a year now with $11B to be lost by airlines, delays by Boeing and Airbus, and huge numbers of jobs lost. No doubt about it, 2009’s been a rough one. Consider this a 60-second escape. I promise this will make you smile.

Continental Star Alliance
In a decidedly seismic shift in the airline alliance world, Continental has officially departed SkyTeam and joined up with Star Alliance. The move fills a long-time hole in the alliance around NYC. Continental and United opted against a formal merger in June 2008, instead creating a comprehensive link up agreement throughout their route network. Continental will introduce a Star Alliance logojet on a wingletted Boeing 757-200 (N14120) and will be unveiled today.

UAL Retires its 737s
United will fly its final 737-300 flight on Wednesday when it flies IAD-ORD-DEN-LAX-SFO as United Flight 737. The aircraft will spend some time at SFO for decomissioning then on to Victorville for a desert retirement. This aircraft is the last of 94 737-300s and -500s to leave United’s fleet, leaving A320s, A319s and 757s as airline’s narrowbody workhorses.

A380 for Air France
Air France will take delivery of its first of 12 A380s on Friday in a handover ceremony in Hamburg. The 538-seat superjumbo will fly its first commercial service between CDG and JFK on November 23rd. The airline is the fourth to take delivery of the A380 and the first in Europe. In addition, F-HPJA (MSN033) will be the first A380 delivered with the new Brake-to-Vacate (BTV) and Runway Overrun Warning & Prevention (ROW/ROP) systems that were certified by EASA yesterday. Flight’s David Learmount was given an up-close demonstration of both systems last spring. His account of the new technology in action is well worth the read.

Sitting Still
Believe it or not, I’m actually on the ground for the next two and a half weeks or so, which is a long time for me. Next trip will be to the UAE for the Dubai Air Show. It’ll be my first flight on Qatar Airways and it’s going to be a long one! Twelve hours and 40 minutes after departing Dulles (777-300ER) I will arrive in Doha for a quick stop over, then on to Dubai (A321). When it’s all said and done, it will take a full day (time zones included) to get to the Dubai Air Show from DC. A lot has changed since 2007, so needless to say, it’s going to be an interesting show.

787 Goings On
Second production 787 (ZA101/#8) is now in the paint hangar making way for Dreamliner 12 to begin final assembly, just as soon as the aft fuselage arrives from Charleston. That section 47/48 certainly may have an interesting story to tell.

Lijit Search
You may have noticed the new search bar on the left side of the page. The new dynamic search is enabled by a sevice called Lijit that I was introduced to at BlogWorldExpo. Lijit takes the average blog search and expands it to the universe of content available beyond the blog. For example, Lijit will now search FlightBlogger, my Flickr feed, LinkedIn Profile, Twitter updates, Twitpic uploads and YouTube videos to provide the broadest possible results for your searches.

Searches will pop-up inside FlightBlogger and provide four tabs of results: 1) Results from the blog. 2) Results from extended content. 3) Results from sites in my blogroll. 4) Google results.

Boeing engineers have completed detailed design and computer validation of the final aspects of the 787 wing fix, the company says.

Boeing says the the final parts are currently being fabricated for the side of body modification that has kept the 787 grounded.

Once complete, the parts will be shipped to Everett installation aboard the static test airframe (ZY997) followed by full-scale validation. Installation is also currently progressing on ZA001 as well.

Boeing declined to say how long the final fittings would take to fabricate, but that they would be ready “soon”.

Boeing CEO Jim McNerney said in last Wednesday’s third quarter earnings call that the design and validation would be complete by week’s end.

The company will continue subcomponent testing of the wing fix through the full-scale validation process, but adds that the data collected on the reinformcement so far has provided positive results.

Program sources tell FlightBlogger that Boeing engineers were troubleshooting detailed design issues with the four highest-load stringers at the aft of the wing as recently as ten days ago, but Boeing’s detailed design completion appears to signal the design obstacles have been overcome.

The company has maintained that the first 787, ZA001, currently being modified inside Paint Hangar 45-04 is on track for first flight by the close of 2009.

A lot of people are asking how laptops could’ve caused the crew of Northwest Flight 188 to overfly MSP? According to the NTSB, using laptops on the flight deck is strictly prohibited during flight, but even a quick glance at the tray table on each side of the Airbus A320 family flight deck shows how a laptop monitor could easily block the pilot’s navigation display.

