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Flightglobal confirms Hong Kong as 747-8I buyer, to order A380

Just out:

PARIS: HK Airlines orders 747-8I, to sign for A380s
Max Kingsley-Jones, Paris (22Jun11, 08:24 GMT, 132 words)

Hong Kong Airlines is the undisclosed customer that signed orders for 15 Boeing 747-8I passenger jets. The deal was announced by Boeing during the Paris air show as one of two orders from undisclosed clients.

Although neither Boeing nor Hong Kong Airlines will confirm the deal, sources told Flightglobal that the carrier, which is owned by HNA Group of China, is the identity of the customer.

“I cannot confirm that with you right now,” Yang Jian Hong, president of Hong Kong Airlines told Flightglobal.

Also, the airline’s Hong Kong-based spokeswoman said she cannot confirm if the airline had ordered the aircraft, she said she’s still awaiting information from Hainan.

Hong Kong Airlines is also expected to announce orders for Airbus A380s at the show.

Rendering Credit Boeing

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.

June 22, 2011
Boeing puts 777-8X and -9X on the table as A350-1000 response

PARIS — The show has been a buzz with talk of Boeing’s next move on the 737, yet the airframer has provided some clarity on near term and longer term 777 improvements, including the 777+ and conceptual studies for aircraft it has dubbed the 777-8X and 777-9X, intended as a possible response to the updated A350-1000 now available in 2017.

“We’re taking the -1000 very seriously,” said Albaugh, “We’re going to put our assessment on when that plane can be available. We’ll take a hard look on how long it will take them to go up in rate. Whether or not that is incremental improvements or a significant derivative [for the 777] it remains to be seen.”

In the near-term, said Boeing vice president of business development, Nicole Piasecki, the airframer is evaluating a series of incremental updates dubbed the 777+, which include extending the wingspan of the 777, along with adding avionics enhancements, similar to that of the 747-8, providing additional capability to the flight deck for the crew without changing the display area.

The 777+ marks a return to the forefront of the extended wingspan option after being shelved in 2010 as the company explored other options for the long-range widebody. At the time of its evaluation, the extended wing could have been available as early as the fourth quarter of 2012, said company sources.

Industry and company sources also indicate structural modifications are being evaluated to more comfortably accommodate 10-abreast seating in economy class.

Further, Boeing and General Electric are exploring ways to introduce GEnx engine technology into the GE90, which is exclusively available on the 777 family.

“What we’ll do on the 777 is continue to improve airplane we have,” said James Albaugh, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO, “But we also have some major upgrades we could do in the event that we have to respond to a move by the competition.”

In the longer term, Boeing vice president of sales Marlin Dailey, says longer-term improvements to the 777 including examining the “up-gauging” or stretching the fuselage, though the conceptual 777-9X and 777-8X, available early next decade.

Industry sources said the -9X would be an additional stretch to the 777-300ER, while the -8X would be an shrink of the 365-seat jet.

Conceptually the 777-8X and -9X would allow Boeing to span the products between the conceptual 290 to 330-seat 787-10X and 467-seat 747-8.

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.

June 21, 2011
#PAS11 at your fingertips with Flightglobal’s day one interactive mag

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.

June 21, 2011
Korean Air signs LOI for up to 30 CS300s

Korean Air signs LOI for up to 30 CS300s, originally uploaded by flightblogger.

PARIS — Bombardier and Korean Air have signed a letter of intent for 10 CS300 aircraft, plus options for 10 more an 10 purchase rights.

Walter Cho, senior vice president of corporate strategy and planning division says Korean will receive its first six aircraft in 2015 and a further four in 2016.

The order is currently an LOI, but Cho expects the order to be firmed up within a month when the company’s board approves the purchase.

Runway Girl, Mary Kirby, overheard Cho urging a representative from Delta Air Lines, a fellow Skyteam alliance member, to order the CSeries.

As I type this a group from Delta is being given a tour of the CSeries mock up.

During the press conference, a senior Bombardier executive whispered to me, “This is the tipping point.”

Photo Credit Bombardier

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.

June 21, 2011
Photos of Note: A380’s too-close encounter at Paris (Update)

PARIS — When a superjumbo gets just a bit too close, this is what can happen. Here’s a view from a different angle. A380 MSN004 returned to Toulouse late Monday evening for repairs. The prang occurred just after the aircraft landed and was being towed from the taxiway to the static display, and was not under its own power at the time of the incident.

Special thanks to the person who shared this.

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.

June 21, 2011
Sources: GECAS to become 747-8 customer

PARIS — Aircraft lessor GE Capital Aviation services is set to announce an order for Boeing 747-8 aircraft at the Paris air show Tuesday, several industry sources confirm.

The order from GECAS is believed to be for two freighter aircraft, growing the backlog to 78 of the cargo variant.

GECAS becomes the second leasing customer for the 747-8, joining troubled Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, which has been challenged by the Dubai debt crisis. It is not known if the aircraft with an operator yet.

GE is the sole engine supplier for the 747-8, with four GEnx-2B67 powering the updated jumbo.

