FlightBlogger

Archive 2007-2012

At long last, a new comment system for FlightBlogger

This day has been a long time coming.

FlightBlogger, along with Runway Girl and The DEW Line, now have a new (and fully operational) comment system.

Over the years I have received several hundred thousand comments on this blog and sadly only a small fraction have been from real people, making actual comments about the content here.

People have suggested all kinds of solutions from email filters to cleaning the spam filter daily, but each solution left too much room for good comments to get lost among the crush. Further, the spam filter built in to Movable Type would often keep comments from ever making it to a place where they could even be seen, just lost to oblivion. With the wave of valid and spam comments coming in, those that weren’t deemed spam the filter (which couldn’t really tell spam from non-spam) would be delivered to my inbox at a rate of dozens per day (sometimes per hour). It was an unsustainable situation.

Well, today we have – what I hope – is a final solution to the problem. We have installed Disqus as the new platform for our comments and enable people to use different logins to post comments. You can use your Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, OpenID and/or Google accounts to log-in to the new system.

Most importantly, you can still comment anonymously on posts using a Guest or Disqus login, which will require you to supply a username, password and email address. Most importantly, the email address does not need to be verified, so you can be creative with that field.

Disqus enhances your ability to comment by allowing you to subscribe to a comment thread, upload and attach photos locally or from flickr and videos from Youtube. The full social media integration across Facebook and Twitter also allows you to easily share the posts here across networks.

A very, very special thanks to Adam Tinworth and Stuart Clarke for making Disqus a reality.

Happy commenting!

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

October 6, 2011
Excess weight keeps ANA’s early 787s in the neighborhood (Update1)

At last week’s 787 first delivery, Satoru Fujiki, an All Nippon Airways senior vice president, told reporters that the performance shortfall on the early deliveries would slot the aircraft into a role of regional missions, rather than long-range international flights, which will be flown with later built aircraft.

“The early 787s are actually much heavier than later-coming deliveries,” he said. “So, for those aircraft we have taken an option to introduce those aircraft for domestic short haul and regional operations.”

The comment was the first direct acknowledgement by ANA about the impact of excess structural weight the early 787s on the mission profile identified for the aircraft. Boeing has always maintained it would meet customer performance guarantees, though it was the clearest indication that weight gain would define the mission of the early aircraft.

The early deliveries, including Airplanes Eight and 24, are configured with twin Package A Rolls-Royce Trent 1000s with 64,000lbs of thrust and 264 seats for early domestic operations and will be updated to 222 seats when the missions expand regionally.

With the certified MTOW capped for each airframe, the growth in the operating empty weight (OEW) of the aircraft eats into the possible traffic load for each flight, however, with a smaller requirement for items such as catering and fuel in short-medium haul operations, the required fuel for a long-range mission is traded for increased payload and a higher passenger capacity. For ANA, a shorter cruise phase in domestic and regional operations lessens the impact of carrying the excess structural weight over long distances.

A recent report now provides some hard figures about the current weight of the aircraft. Aspire Aviation, which published a comprehensive report on the 787’s performance Monday, writes:

According to Aspire Aviation’s two sources at the US airframer, the first 787 prototype, dubbed ZA001 which carries the registration N787BA, is 9.8 tonnes (21,500 lbs) overweight, a significant figure when considering the aircraft’s specific maximum zero fuel weight (MZFW) of 161,025 kg (355,000 lbs).

Line number 7 to 19 (LN7-LN19), the same sources confirm, are considerably less overweight at 6.1 tonnes (13,500 lbs). Line number 20 (LN20), the first 787 to feature increased maximum take-off weight (MTOW) from 219,539 kg (484,000 lbs) to 227,930 kg (502,500 lbs) to recover some of the payload/range capabilities lost owing to the overweight issue, is around 4 tonnes (8,800 lbs) overweight.

Line number 34 (LN34), dubbed ZA380 and the first 787 earmarked for China Southern Airlines, along with LN50 for Ethiopian Airlines, are block points for further weight reductions.

Line number 90 (LN90) will be the first 787-8 meeting the aircraft’s original weight target with no overweight issue, the sources say.

The 21,500lb figure for ZA001 further confirms the same figure published in the Airbus 787 Dossier in December 2008, but the 13,500 and 8,800lb figures are the first public concrete estimates of the aircraft’s structural weight gain. The figures also point to progress being made in the operating empty weight reduction of the aircraft, however the increased maximum takeoff weight is intended, in part, to regain the lost performance.

