Tag: Boeing

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Boeing teases Dreamliner jet’s airshow demo

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Boeing’s 787-9 Dreamliner runs through a demonstration flight in advance of the Farnborough International Airshow. (Credit: Boeing)

If you love watching airplanes taking it to the max, you’ll dig the video showing a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner jet rehearsing for next week’s Farnborough International Airshow in England.

The video, released today, tracks the All Nippon Airways jet from inside and out as it makes high-banking turns that demonstrate wing flex, and side-to-side movements that demonstrate the plane’s handling characteristics. Boeing test pilots Randy Neville, Van Chaney and John Misuradze were at the controls for the flight over Moses Lake in central Washington state.

The ANA airplane will show off similar moves during demonstration flights from July 11 to 13 in Farnborough, which serves as the focus for the world’s aviation industry next week. After the show, it’ll be delivered to ANA, the largest operator of the 787 Dreamliner.

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Boeing joins battle over broadband satellites

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An artist’s conception shows a constellation of satellites in orbit. (Credit: OneWeb)

The Boeing Co. is laying out plans to put more than 1,000 satellites into low Earth orbit to provide broadband internet service – and it wants to make sure the Federal Communications Commission preserves the spectrum they’d use.

Boeing thus joins a debate that involves other would-be satellite constellation operators, including OneWeb and SpaceX, as well as the telecom ventures that are planning for 5G broadband mobile services. Like OneWeb and SpaceX, Boeing envisions using a satellite constellation to provide wide-ranging access to the internet and other high-speed data services.

“Next-generation broadband satellite systems can bridge the broadband gap because they are able to deliver advanced communications service to all users at the same cost regardless of location,” Boeing said this week in a filing with the FCC.

Boeing says the system it’s planning would use a range of the radio spectrum known as the V-band, plus another range called the C-band. The V-band is also being eyed by would-be 5G providers, but Boeing argues that the two types of services can co-exist.

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Iranian reports hint at huge Boeing jet deal

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A 787 jet takes shape at Boeing’s plant in Everett, Wash. (GeekWire photo by Alan Boyle)

Reports from Tehran suggest that Iran’s flag carrier airline has struck a deal to purchase jetliners from the Boeing Co., which would mark a milestone in U.S. commercial relations with the Islamic Republic.

“In coming days, details of the deal with this company will be announced,” the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Abbas Akhoundi, Iran’s minister of roads and urban development, as saying today.

The Reuters news agency quoted unnamed sources as saying the deal calls for Iran Air to acquire more than 100 Boeing jets, from the company directly and from leasing companies. Iran Air operates under the umbrella of Akhoundi’s ministry.

Such an arrangement would match Iran Air’s provisional agreement to purchase 118 Airbus jets worth as much as $27 billion. Reuters said that the Airbus agreement, announced in January, still requires export licenses from the United States due to the use of significant U.S. technology.

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Boeing designs solar plane that could fly forever

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An artist’s concept shows Boeing’s solar-powered plane taking off. (Credit: PatentYogi via YouTube)

Aerospace companies have been trying for years to create a solar-powered plane that can fly at high altitudes for years at a time, and now Boeing has come up with an unorthodox design that just might work.

If it does work, that would smooth the way for an application that Facebook and Google are working on as well: sending up high-flying drones that can loiter over a fixed space on Earth to serve as a link for broadband communication services. It almost goes without saying that the concept could have military applications as well.

Last month, engineers at Boeing Phantom Works in California filed a patent application for an electric-powered plane with solar cells covering its wings, including crazy-looking winglets that stick up from the ends. A video from PatentYogi shows off the design, as well as how it could be put to use to deliver Internet, phone and video – even in remote regions where cable can’t be laid.

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Boeing makes $11 billion 737 MAX sale to Vietjet

An artist’s conception shows a Boeing 737 MAX wearing the livery of Vietjet Air. (Credit: Boeing)
An artist’s conception shows a Boeing 737 MAX wearing the livery of Vietjet Air. (Credit: Boeing)

With President Barack Obama looking on, executives from Boeing and Vietjet Air signed a deal in Hanoi worth $11.3 billion for 100 737 MAX airplanes – the biggest single commercial airplane purchase in Vietnam.

