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Boeing Moves Towards New Planes

maliabu writes "Boeing has named its new plane DreamLiner with plans for its future, which is set to fly in 2008. It'll be interesting to see how 'internet-ready' this 7E7 is. It can be very entertaining for all ages as you can brower the net, check emails, weather, watch movies (on demand), listen to music (on demand) or even cut codes some 30,000 feet in the sky! These articles also stated that "The 200-seat 7E7 is meant to replace [a faster plane called] Sonic Cruiser as Boeing's next new major commercial initiative" " I think most people following the airplane builders knew the Sonic Cruiser was dead before birth; but I still don't see how this plane is going to solve Boeing's sales problems.

10 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sales? by drdale · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, maybe it is. When you read the article you will see that one of the plane's selling points is greater fuel efficiency/lower operating costs. It is being aimed precisely at airlines that are being forced to become more efficient in order to stay afloat. And Boeing is expecting the first sales to be to Asian airlines anyway.

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  2. Boeing Link by HowlinMad · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here is the link to the 7E7 site on boeing webpage. It has a few mock-ups so you can see what it looks like.

  3. They'll sell it because it's cheap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Sonic Cruiser idea was to take a bunch of process and technology improvements that Boeing have developed and at the SAME cost of operations, create a bigger/better/faster plane.

    Same Money, More Zing!

    But nobody wanted to buy it...

    SO! This NEW plane, takes the same new developments, and essentially creates a plane that fits in a current purchasing slot and (MAIN POINT HERE) costs 25% less to run.

    Airlines will buy this plane in droves because it will be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to run, saving a fortune in jet fuel. 25% decrease in costs means a realistic chance of getting your profits back, which given the current world situation, is a big selling point.

    The plane will sell itself. Stuff the internal features. That's just fluff.

  4. Ohhhhh...pictures by NETHED · · Score: 4, Informative
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  5. Re:uh... by DrRiffic · · Score: 3, Informative

    Boeing moved from Seattle to Chicago in 2000.

  6. Re:They have to by tbaggy · · Score: 3, Informative

    So far, Airbus has a nice start...link

  7. Huh? Airbus don't make smaller planes? by Moderation+abuser · · Score: 4, Informative

    A320 A330 ranges etc.

    The difference is that Airbus have been giving their customers what they are asking for and Boeing have been giving customers what they've got.

    EasyJet are a prime example of a company switching to Airbus A319s over 737s because the operating costs are significantly lower.

    http://www.easyjet.com/EN/about/aircraft.html

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  8. Re:Personally by mikerich · · Score: 4, Informative
    I refer you to the Brooklyn crash a few months after 9/11 where the tail of an Airbus plane basically fell apart...

    Erm no it didn't; the tail was recovered in two pieces, the main structure of the tail and the rudder itself. What was unusual was that the rudder had cleanly separated from the tail.

    The tail of that airliner passed all airworthiness checks and has been found to have exceeded its design requirements.

    Flight 587 had flown into the wake turbulence of a JAL 747, the pilot followed normal procedures and tried to stabilise his aircraft using the ailerons, which is standard procedure.

    When that failed, he used the tail rudder five times to add extra force to his corrections. These imposed enormous strains on the tail structure which was torn off of the aircraft.

    Again, the tail did not fail because of any structural weakness, it failed because a load was imposed on the structure that lay outside of the design parameters. Such loads had never been anticipated during the design process, nor had they been experienced before this crash.

    American Airlines and Airbus are still fighting over who is to blame. AA claim that Airbus withheld information about the upper limits of forces that can be applied to their airliners, Airbus say that AA did not train their crews correctly.

    However, guidelines have been sent to all airlines and the operators of all types of airliner informing them of the possibility of failure of the tail during excessive rudder movements.

    And remember that Airbus aren't alone in discovering unexpected behaviours in their airliners. The Boeing 737 seems to have suffered a number of crashes resulting from excessive or abberent rudder movements; notably United flight 585 in Colorado and US Air flight 427 in Pennsylvania.

    Best wishes,
    Mike.

  9. Possible 7E7 sales to USAF? by MtViewGuy · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think one possibility is that Boeing may be pushing for sales of airplanes based on the 7E7 design to the USAF.

    This means air-refuelling tankers, 2-3 VIP transports, a combination AWACS/JSTARS airborne radar platform and Electronic Intelligence/Signals Intelligence (ELINT/SIGINT) planes to replace the aging RC-135W/X fleet.

  10. Re:Airline operating margins are unbelievably slim by jbwolfe · · Score: 3, Informative

    re:Of course, if the personnel costs are too high (like United), nothing will help.

    Have you looked at those costs lately. Have you looked at them throughout the century. Do more homework than just reading USA Today. Just so you know, I'll be working half again as many hours for 45% less money. I'm not complaining- just want you to know some facts. It seems common practice to bash (rightly sometimes) labor and ignore (wrongly most of the time) management's missteps. Can't think of any examples of management misdeeds? How 'bout a recent one: American's senior mngt greed got Carty fired about a month ago. Another one: Delta's CEO Leo Mulin was pretty well compensated for an unprofitable airline screaming about need of labor savings- even the politicians thought so. There's much more but I've most likely lost your attention. Do a Google search, but remember how slanted towards business the big media are.
    Go here: http://www.alpa.org/ for a different perspective.
    Lastly, be careful what you ask for. If you pay chump wages, you'll get chump product. This goes for software as well as pilots and mechanics. Do you really want the guy flying you somewhere to be a novice who quits for better pay just at the point where his experience becomes valuable to your safety? Flying is very safe, but its not because of management's drive to reduce costs and put pesky labor in its place!

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