Tag: Aviation

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Boeing will trim 4,000 jobs, and maybe more

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A Boeing 777 jet is assembled at the company’s plant in Everett, Wash. (Credit: Boeing)

Boeing Commercial Airplanes says it’s following through on its job reduction plan with the target of reducing its workforce by 4,000 positions by midyear.

So far, there have been no involuntary layoffs, company spokesman Doug Alder told GeekWire in an email today. But he said that may have to come as a “last resort” in order to reduce costs and remain competitive with Airbus, Boeing’s European rival.

In addition to the workforce reduction, Boeing has been trying to save on non-labor costs and supply chain expenses, Alder said.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes employs about 82,000 people worldwide, accounting for more than half of the Boeing Co.’s total job count. Boeing’s employment in Washington state, including employees in the company’s defense and administrative units as well as commercial airplanes, amounts to about 78,000.

The Seattle Times, which first reported the numbers behind the company’s job reduction plan, cited Boeing documents suggesting that the reductions could total 8,000 jobs, or 10 percent, by the end of the year.

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Flirtey makes a milestone urban drone delivery

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Flirtey’s hexacopter hovers over Nevada during a drone delivery test. (Credit: Flirtey)

A startup named Flirtey says it’s executed the first FAA-approved urban drone delivery in the United States, in a test that could blaze a trail for Amazon and other companies that want to do the same thing.

The GPS-guided drop-off to an unoccupied house took place on March 10 in Hawthorne, Nev. The package of supplies, including bottled water, emergency food supply and a first-aid kit, was lowered by a rope to the house’s front porch from a hovering hexacopter. A drone pilot and several visual observers were on standby in case something went wrong, but they weren’t needed, the company said.

“Conducting the first drone delivery in an urban setting is a major achievement, taking us closer to the day that drones make regular deliveries to your front doorstep,” Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeny said today in a news release about the test.

Flirtey has already used drones to deliver textbooks in Australia and auto parts inNew Zealand, but its grand plan is to crack the market in the United States. That’s why it’s been participating in limited tests sanctioned by the Federal Aviation Administration at specified sites. Last July, Flirtey conducted a similar test for rural drone delivery in Virginia.

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Alaska Airlines shifts flight plan to catch eclipse

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A passenger on a Lufthansa flight watches a solar eclipse out the window in March 2015. Passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight will have a similar opportunity. (Credit: Lufthansa via YouTube)

Now, that’s service: Amateur astronomers persuaded Seattle-based Alaska Airlines to shift its departure time for Tuesday’s flight from Anchorage to Honolulu 25 minutes later so that passengers can see a total solar eclipse en route.

“It’s an unbelievably accommodating gesture,” Mike Kentrianakis, solar eclipse project manager for the American Astronomical Society, said in an Alaska Airlines blog post about the schedule shift. “Not only is Alaska Airlines getting people from Point A to Point B, but they’re willing to give them an exciting flight experience.”

Thanks to the time change, the passengers on Alaska Flight 870 are now due to see a minute and 53 seconds of totality out the window from a height of 37,000 feet, well above any clouds. (But if you haven’t bought a ticket, don’t bother looking; the flight’s sold out.)

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Boeing invents a self-cleaning airplane toilet

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Boeing’s prototype airplane lavatory uses far-ultraviolet light to sanitize surfaces. (Credit: Boeing)

In-flight services may be getting worse, but there’s at least one aspect of commercial air travel that might get better – thanks to the Boeing Co.’s self-cleaning toilet.

Boeing says its prototype lavatory uses far-ultraviolet light to kill 99.99 percent of germs in just three seconds after every use. The wavelength that’s used is deadly to microbes, but harmless to humans, the company says.

“We’re trying to alleviate the anxiety we all face when using a restroom that gets a workout during a flight,” Jeanne Yu, Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ director of environmental performance, said today in a news release. “In the prototype, we position the lights throughout the lavatory so that it floods the touch surfaces like the toilet seat, sink and countertops with the UV light once a person exits the lavatory. This sanitizing even helps eliminate odors.”

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Boeing’s first 727 jet makes its last flight

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Fire trucks greet the Boeing 727 at Seattle’s Museum of Flight. (GeekWire photo by Alan Boyle)

The final flight of the first Boeing 727 prototype jet ever produced was one of the shortest trips it’s made in its 53-year history: a 15-minute jaunt from a restoration hangar at Everett’s Paine Field to Seattle’s Boeing Field and the Museum of Flight.

But in another sense, it took decades to make the journey.