The tray table is available to both crew members because Airbus uses a sidestick controller rather than the center yoke found on Boeing, Embraer and Bombardier aircraft. 

At NBAA 2008 (yes 2008), I was provided a tour of the Comlux A319 ACJ and unfortunately the audio on the video was largely garbled, so the video was never used. This afternoon, I went back and looked at one portion of the video that shows the arrangement of the flight deck tray table in relation to the navigation display. I added some new audio and some annotations on the video to show just how easily a laptop could block the displays, causing a major distraction to the crew. This is why laptops aren’t allowed in flight!

Read the full text of the NTSB update on Northwest 188. Also, why was the ACARS off?

The first 787 Dreamliner to enter airline service with Japan’s All Nippon Airways arrived on the Everett flight line late last week. The aircraft is currently buttoned up for storage while its flight test brethren are receiving the wing fix and will eventually be registered JA801A. Boeing has said the aircraft – ZA100 – will have a limited role in the flight test program to validate some weight saving structural changes. ZA100 entered final assembly in Everett in mid-June.

In addition, production standard 787s will not receive their engines for many months for two reasons. First, they are the most expensive single part of the aircraft and waiting to take delivery is good for the bottom line. Second, Boeing and Rolls-Royce are using ZA004 to test an upgraded version of the Trent 1000 to meet fuel burn targets before incorporating the changes into the production fleet. According to Boeing’s latest schedule, delivery of JA801A, the seventh flying 787, is planned for late next year.

As you can see, only the tail is painted so far, begging the question: Is ANA getting a new and/or special livery for its first 787?

With all the discussion about getting 787 to fly, it is often forgotten that preparations have been well underway for years preparing the aircraft for airline service. However, as those preparations have stretched on two and a half years longer than expected, technology has continued to advance and changing trends inside the cabin have necessitated additional development to stay current.

My colleague, aircraft cabin connectivity expert, Mary Kirby, reports that Boeing is under pressure to select a connectivity solution for the 787.

“There is a lot of things that Boeing is trying to do to deliver it
[the 787] on time but the overwhelming and loud feedback from the
customer is ‘you have to address this issue [in-flight connectivity]
and you have to do it very quickly’,” reveals David Bruner,
vice-president, global communications services for Panasonic, which is
supplying in-flight entertainment hardware for 787 customers in
addition to Thales.

Boeing famously failed in its own attempt to
create a sustainable business model for airborne high-speed Internet in
the form of Ku-band satellite-based Connexion by Boeing, which was
switched off in the commercial sector at the end of 2006.

With
regard to the 787, Boeing confirms that it has not selected its
in-flight connectivity solution. “We are in the process of an extensive
trade study on this subject at this time,” says a Boeing spokeswoman.

The
airframer is exploring Ku offerings in addition to solutions that use
Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband (SBB) aeronautical service over L-band
satellites, according to IFEC industry players.

“I was amazed
because I thought they’d say ‘it’s going to be two or three years and
we’ll look at it [connectivity] again’, but they’ve rekindled the
effort with us and other providers to ask – ‘what is the right answer
for this aircraft’,” says Bruner.

In addition, some 787 customer have been invited back to the Dreamliner Gallery to see view new cabin offerings. Continental Airlines, for example, was invited back to Boeing to review its cabin selections, but says it made no changes to its plans for the 787s on order, says Brian Roland, engineering project manager for the airline.

No word yet on whether or not other airlines shifted their original choices for the cabins on their 787s. However, if you ask Mary Kirby, I’d bet she’d say that the connectivity selection could change this quite a bit.

This exchange came this morning at Boeing’s Third Quarter 2009 earnings conference call:

Jon Ostrower:
Good morning. Questions for you about how we come back to hearing different things about [787 program] schedules, whether it is from on-line news media, or the financial community, and you then get these very confident declarations from you guys about the status of the program. Are you guys willing to stake your leadership on this? I’m trying to get a sense of where the buck stops after six delays here.

Jim McNerney:
Listen, we’re all responding, I assume you’re talking about the 787 program?

JO:
Yes, I am.

JM:
And the entire leadership of the Company plays a role in — in getting this program done and out to our customers. It has been a difficult program. It has been technologically innovative, new to the world, in its characteristics, and we all wish that the program had gone more smoothly, and I think we all share responsibility in it not going as smoothly as we want but we’re also going to share responsibility in its ultimate success when we get there. So we’re a team going after this thing.

JO:
Thank you.