Tag: Boeing

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Boeing and China seal $37B in airplane deals

Xi and Trump
Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump greet children in Beijing. (White House Photo)

With President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping looking on, Boeing and China Aviation Supplies Holding Co. today signed an agreement for the purchase of 300 airplanes valued at more than $37 billion.

The agreement provided a public relations boost to all sides: Trump and Boeing could herald a win for U.S. exports, while Xi could soften China’s image in the minds of the American public and policymakers.

“China is a valued customer and key partner, and we’re proud that Boeing airplanes will be a part of its fleet growth for years to come,” Kevin McAllister, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a statement. “Boeing and China have a strong history of working together based on great mutual respect, and these orders build on that foundation.”

But Boeing didn’t say how many of the 260 single-aisle and 40 twin-aisle airplanes were the subject of previous agreements, repackaged for public consumption. Bloomberg News quoted unnamed sources as saying that most of the planes were in fact parts of deals going back to 2013.

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Startups win $500,000 for zero-gravity tech

The International Space Station serves as an orbiting laboratory. (NASA Photo)

The Boeing Co. and a nonprofit group called the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS, have teamed up for the fourth year in a row to provide financial support for orbital entrepreneurship through the MassChallenge startup accelerator program.

This year’s three winning projects will split $500,000 in grants for experiments designed to be done aboard the International Space Station in microgravity, popularly known as zero gravity.

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Boeing HorizonX invests in Gamma Alloys

Gamma Alloys bars
Gamma Alloys’ nano-reinforced aluminum can be extruded into bars. (Gamma Alloys Photo)

Boeing’s latest venture-capital investment, in a company called Gamma Alloys, aims to give a boost to next-generation aluminum alloys that may show up one day in Boeing’s airplanes.

The investment by Boeing’s HorizonX venture arm, announced today, is the first to focus on advanced materials and machining development and applications.

Gamma Alloys, founded in 2008 with its headquarters in Valencia, Calif., is developing alloys that use alumina nanoparticles (Al2O3) to reinforce aluminum. Boeing says the alloys provide increased stiffness, improved wear resistance and greater strength than current materials across a wider range of temperatures.

Nano-reinforced alloys are particularly well-suited for applications in aerospace and automobile manufacturing.

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Humans and robots kick off 777X jet production

Boeing 777X banner
Boeing workers sign a banner celebrating the start of production for the 777X jet. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

EVERETT, Wash. — With the rat-a-tat-tat of a robotic riveter, Boeing celebrated the official kickoff for production of its next-generation 777X wide-body jet.

Today’s ceremony brought more than 200 Boeing workers (plus a busload of journalists) to the building where the support structures for the 777X’s carbon composite wings are being assembled.

The climax of the celebration came when a laser-guided robotic arm drilled a hole into the carbon fiber layer for a 105-foot-long wing spar and its stiffener, and then loudly installed the first fastener.

Workers greeted the noise with applause.

“We’re turning the chapter,” Jason Clark, vice president of 777 and 777X operations, told the crowd. “This is a change in the history of how we manufacture, how we assemble and how we fly our aircraft.”

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Boeing HorizonX invests in Near Earth Autonomy

Near Earth drone
Near Earth Solutions works on software and sensor technologies for autonomous aircraft ranging in size from drones to helicopters. (Near Earth Solutions Photo)

Boeing’s venture capital arm, Boeing HorizonX, says it has made a substantial investment in Near Earth Autonomy, a Pittsburgh-based startup that focuses on technologies for autonomous flight.

Boeing and Near Earth also announced a partnership to explore future products and applications for emerging markets such as urban mobility.

The move follows up on Boeing’s acquisition of a more established company in the realm of autonomous flight, Aurora Flight Sciences, and underscores the fact that the aerospace giant is turning more attention to robotic flying machines.

Neither Boeing nor Near Earth Autonomy said precisely how much was being invested.

“What I can tell you is that Boeing HorizonX typically makes investments that span the single millions up to the low double-digit millions,” Boeing spokeswoman Megan Hilfer told GeekWire in an email. “The investment in Near Earth Autonomy is at the higher end of that range.”