The three-engine jet was used as a test prototype when Boeing started flying the 727s in 1963, and was delivered to United Airlines in 1964. The plane put in nearly 65,000 hours of service with United, and made more than 48,000 takeoffs and landings.

The three-engine jet made its last commercial voyage in 1991, and then United donated it to the Museum of Flight. At the time, the museum couldn’t accommodate the plane in Seattle, so it was put into storage in Everett. Some of its parts were scavenged for other planes.

For 25 years, a volunteer team toiled to raise money, acquire spare parts (mostly donated by FedEx) and refurbish the plane for one more flight. Once the plane was judged airworthy, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a special permit to clear the way for the March 2 flight under visual flight rules.

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Boeing puts out the call for memorabilia

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Boeing historian Mike Lombardi holds memorabilia from the company’s history. (Credit: Boeing)

Think of it as “Antiques Roadshow” for the aerospace set: The Boeing Co. is looking for historical artifacts and memorabilia that will help the company tell the story of its first 100 years in the Puget Sound region.

Your item could go on display at a centennial exhibit due to open at Seattle’s Museum of Flight in May.

“Check your attics, check your basement, check your trophy cases,” Mike Lombardi, Boeing’s corporate historian and archivist, said in a video about the effort. “Find all that Boeing memorabilia, those models, those photographs.”

The company is particularly interested in subjects such as the company’s role in the local community during World War II, the first flights and rollouts of Boeing airplanes, Seafair activities and the 1962 World’s Fair.

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Next-gen B-21 bomber’s design unveiled

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The Air Force’s B-21 bomber has that characteristic stealthy look. (Credit: USAF)

Today the U.S. Air Force took the wraps off the design for its Long Range Strike Bomber, now known as the B-21, and said it’d be taking suggestions for a snappier name from its service members.

“This aircraft represents the future for our airmen, and (their) voice is important to this process,” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said in a news release. The announcement was made at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla.

James said the person who suggests the winning name would help her announce it at this fall’s Air Force Association conference. Further information on the naming procedure will be made available via the Air Force’s website as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Last October, Northrop Grumman won the contract to develop the B-21, which could ultimately be worth $80 billion or more.

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Navy investigates mystery drone sighting

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Drones are raising issues as they become more widespread. (Credit: DJI)

The Navy has confirmed that it’s investigating the illegal flight of an unidentified drone over Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, the home base for Trident submarines that carry nuclear weapons.

In an email, Navy spokeswoman Silvia Klatman said the drone was sighted in prohibited airspace by a civilian employee on Feb. 8.

“Any operation over the base without prior permission and coordination with appropriate authorities is both illegal and hazardous,” she said. “It’s our intent to support the investigation and prosecution of this reported act, and any others that may occur, in coordination with civilian law enforcement.”

The Seattle Times and the Kitsap Sun quoted a nearby resident, Al Starcevich, as saying that he and his neighbors were interviewed by investigators last week, and that he was told there were repeated drone flights at night.

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How much should drones and people mix?

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Photographer Chase Jarvis with a drone at Gas Works Park in Seattle.

What are the rules for letting a drone get in your face? Right now, there are no rules, but today the Federal Aviation Administration said it’s setting up a committee to come up with a proposal.

The announcement marks the latest step in the FAA’s effort to get a handle on the rapidly rising fleets of small drones, also known as unmanned aircraft systems or UAS.

A year ago, regulators issued draft rules for the operation of commercial drones, like the ones Amazon is working on for package deliveries. Last December, the FAA set up a system for registering recreational drones. Now the FAA and industry representatives will be taking on one of the thornier questions relating to drones: How close can they get to the folks who aren’t operating them?

The newly announced aviation rulemaking committee is due to begin its work in March, and issue its final report to the FAA on April 1.

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GAO shoots down challenge to bomber deal

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A shrouded airplane takes center stage in a Northrop Grumman TV commercial. The company’s Long Range Strike Bomber is similarly shrouded in mystery. (Credit: Northrop Grumman)

The Government Accountability Office ruled that Northrop Grumman won the U.S. Air Force’s contract for the Long Range Strike Bomber fair and square, and turned back a protest of the decision by the Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin.

The next-generation stealth bomber is meant to replace the Air Force’s decades-old B-1 and B-52 bombers starting in the 2020s. The contract could bring as much as $80 billion to Northrop and its subcontractors.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin lost out in the competition, and in November the two companies filed a protest saying that the Defense Department’s selection process didn’t properly weigh all the risks and comparative advantages. After reviewing the record, the GAO denied the protest on Feb. 16, clearing the way for Northrop to resume work on the project.

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