Boeing announced orders for 17 747-8I aircraft during day one, split between two customers.

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.

June 20, 2011
Order activity spikes at Paris: 747-8I, CSeries, A320neo, E-190, 777-300ER, 787-9, 737-800
PARIS — In the last 60 minutes, order activity at the show has exploded:
- Boeing earned a $5.4 billion order for 17 747-8Is from two unidentified customers, split 15 and two. This is the largest order at the show so far and the biggest for the program since Lufthansa launched the type in December 2006.
- CSeries received an order from an identified customer for 10 CS100 plus six options from a “major network carrier” that will serve as launch customer and take delivery of the first production aircraft;
- UPDATE: SAS has ordered 30 A320neos with options for 11 more.
- UPDATE 2: Steven Udvar-Hazy’s Air Lease Corp has ordered its first widebody aircraft with five 777-300ER and four 787-9s, along with up to 24 737-800s.
- GE Capital Aviation Services ordered 60 A320neo aircraft with CFM Leap engines, as well as 15 ATR-72-600.
- Earlier in the morning, Embraer grew its E-190 backlog by 30 with an order from Indonesia’s Sriwijaya Air;
- Qatar Airways announced it was the customer for six previously unidentified 777-300ER aircraft.
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.
June 20, 2011
Rolls-Royce unveils 787-10X Trent 1000 revamp, confirms Package C

PARIS — Rolls-Royce will make a significant revamp to Boeing’s 787-10X Trent 1000 engine and has confirmed the existence of a Package C upgrade intended for the 787-9.

The same core scaling up required for the 5,000lb thrust boost on the Trent XWB that will power the Airbus A350-1000 – now delayed to 2017 – will also be applied to the 76,000lb Trent 1000 on the conceptual -10X, says Mark King, president of Rolls-Royce civil aerospace, reports Flightglobal.

“The technologies we’re running on the testbed between the XWB engine and the demonstrator gives us a real opportunity to upgrade the Trent 1000. We think we can do something that could open clear daylight relative to the competition on the Trent 1000.”
—
“Our goal here is to make sure that when we do that, we design an engine that covers the whole family. Once Boeing nail down their requirements for the -10X then we’ll respond with our offering for the whole family.”

Boeing has loosely defined the 787-10X as a 320-seat, 6,800 to 7,000nm range aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of roughly 553,000lbs, similar to that of the 787-9. While a final entry service target is yet undefined, Boeing says the aircraft will be in service no earlier than 2016.

Additionally, the Package C engine, previously believed to be known as Package B+, due for entry into service on the 787-9 in late 2013 is nearing its detailed design phase, whose improvements will also feed back to the 787-8.

Further, Rolls-Royce confirmed that only the first four 787’s for launch customer All Nippon Airways will be delivered with significantly de-rated Package A engines at 64,000lbs of thrust for use on domestic and regional routes before the Package B engine is introduces along with ANA’s international long-range interior. The 70,000lb Package B engine is scheduled to deliver to ANA before the end of 2011.

ZA004 is currently undergoing nautical air miles evaluations on the Package B power plant, which has been in flight testing since May 21.

Photo Credit Boeing

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.

June 20, 2011
A380 grounded at Le Bourget after wingtip severed

Yesterday evening in downtown Paris the Flightglobal team spent about 10 minutes watching a red Fiat 500 try to parallel park in between two larger cars. Admittedly, the space was quite small, but the driver of the little red Fiat seemed to disregard the bumpers of the cars to the front and to the rear. We tried to guide the troubled driver into her space, but to no avail the other cars were of no interest.

Parking an A380, the world’s largest commercial aircraft by passenger capacity, maximum takeoff weight and wingspan, isn’t built with bumpers and its margins for error are considerably smaller when squeezing the superjumbo into its spot on the Paris Air Show static display. Yesterday afternoon, not long before the Great Fiat Bumper Massacre of 2011, MSN004‘s right wingtip clipped a small structure, severing the massive wing fence. The result was the cancellation of the A380’s participation in both the flying display and, more importantly, any kind of flying at all.

This isn’t the first time the A380 – or a jumbo jet – has “lovetapped” another object, but again, the setting was quite public and in the overnight vacuum of news between the Sunday’s Day Zero and Monday’s Day One the clip made its way around the world in a hurry.

Photo Credit @Niekvdz

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.

June 20, 2011
Photo of Note: 747-8 Intercontinental poses with the Eiffel Tower

Boeing’s 747-8I touched down at the Paris Air Show at 9:36 AM local time on runway 25 at Le Bourget Airport under mostly cloudly skies that have served to put a chill in the air for day zero. RC001 landed under the command of Captain Steve Taylor, who as president of Boeing Business Jets took the liberty of flying the jumbo along with BBJ chief pilot Capt. Rene Gonzalez, 747 chief pilot Captain Mark Feuerstein and 747 engineering test pilot Capt. Kirk Vining. As the aircraft taxiied in toward the static display, RC001 crossed in front of the Paris cityscape with the iconic 1063ft Eiffel Tower in the background.

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.

June 19, 2011