A seemingly relaxed Jim McNerney spent yesterday morning candidly discussing his Boeing’s future along side aerospace industry analyst Heidi Wood at Morgan Stanley’s Global Industrials Unplugged Conference.
As McNerney discussed his company’s recent experience with composite technology on the Boeing 787, he looked toward future applications of what he believes Boeing will learn from current struggles.
“For example,” he said of the 737 replacement. “If we decide to go with a composite fuselage based on our lead and being able to manage composites, and think we can get there first, we may decide to go first. Engine technology will probably be a push. So, that airframe may be the discriminator.”
Referencing the two years of delays endured by Boeing on the 787 McNerney says: “I like our chances there, in terms of coming up with a more innovative — Lord knows, we’ve learned the hard way on how to design and build composites.”
“Eventually, that’s going to pay off for us. And it’s really going to pay off when we do — re-do the 777 and when we take a look at the narrow-body. It’s the bleeding edge — eventually, the innovator’s advantage will come back to us. Right now it hurts like hell.”
McNerney presents a ‘when’, not an ‘if’ statement for Boeing to re-do the 777, potentially providing a glimpse at the airframer’s future planning. Boeing publicly introduced the idea of re-winging the 777 or developing the double stretch 787-10 at June’s Paris Air Show, as a competitor to the A350-900 and -1000.
Perhaps the company’s thinking has shifted as the 787-9 has slipped almost an additional year to late 2013? Does the 787-10 make sense against the current program schedule?
A Boeing spokesman reiterated that no decision has been made regarding the 777 or the 787-10 and the company is waiting on the performance of the A350-1000 to firm up before making any final determinations on product strategy between 305 and 365 seats.
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This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.