Tag: Farnborough Airshow

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Boeing outdoes Airbus in sales at air show

Boeing and Embraer executives
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg is flanked on the left by Boeing’s chief financial officer, Greg Smith, and on the right by Embraer CEO Paulo Cesar Silva. (Boeing Photo)

Boeing declared victory in its multibillion-dollar sales competition with Airbus at this week’s Farnborough International Airshow — but the details are murkier than usual, in part due to international trade frictions.

Boeing chalked up 528 orders and commitments for airplanes during the show. Airbus’ corresponding tally came to 431, including up to 60 of the A220 jets formerly known as the Bombardier CSeries. Those single-aisle jets would go to a new airline called Moxy, with the first deliveries due in 2021.

To counter that Airbus-Bombardier partnership, Boeing struck a deal of its own earlier this month with Brazil’s Embraer to market small-size passenger jets.

Farnborough’s list-price sales total for Boeing added up to $98.4 billion on the commercial airplane side of its business, and $2.1 billion on the services side. Airbus’ corresponding number shaped up in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion, according to 24/7 Wall Street.

“Boeing led the way at Farnborough, demonstrating value for our customers, capturing important new business in products and services, and announcing the unique strength of our strategic partnership with Embraer,” Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a news release.

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Boeing focuses on drones and its ‘NeXt’ steps

Drone traffic management
Artwork lays out a concept for a traffic management system that would allow drones to share the skies with each other as well as larger aircraft. (NASA Illustration)

Boeing says it’s aiming to create a traffic management system for drones that makes use of artificial intelligence, blockchain technology — and one of the companies in its investment portfolio.

SparkCognition will be Boeing’s partner in the traffic management project. Last year, the Texas-based AI company benefited from a $32.5 million investment round that included funding from Boeing HorizonX Ventures.

Boeing is also creating a new business group, known as Boeing NeXt, to leverage the company’s research and development activities and investments in areas such as autonomous flight, smart cities, advanced propulsion and other parts of the wider transportation ecosystem.

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Flying cars grab air show’s spotlight

Rolls-Royce eVTOL
Artwork shows Rolls-Royce’s eVTOL air vehicle flying over Seattle. (Rolls-Royce Illustration)

The next few days will bring dueling announcements from Boeing and Airbus about how many jetliners they’re selling, but one of the hottest tech frontiers at this week’s Farnborough International Airshow looks forward to something completely different: flying cars.

Aston Martin, the British car company that Agent 007 made famous in a string of James Bond movies, is getting into the act. So is the civil aerospace team at Rolls-Royce, a company that’s as British as it gets.

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Britain chooses Scottish site for its prime spaceport

Sutherland spaceport
Artwork shows the spaceport at Scotland’s Sutherland site. (HIE / Courtesy of Perfect Circle PV)

The British government has selected a spot in Sutherland, on the A’Mhoine Peninsula in the Scottish Highlands, as the site of the country’s first vertical-launch spaceport. Three other sites will receive boosts for horizontal air-launch operations.

In a news release timed to coincide with the opening of this week’s Farnborough International Airshow, the government said it would provide initial funding of £2.5 million ($3.3 million) to Highlands and Islands Enterprise to develop the vertical-launch site in Sutherland, with an aim of seeing the first liftoff in the early 2020s.

The consortium behind the Sutherland bid includes Lockheed Martin.

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Boeing teases Dreamliner jet’s airshow demo

Image: Dreamliner
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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