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$15.1 billion Emirates jet deal boosts Boeing

Emirates 787 Dreamliner
Emirates Airline says it is ordering 40 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners. (Emirates Airline Photo)

The Boeing Co. and Emirates Airline wowed the 2017 Dubai Airshow today with a commitment for the purchase of 40 787-10 Dreamliners, valued at $15.1 billion at current list prices.

The planes will be delivered starting in 2022, said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and CEO of Emirates Airline and Group.

Observers said the orders came as a surprise, especially considering that Airbus has been negotiating with Emirates for a large order of jets.

The Associated Press quoted Sheikh Ahmed as saying the 787 was “the best option … given its maintenance and so on.” Emirates may still announce an order for Airbus’ larger A380 jets later in the week.

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Tesla stock drops amid Model 3 production snags

Tesla robot assembly
Robots assemble a Model 3 electric car at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, Calif. (Tesla via Vimeo)

Tesla share prices declined 5 percent in after-hours trading today, due to a grimmer-than-expected quarterly report that highlighted snags in the production ramp-up for the company’s make-or-break Model 3 electric car.

The company reported its biggest-ever net quarterly loss, $619.4 mllion or $3.70 per share. It also said it expects to hit a target of making 5,000 Model 3 cars by next March, rather than by December as promised earlier. Only 260 Model 3’s were built during the third quarter of this year.

Tesla said the biggest source of the delay is the assembly line for the Model 3’s battery module at the company’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. “The combined complexity of module design and its automated manufacturing process has taken this line longer to ramp than expected,” the company said in the third-quarter report.

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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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Virgin invests in (and rebrands) Hyperloop One

Richard Branson
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson dons a hardhat during his visit to Hyperloop One’s test track in Nevada. (Virgin Photo / Greg Rose)

British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has invested in the Hyperloop One rapid-transit venture, which will soon be rebranded as Virgin Hyperloop One, the company announced today.

The arrangement was described as a global strategic partnership rather than an acquisition.

“For more than 20 years, Richard and Virgin have been at the forefront of transportation innovation, and a partnership with them feels like a natural fit,” Shervin Pishevar, co-founder and executive chairman of Hyperloop One, said in a news release. “Virgin is an iconic brand, and having Richard as an ally will help strengthen our mission to spread Hyperloop One throughout the world.”

In a Virgin.com blog posting, Branson said Hyperloop One was “just the latest example” of Virgin’s passion for innovation.

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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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Zunum unveils electric plane design for 2022

Zunum 2022 airplane
An artist’s conception shows Zunum Aero’s hybrid-to-electric airplane in flight. (Zunum Photo)

Zunum Aero is fleshing out its plan to build an electric-powered airplane that could be delivered to airlines as early as 2022.

To gear up for testing, the Kirkland, Wash.-based startup has added a second development center in the Chicago area, said Zunum founder and CEO Ashish Kumar.

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James Dyson reveals $2.7B electric car project

James Dyson
James Dyson holds a Dyson 360 Eye robotic vacuum-cleaner. Will he be showing off an electric car in 2020? (Dyson Photo)

Would you buy a new electric car from this vacuum-cleaner salesman? James Dyson, the founder of the Dyson gadget powerhouse, is betting $2.7 billion that you will.

Today Dyson, who made his name with high-tech vacuum cleaners and has branched out into fans, heaters, hair dryers and other electric devices, took the wraps off a secret project to design a battery-powered vehicle, with the product launch set for 2020.

A billion British pounds ($1.35 billion) would go toward developing the car, and another billion would go toward making the battery.

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Hyperloop One highlights 10 transit targets

Hyperloop One
An artist’s concept shows a Hyperloop transit tube heading toward a city skyline. (Hyperloop One Illustration)

A California startup that aims to turn tech pioneer Elon Musk’s Hyperloop rapid-transit concept into reality has chosen 10 winners in a global competition – including proposed routes stretching from Chicago to Pittsburgh, Cheyenne to Denver, Dallas to Houston and Miami to Orlando.

Other winners in the Hyperloop One Global Challenge include teams from Canada and Mexico, Britain and India – but no one from the Pacific Northwest.

Teams proposing a Seattle-to-Portland passenger line and a cargo route centered on Vancouver in British Columbia were among two dozen semifinalists in the yearlong contest that didn’t make the final cut.

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How Air Force One’s price is being trimmed

Air Force One
Artwork shows a Boeing 747-8 jet outfitted for use as Air Force One. (FSB-Pond Illustration)

President Donald Trump was stretching the truth when he claimed that he trimmed a billion dollars from the cost of procuring the next two Air Force One planes, but a report on Defense One reveals that significant savings are indeed being made – primarily by cutting back on features that are on the existing Air Force One planes.

According to today’s report, there’s at least one capability on the current Boeing 747-200B jets that the Boeing 747-8 planes acquired last month won’t be able to match: aerial refueling.

Air Force sources told Defense One that the current aircraft, which entered presidential service in 1990, have never used that capability. And thanks to an expanded range of nearly 9,000 statute miles, as opposed to the current range of 7,750 miles, the new planes should be able to manage without an in-flight fill-up.

Going without the aerial refueling was just one of the cost-cutting measures that came out of Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg’s December meeting with Trump and the follow-up talks between Boeing and the Pentagon, Defense One reported.

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Boeing claims edge in jet subsidy battle

Composite wing center
Boeing’s 777X composite wing center was built in Washington state after lawmakers approved tax incentives for the company. (Boeing Photo)

An appeals panel for the World Trade Organization has reversed an earlier ruling against an $8.7 billion Washington state tax incentive program that persuaded the Boeing Co. to build the 777X jet at its plant in Everett, Wash.

Boeing hailed the Sept. 4 reversal as a “significant victory” for the federal Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. aerospace industry, and a “resounding defeat” for the European Union’s efforts to justify subsidies to Airbus.

The ruling “confirms that the tax treatment Boeing and others are receiving in Washington state is not a prohibited subsidy,” Boeing said in a statement.

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