ANA announced today it would begin long-range 787 operations connecting Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Frankfurt, Germany on January 21, 2012 with its staggered business and economy 158-seat configuration. The airline’s first long-range aircraft, which is expected by year’s end will feature the higher thrust Package B engines, and is likely to be either Airplane 40 or 41, which will benefit from Boeing’s third block point improvement planned for implementation starting with Airplane 34.

The increase in MTOW, allows for a higher structural payload to be carried, which can be accomplished by reinforcing the structure of the aircraft or adding load allieviation technologies that move lift across the wing to accommodate higher weight. Though it remains unclear how much the increase in operating empty weight is contained in the increased in MTOW.

Air Lease CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy told this page in March at ISTAT: “My gut feeling is that the airplanes will always be heavier, and they’ll just have more power and they’ll just increase the max takeoff weight and say we still meet the spec. It’s just going to become a heavier more powerful animal.”

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

October 4, 2011
Cargolux 747-8F delivery impasse ended, delivery on October 12

It took until the second question at today’s Qatar Airways 100th airplane delivery event for CEO Akbar Al-Baker to be asked about the contract dispute between Cargolux, of which Qatar is a 35% stakeholder, and General Electric that abruptly cancelled delivery of the cargo carrier’s first two 747-8Fs.

Al-Baker declared the dispute between Cargolux, Boeing and GE resolved over the 2.7% fuel burn shortfall on the freighters, and that the launch customer for the type will take delivery on October 12, pending an October 6-7 Cargolux board meeting.

However, sources indicate that there is no dispute between Qatar Airways and Boeing in respect of 787 delay compensation. Sources point to a more likely influence being Qatar Airways’ knowledge of the 747-8 performance shortfall and related compensation terms as a result of managing the purchase of two 747-8I VIP aircraft for the Qatar government. GE and Boeing are developing a performance improvement package (PIP) to address just over half of the 2.7% fuel burn shortfall suffered by the 747-8’s GEnx-2B67.

However, service-entry of the PIP is believed to be at least two years away – with customers being asked to pay for the upgrade. The engine will need additional upgrades to redress the balance of the performance deficit, and there is the prospect of an additional charge being made for this PIP.

At the time of its publication early Friday, the Flightglobal report (excerpted above) called the negotiations ongoing and there was a “constructive dialogue” between the parties. Clearly, the gap was closed in the hours before Qatar took its100th aircraft, a new 777-200LR.

Industry sources say that Cargolux will remain the launch customer for the type, with Boeing very likely to make its first deliveries to Atlas Air and Cathay Pacific Cargo following its belated handover to the European cargo-hauler.

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

October 1, 2011
Aerolia, once Airbus, delivers nose section for first A350 (Update1)

Yesterday, Aerolia loaded the nose section of MSN1, the first A350 XWB, at its Méaulte, France facility onto a heavily modified A300-600ST Beluga. The structure is the “face” of the new long-range jetliner from Airbus, which is slated to enter final assembly before the end of the year. The construction of the nose section, which is a metal-composite hybrid structure, is made up of 40% composites, 55% aluminium/aluminium-lithium and 5% titanium.

Unlike the cockpit fuselage sections of previous Airbus models, which consist of a single lower shell to approximately floor level, Section 11 forming the upper structure immediately around the flight deck and Section 12 extending aft until just behind the first set of passenger doors, the A350 follows a different construction.

While the majority of the nose fuselage section will have a carbon reinforced plastic (CFRP) structure and panelling, Section 11 will be made of aluminium. Four composite panels will cover the remaining part of the fuselage frame structure: the nose upper shell extending aft from above the cockpit windows; left- and right-hand side panels including the respective passenger door apertures; and a single panel to cover the lower area of sections 11 and 12, which will be the largest of the four at approximately 30m².

The timing of this moment, which is far from immediately obvious, is not without note. With yesterday’s departure of the first 787 for Japan and the announcement by Airbus of the shipping of MSN1’s nose to St. Nazaire, I was reminded of an April 17, 2007 post authored about three weeks into the start of the experiment known as FlightBlogger. The post was a series of photos about the unveiling of ZA001’s first Section 41 forward fuselage from Spirit AeroSystems.

