Tag: FlightBlogger Archive

When asked in early November at the Dubai Air Show about the impact of the weak dollar on Boeing, VP of Marketing for Boeing, Randy Tinseth replied, “I don’t know if it necessarily hurts or helps us, but I’m sure it’s not helping our competition.”

Less than two weeks later, Airbus CEO Tom Enders was saying that the Euro had passed, “The pain barrier” and was forcing cuts to the European aerospace giant’s research and development budget.

Louis Gallois, CEO of EADS reinforced the need for a change in an interview in early December, saying, “if the dollar rate stays the way it is now, we will have to shift parts of our production and supplier business to the dollar zone.”

In response to its Power8 reorganization plan, Airbus decided to divest itself from French manufacturing plants in Meault, Saint Nazaire, German plants in Nordenham, Varel and Augsburg, as well as a plant in Filton in the UK.

Airbus announced its decision today to distribute the the sites amongst GKN, Latecoere, and MT Aerospace, all three are European companies based in the UK, France and Germany respectively. It had been thought that Kansas based Spirit Aerosystems was the leading contender to receive all of the sites because it allowed Airbus to move key portions of its business into the dollar-zone, thus beginning to deliver some relief from the weak dollar, which it sells its airplanes in. Had Spirit been selected it would’ve given an opportunity to potentially relocate the manufacturing capability outside of the euro-zone to an area with lower costs and a more favorable exchange rate.

During the late night hours of December 10th to 13th, a convoy wound its way through the French Countryside from Langon to Toulouse. On board the slow moving industrial parade were the wings, horizontal stabilizer, front, center and aft fuselage sections of an Airbus A380.

Speculation about the identity of this convoy points to it potentially as the first Airbus A380 for Air France. If confirmed, the aircraft would be MSN033 which is expected to wear the final registration F-HPJA following its flight testing and preparation for entry into service.

When contacted for confirmation, Airbus declined to disclose the identity of the unidentified A380.

Air France would join Singapore Airlines, Emirates and QANTAS as the fourth airline with an A380 under assembly in Toulouse.

Air France’s first A380, which is slated for delivery in 2009, will be powered by four Engine Alliance GP7200, which received official certification earlier this month.

Monday in the US is wrapping up, and today was largely a research day for me that has left me with more questions then when the day began.

Maybe a few of you out there can answer a few of these:

Which mystery A380 structures found their way to Toulouse last week?

Why is the 747 LCF flying back and forth between Charleston and Everett empty? Training flights? Fixture movement?

When is Virgin America launching its broadband on-board?

And lastly, where did I leave my keys?

Have the answers? Leave a comment or drop a line at flightblogger (at) gmail (dot) com.

All and all, a very slow Monday. Maybe you can lend a hand and make Tuesday a bit more interesting.

Thought it was time to give something new a try. I’m creating an open thread for a discussion of the week’s big events. I’ve been wanting to give this a try for a while and now seems like a good time. This may even become a regular Friday occurrence if it goes well.

Week In Review (In No Particular Order)
Rough List

– 787 Program Update
– China Airlines A350 order
– GECAS 777, 737 order
– Luftansa and jetBlue
– jetBlue flies wireless internet
– 777F Assembly to begin in January
– Pilots can fly until 65 in US
– A380 Engine Alliance Certification
– Alitalia postpones purchase decision
– 5000th Airbus goes to QANTAS
– Air India gets Star Alliance Approval
– Airbus Selects Messier-Dowty for A350 Landing Gear
– Libyan and Afriqiyah Airbus Orders

Rules: Keep it civil, keep it clean.

Boeing and GE Commercial Aviation Services Announce Order for 55 Airplanes

SEATTLE, Dec. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Boeing and GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS) today announced a 55-airplane order that includes 53 Next-Generation 737-800s and two Boeing 777-300ER (Extended Range) passenger jetliners.

Congrats to Boeing on a huge order. It’s another boost to a staggering backlog on both the 737 and 777 programs. With that being said, what’s taking GECAS so long to order 787s? ILFC has placed orders for 74 787s – the chief competitor to the GE aviation leasing arm. Certainly the hesitation at GECAS isn’t with with GENx engines which I’m sure they’d love to showcase, so what are they waiting for?

Having had the opportunity to allow yesterday’s update to stew for 24 hours I wanted to throw my $.02 in the mix.

Richard Aboulafia described the call yesterday as, “Both reassuring and underwhelming,” signaling the reaffirmation of Boeing’s confidence in its own production plan, while falling short in providing the specifics to spread its own confidence to a jittery market and a skeptical media.