The single-aisle MAX 200s will be delivered over a time frame ranging from 2019 through 2023, boosting Vietjet’s fleet to more than 200 planes. The low-cost carrier put in a series of orders with Airbus for A320 and A321 jets over the past two years.

The order for the next-generation, fuel-efficient 737 MAX jets provided a commercial boost for Obama’s first-ever visit to Vietnam this week. Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang was also on hand for Monday’s signing ceremony.

Shortly afterward, Obama announced that the U.S. embargo on arms exports to Vietnam would be fully lifted, removing the final major barrier that remained between Washington and Hanoi in the wake of the Vietnam War.

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Boeing opens billion-dollar 777X wing factory

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VIPs and workers gather for today’s grand opening of the 777X Composite Wing Center in Everett, Wash. The factory’s 120-foot-long autoclave is at right. (Credit: Boeing)

Boeing is showing off the partially automated 777X Composite Wing Center it built at its campus in Everett, Wash. – the result of $1 billion in investment and 14 months of construction work.

Today’s grand opening brought together community leaders, executives and workers at the 1.3 million-square-foot factory, which is big enough to house 25 football fields. It’ll be a while before 777X production begins, however.

Boeing says it has received 320 orders and commitments so far for the wide-body plane, which can accommodate up to 425 passengers in its 777-9 configuration. The first delivery is targeted for 2020.

The 777X’s 114-foot-long wings will be built up from carbon composite material, layer by layer, with the aid of automated fiber placement machines from Electroimpact, based nearby in Mukilteo. The composite pieces will be trimmed and cooked to completion in a 120-foot-long oven known as an autoclave.

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737 MAX jet gets drawn into labor dispute

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An artist’s conception shows a Southwest Airlines 737 MAX taking to the air. (Credit: Boeing)

Is Boeing’s 737 MAX just a 737 jet, or is it something new? That question figures in a years-long battle between Southwest Airlines and its pilots union.

The fuel-efficient 737 MAX made its maiden test flight in January, and Southwest is due to receive the first plane of that breed in the first half of next year. The airline has put in firm orders for 30 of the MAX 7 variant and 170 of the MAX 8.

The issue is that the yet-to-be-delivered 737 MAX isn’t specifically named in the current labor agreement between the airline and the 8,300-member Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association. The two sides have been negotiating over a new contract for more than four years, and dispute has become increasingly bitter. The pilots are seeking higher pay and an improved retirement package, while Southwest is seeking more flexible work rules and improvements in productivity.

The negotiations are currently in federal mediation.

For months, Southwest pilots have been saying that they won’t fly the 737 MAX when it’s delivered, because it’s not listed among the planes covered by the existing contract. Today the union filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in Dallas to block Southwest from flying the 737 MAX until the plane is officially listed in a new contract.

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Boeing delays its astronaut trips to 2018

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The hull of a CST-100 Starliner structural test vehicle is assembled inside Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Credit: NASA)

A top Boeing executive said today that the company plans to start sending crews into orbit aboard its CST-100 Starliner space taxi in 2018, which represents a slight delay in NASA’s previous development schedule.

“We’re working toward our first unmanned flight in 2017, followed by a manned astronaut flight in 2018,” Leanne Caret, who is Boeing’s executive vice president as well as president and chief executive officer of Boeing’s defense, space and security division, said at a briefing for investors.

Previously, Boeing said both test flights, uncrewed and crewed, were scheduled for 2017. Just this week, Aviation Week reported that Boeing was sticking to the 2017 schedule, even though it’s been working through challenges related to the mass of the spacecraft and aeroacoustic issues related to integration with its United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 launch vehicle.

In a follow-up to Caret’s comments, Boeing spokeswoman Rebecca Regan told GeekWire that those factors contributed to the schedule slip. In addition, NASA software updates have added more work for developers.

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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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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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