Both Boeing and Airbus/EADS charted similar (and notably different paths) on the respective supplier bases for their new products. In 2005, Spirit AeroSytems was created through the divestiture of Boeing’s Wichita and Tulsa commercial airplanes operation to Onex in a $1.2 billion deal meant to raise cash for the 787’s development. The move would create the world’s largest aerostructures manufacturer on its first day in operation.

The justification for the move was articulated by then-Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Alan Mulally: “Boeing will benefit from lower procurement costs and the Wichita/Tulsa operations now can grow by winning new business with other customers.”

Not coincidentally, Spirit AeroSystems is now a first tier supplier on the A350, supplying the composite Section 15 panels of the center fuselage from its new Kinston, North Carolina facility, which are then shipped to St. Nazaire, France for integration. Spirit also builds the the wing’s fixed leading edge and composite front spar.

Similarly, through its restructuring to pay for the A350 development, Aerolia was created through wholly-owned spinoff of EADS/Airbus in 2009, but its means of financing the new majority-composite jetliner was pursued differently. Rather than a complete divestiture, which remains in EADS’s long-range plans, Aerolia was given the goal of diversifying its own customer base and sourcing its own funding.

Aerolia generated revenues of around $1 billion in 2010 and expects this to grow by around 10% this year. Nearly all of its work is for Airbus, with 2-3% being for the French aerospace group Latécoère and Belgium-based Sonaca. However, by 2020 the Airbus work share is to form just half of Aerolia’s work, while 25% is to come from Boeing and Sikorsky, and the remaining quarter is to be sourced from companies such as Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer, Eurocopter and Piaggio. Revenue is expected to hit $3 billion at the end of the decade.

Despite this separation, Aerolia remains as much Airbus as Airbus is for EADS. Though, the creation of Spirit and Aerolia illustrate the modern paths for creating and paying for the 21st century jetliners, but both also represent the dis-integration of the respective Airbus and Boeing manufacturing operations. Dis-integration is the natural trend of all organizations over time, as shown by industry life cycles in the Piepenbrock framework, but the creation of Aerolia and Spirit also illustrate the markedly different pace and progress along that dis-integration that is taking place between the two airframers.

Photo Credit Airbus, Rendering Credit Aerolia

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

September 28, 2011
Flyaway: All Nippon’s first 787 sets course for Japan

EVERETT — All Nippon Flight 9397 rotated off of runway 16R at 7:17 AM PT. No Boeing test pilots were at the controls, no FAA observers on the flight deck, just the airline’s personnel, handling the jet with the white-glove treatment. The event was captured from a myriad of angles, just as the first flight of the 787 was in December 2009.

The aircraft, currently enroute to Haneda Airport will cross the international dateline and land in Tokyo around 8:30 AM local time on Wednesday, about 1:30 ET. Boeing and ANA will broadcast the arrival live on UStream.

JA801A, Airplane Eight, was first today and Airplane 24, JA802A, will follow in its footsteps in mid-October, the airline said this morning. That will provide ANA two 787s before the aircraft formally enters scheduled revenue service on November 1. Air India, receiving Airplane 35, will be the first customer with GEnx engines and is expected to take delivery before the end of the year. Most likely candidates for delivery in 2011 include Airplane 24, Seven, Nine, 40, 41, 31 and 35, putting Boeing’s goal at eight on the year.

My complete photoset from the flyaway is below the fold.

Video Credit Matt Cawby

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

September 27, 2011
Photo of Note: A final night in Everett

EVERETT — Airplane Eight, as it was once known, now JA801A, is spending its final night here in Washington before departing at 6:35 AM PT from Paine Field on early Tuesday morning. The photo, which was actually taken last night (when it wasn’t raining), captures a lot of Boeing history in the viewfinder. The 747, the aircraft that spawned the Everett factory’s three original bays in the late 1960s is seen in its -8 freighter variant readying for a departure from the final assembly line.

Photo Credit Flickr User simpilot459

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

September 26, 2011
A Dreamliner’s march, fifty-one months later

EVERETT — To watch the more than 500 Boeing employees who designed, built and tested the 787 walk together ahead of Airplane 24’s roll to the gathered crowd of thousands for the first delivery to All Nippon Airways, I could not help but see a fitting bookend for this part of The Boeing Company’s history.

On an early summer’s night in Everett on exactly the same spot – with weather warmer and far dryer than today – Boeing employees who worked to assemble, and later disassemble and reassemble, Dreamliner One, walked the first 787 out of the factory.