The point of confidence that I believe can be derived from the update is the way in which Shanahan demonstrated his oversight of the inherited program he now captains. At every turn, he emphasized his role in ensuring the easy flow of communication and decision-making across the entire program. Whether it was his three to four hour daily meetings with managers yards from the assembly floor or his upcoming afternoon conference call with Japanese suppliers, this is a manager who has quickly found his footing and taken the reins. Whether this stands in genuine contrast to the way that Mike Bair operated is not fully known. In previous update calls, Bair never had to justify his level of engagement in the process, yet, Shanahan needed to establish this in contrast to the perception that the level of oversight just simply hadn’t been sufficient to run the program.

One item that was raised at the conclusion of the call was a question regarding metrics for measuring program status. Carson suggested that the arrival of ZA007 for final assembly in Everett is a milestone to watch for. Though additional specific Boeing metrics aren’t available for evaluating the health of this program, I believe there are two additional indications of how the program is progressing:

1. How long does it take ZA002 to go through final assembly in Everett?
2. When do parts for ZA007 arrive in Charleston and how fast is the center fuselage assembled and delivered to Everett?

The first metric provides a good indication as to the application of the lessons learned from Dreamliner One. This will be Boeing’s first opportunity to apply its in sequence assembly processes on a flying 787 airframe.

The second demonstrates the speed at which Global Aeronautica can assemble and deliver sections of a production model airframe. Charleston needs to show it can complete work fast enough with adequately utilized manpower to accommodate high delivery rates of full production airframes.

Stay tuned, this one’s getting interesting.

This is a picture in desperate need of a caption. Yes, that’s a bug on the A380 tail camera.
Image courtesy Kleinschmidt!!

Released Moments Ago:
Image Courtesy Boeing

Overview Courtesy of NYC777

* Gratified by market demand for the 787.
* Set a new high for sales of the 787 at 314 and may have more before year end. 762 firm orders from 52 customers.
* Confidence in the business model and the technologies underlying the 787
* Fly end of 1st quarter of 2008, delivery in November – December 2008 and have 109 deliveries by end of 2009.
* Shanahan reviewed the entire 787 program starting in October and met with the global partners.
* Design and development phases were executed well and now need to execute production ramp up.
* Retired combined aircraft development and design team (led by Scott Strode).
* Reorganized the department: 1) Development, 2) Supplier Management, and 3) Final Assembly and Operations
* Meet daily on the factory floor to make sure that the right processes are followed and that required changes are implement
* Starting the same process with the partners (meetings with them).
* 100% complete on the 787-8 design.
* Reviewed and agreed to certification requirements of the 787 program with the FAA now need to demonstrate compliance with the requirements.
* Successfully tested the HTP in Italy to design.
* Continue to work weight reduction and have some work to do.
* LN 1 – the primary structure is completed, fastener availability is reduced. Complete the aircraft and focused on power on by end of January. Can retire risk at power on. Perform integration testing and then perform gauntlet testing. Everything is on track to support power on.
* ZY997 – move to static fixture in January. Frame is mostly complete.
* Parts are much more complete
* Fasteners and parts are arriving at a faster pace.
* On track to make power on by end of January
* Production schedule will be more predictable once Power-On is achieved.
* Flight-control tests will occur after Power-On.
* Honeywell flight control software is ready for Power-On. All 92 systems are ready.
* ZY998 – started final assembly, forward with main fuselage and wings are attached. Rear fuselage will be joined later this week.
* LN 2 parts will arrive later this month to start final assembly
* LN 3 – LN 6 will be in the factory by end of February in Everett. LN 7 (First customer airplane) will be arriving by March.
* Both engines families (RR and GE) will be ready for testing by start of flight test program.
* No flaws in the production system process
* Alenia starting to work on LN 14 with most partners starting work on LN 7
* Traveled work is starting to decrease.
* Traveled work continues to be the biggest constraint to progress
* Big problems are solved but the small details are the frustrating part
* No more join problems (as was on LN 1).
* Investment in automation and processes (more efficiencies) will allow 6/month production rate
* Hardware and software that is going to be used in flight test are being used in the engineering simulator. Software is coming together very well.
* The documentation problem still exists but Shanahan has his arms around it and the situation is improving.

9:50 AM: Good morning to some, good afternoon and good evening to others! Welcome to Flightblogger’s liveblogged coverage of the December Boeing 787 Program Update. We’ll be getting underway here shortly once the call gets started in about ten minutes or so.

The consensus inside the financial world this morning is that a change in schedule isn’t expected in this call. There are many things to listen for though, including the status of fasteners, flight test software, assembly progress and some serious questions about Vought’s future in the program.

Full coverage below the fold.