Chicago Tribune | The global factory

Chicago Tribune | The global factory: "Boeing's move is part of a vast restructuring that will forever change the way it makes airplanes. Using its newest plane, the 787 Dreamliner, as a template, Boeing is moving away from its legacy as a wrench-turning manufacturer. The new Boeing will be a master planner, marketer and snap-together assembler of high-tech jetliners."

Chicago Tribune | Boeing bets big on a plastic plane

Chicago Tribune | Boeing bets big on a plastic plane: "The structural properties of composites are well known. The danger is economic. If testing shows that Boeing must layer on more composite material to make its fuselage sound, or if it has to tweak its process endlessly to achieve the right tolerances, it could drive up weight and costs. Moreover, he said, coordinating design and testing among a group of far-flung partners makes the chore of certification all that much more difficult"

Aerospace Notebook: 787 to have maintenance 'guarantees'

Aerospace Notebook: 787 to have maintenance 'guarantees': "Boeing has worked with its airline customers to beef up areas around the cargo and passengers doors of the 787, where most 'ramp rash' occurs. It is fairly common for jets to be dented and damaged on and around doors when they are hit by ground carts and bridges.
Boeing could take a substantial amount of additional weight out of the 787, Hale said, but airlines wanted those areas reinforced. The savings from less maintenance to repair ramp damage will far outweigh the higher costs of operating a slightly heavier 787, he said."

Aerospace Notebook: Backlash from Airbus ads still fresh

Aerospace Notebook: Backlash from Airbus ads still fresh: "'Those Airbus ads were an embarrassment from the word go,' said Richard Aboulafia, senior aerospace analyst with the Teal Group, an industry consulting firm near Washington, D.C.
'You should never use the issue of safety as a competitive advantage,' he said. 'It's a dumb place to go.'"

Aviation Predictions:2005 - The Boyd Group

Aviation Predictions:2005 - The Boyd Group: "In that context, let's do some righteous forecasting. Boeing is building the 7E7 - a replacement for existing 757/767/A-300 airliners, offering 15% - 20% better economics. Airbus is building the A-380 WhaleJet - a 550-seat replacement for the 747. Let's be blunt. The 7E7 is based on hard futurist fleet projections. The A-380 is a political airplane - the Europeans want a monument to show off to the world, one that shows their industrial prowess is better than that of the US.
And that perfectly describes the Concorde program of the 1960s. The WhaleJet may be no different."

Boeing rival waits in the wings for tanker news

Boeing rival waits in the wings for tanker news: " John Douglass, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, a U.S. trade group, said Airbus has never built a single plane for the United States Air Force.
'So why would the Air Force want to do that?' he said.
'Would the Air Force want to be in business with them (Airbus ) and be dependent on spares and run the risk of some future Iraq and the French saying they won't give us any spare parts?'"

Airliners.net Civil Aviation: "Any 747 Order Is A Potential A380 Order". Airbus

Airliners.net Civil Aviation: "Any 747 Order Is A Potential A380 Order". Airbus: "the A350 won't have bleedless engines, they will use the same engines as the 787 but they will use bleed air. Thus they won't be removing the duct work and other bleed air support systems thus that weight will still be carried along. The 787 will be bleedless becuase it is designed from the outset to be bleedless the A350 is derivative of the A330 which uses bleed air. To redesign the A350 to be bleedless would entail a wholesale new design and would cost significantly more than $5bn."