It was just after midnight on June 26, 2007, and the first roll of the wheels out of Building 40-26 was met with spontaneous applause during the transition from second to third shift. Those on the factory floor would walk behind her wingtips as far as they could go before being stopped at the bridge over Route 526 to the paint hangar.

That moment would be captured by photographer Charles Conklin, and represented the 787’s official, unofficial debut. Many more eyes would be watching on July 8, 2007.

Conklin’s photographs would lead this page and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer the following day. The 787 story, and later its extended saga, solidified into a single idea that night, not disparate group of systems and structures from Boeing and its global partners, but it had – on that day – become an aircraft that would draw the world’s attention to a single place: This factory.

Those of us who watched from the outside got to march along the journey in a small way, reporting its milestones and missteps. The biography of the Dreamliner is a snapshot in time of a transforming company and one whose birth comes amidst the backdrop of changing country, a changing world and its changing economy. At almost every turn, this aircraft and its story are linked in that change.

The next chapter in the 787 story is just as important, if not moreso, than the one just closed. Boeing must make good on its leap which it believes is the backbone for the next three decades. Making the 787 as good for Boeing as Boeing believes the 787 is for airlines is the central question of the airframer’s long-term health.

The 787’s necessity to connect the world’s growing aerotropoli is at the heart of this shifting center of gravity; away from the mature economies in the US and Europe and toward those in Brazil, Russia, India and China, each with industries, and ambitions, to challenge Boeing and Airbus on the world’s stage.

For its newly developed – and hard-earned – technological edge, Boeing has swum to the next island from its coming competitors. A swim that changed lives, both personal and professional, with each contributor different than when the journey first began.

The march for those who walked today with the 787 was stopped once again, except this time it is to see the aircraft off to its new home. They will remain here, to return to the factory and to the Towers to begin once again the march into Boeing’s next chapter.

Second Photo Credit Charles Conklin

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

September 26, 2011
A Moment in Time: The Boeing 787 is delivered

Everett, Washington – September 26, 2011

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

September 26, 2011
Video: The Dreamliner’s revolutionary hands-free toilet seat

EVERETT — I’ve been following the 787 for almost five years now and surprises came at every turn, yesterday was no different.

Boeing invited the media to come on-board Airplane 24 (JA802A) yesterday, the second 787 for delivery to All Nippon Airways, and we went hands-on – or in this case “hands-off” – with one of the Dreamliner’s more novel features. ANA, the launch customer since 2004, and now proud 787 owner, selected an automatically lowering toilet seat option for its lavatories.

“This would solve so many fights at home,” joked (we assumed) Flightglobal Americas Editor, Stephen Trimble.

The hands-free flush sensor is a standard feature for the new jet, which will be handed over to its first customer in an official ceremony Monday morning.

This is what I call nose-to-tail innovation.

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

September 26, 2011
With second ANA 787, Trent 1000 Package B takes flight (Update1)

EVERETT — With Saturday’s first flight of Airplane 24, ZA103, registered JA802A, ~~Rolls-Royce marked an important milestone, the first flight of the~~ ~~Package B Trent 1000 engine~~ ~~on a production aircraft, confirms program vice president and general manager Scott Fancher.~~

–

UPDATE: Boeing and Rolls-Royce clarified earlier inaccurate remarks that said the Package B engines had flown on Airplane 24. That is, in fact, not the case and it looks like the Package B engines won’t deliver until November or December ahead of the January start for ANA’s long-haul international service to Frankfurt.

–

Certification of the Package B engine, expected soon, incorporates a revised six-stage low pressure turbine (LPT) design, high-aspect-ratio blades, relocation of the intermediate-pressure (IP) compressor bleed offtake ports and a fan outlet guide vanes with improved aerodynamics. The updated engine will bring specific fuel consumption to within 1% of the original specification.

ANA and Boeing declined to comment on the delivery timing of the second 787 to ANA, though several program sources point a handover in the second half of October.

At June’s Paris Air Show, Rolls-Royce expected ANA’s fifth 787 to be powered by the Package B engine and would inaugurate international long-haul service, though ANA senior vice president Satoru Fujiki said the second aircraft will delivered in its short to medium-haul configuration.

Video Courtesy Matt Cawby

This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.

This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.

September 25, 2011