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Airbus-Bombardier deal complicates jet dispute

Airbus and Bombardier jets
An artist’s conception puts Bombardier’s CS100 jet alongside Airbus’ A320neo. (Airbus Illustration)

Airbus added a twist to a U.S.-Canada trade dispute by announcing a plan to partner up with Bombardier, the Boeing Co.’s Canadian rival.

The plan calls for Airbus to take on a majority stake in Bombardier’s C Series line of passenger jets, which is due to be hit by U.S. tariffs of nearly 300 percent.

Europe-based Airbus will own 50.01 percent of the C Series limited partnership, leaving Bombardier with about 31 percent and Investissement Quebec with 19 percent. The partnership’s headquarters and primary assembly line will remain in Quebec, but Airbus said it would expand C Series production to its manufacturing site in Alabama.

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Boeing to buy Aurora to boost autonomous flight

eVTOL aircraft
Aurora Flight Sciences’ electric-powered, autonomous eVTOL aircraft is being developed for Uber. (Aurora Flight Sciences Photo)

Boeing says it has struck a deal to acquire Aurora Flight Sciences, a leader in the field of autonomous flight, to beef up its own capabilities on that frontier.

Aurora has been working with Uber on a new type of electric-powered autonomous aircraft that takes off and lands vertically. The Virginia-based company has reportedly worked with Google as well on that company’s hush-hush Project Skybender, which is aimed at developing high-altitude drones for long-duration flights.

Boeing, meanwhile, has been raising its profile in autonomous flight. It already owns Insitu, a company headquartered in Bingen, Wash., that specializes in unmanned aerial systems for military and civil applications. And this year, Boeing executives said they were moving forward with tests that could ultimately lead to self-flying planes.

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Boeing wins seven contracts for data analytics

Boeing air flow visualization
Software helps Boeing visualize the air flow over a plane’s wings. (Boeing Graphic)

Seven more companies have joined the list of customers for data analytics services from Boeing AnalytX, bringing the total of contracts signed this year to 223.

Boeing AnalytX is part of the aircraft manufacturer’s drive to capitalize on the growing demand for after-market services ranging from maintenance to cost-saving efficiencies.

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U.S. officials slap 220% tariff on Canadian jets

Delta Bombardier jet
An artist’s conception shows Bombardier’s CS100 jet in Delta Air Lines’ livery. (Delta Illustration)

The U.S. Commerce Department today issued a preliminary finding that Canada’s Bombardier aircraft company was getting unfair subsidies for its CSeries jets — and laid out a plan that would more than triple the cost of the jets being bought by Delta Air Lines.

As a result of the ruling, the importers of Canadian civil aircraft with a capacity of 100 to 150 seats would have to pay a 219.63 percent tariff.

The ruling sides with Boeing, which filed a petition complaining that Bombardier’s sale of 75 CS100 jets to Delta was being subsidized by the governments of Canada as well as Britain. Bombardier is based in Montreal, but its wings are built in Northern Ireland.

“The U.S. values its relationships with Canada, but even our closest allies must play by the rules,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement. “The subsidization of goods by foreign governments is something that the Trump administration takes very seriously, and we will continue to evaluate and verify the accuracy of this preliminary determination.”

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Boeing backs $2M contest for flying machines

GoFly contest
The $2 million GoFly Prize for personal flying devices aims to make a splash. (GoFly via YouTube)

For decades, if not centuries, people have been dreaming about flying free like a bird — and now there’s a $2 million contest to bring that dream closer to reality, made possible with a boost from Boeing.

Over the next two years, the GoFly Prize program aims to provide incentives for teams to develop one-person flying devices that are capable of making vertical or near-vertical takeoffs and taking 20-mile aerial trips — without refueling or recharging.

“Two years from now, we will be able to look to the sky and say, ‘Look at that person flying,’” GoFly CEO Gwen Lighter told GeekWire. Lighter, an entrepreneur based in Connecticut, has been working with NASA and other organizations for years to get GoFly off the ground.

The program was unveiled today at the SAE 2017 AeroTech Congress and Expositionin Fort Worth, Texas, kicking off a months-long registration period.

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