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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.
Sorry, not interested in browering during a plane trip, but as soon as they install a brewery I'll be the first to buy a ticket!
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
Boeing has to come with something new. This year will probably be the first year that Airbus will sell more planes than Boeing.
As someone working in the aerospace industry I cannot help but wonder: how do these guy expect to develop such a plane in such a very short time? Unless it is heavily based on an existing design. Usually it takes up to 10 years to bring a plane up to production.
Anybody some information about that?
There is almost nothing new with this airplane. Its baiscally a modernized 757/767 with more fuel-efficient engines and light-weight material. Similar materials are used on the Airbus A380. I am not an airbus fan, but something like the A380 is just way more spectacular than this. Even the new 747-800 that was just announced is a way cooler airplane.
E for e-enabled? Come on! Conexxion by Boeing can be put into pretty much every Boeing and probably most other major aircraft as well. I had a lot of fun on Lufthansa LH418 surfing the net 30000 feet above Iceland and I would really like to see this on every long-haul flight. But there's no need for a new airplane to offer this, its already there. Lufthansa will soon offer this on most of their trans-atlantic flights.
They rely on marketing to make this plane look like something so spectacular that it deserves a "real" name (not sticking to the 7x7 tradition). But the technology is plain boring. I can understand their decision, given the current market situation, but trying to sell this as something extraordinary is prettty dumb.
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.
It's a gamble. Both Boeing and Airbus have realized that airlines want flexibility to cater to different passenger mixes on different routes. Airbus are going after the few-large-planes model: an A380 can sit 800 passengers in an all-economy configuration, or 550 in a mixed configuration that also includes entertainment facilites like shops (or casinos or bars or whatever). The stretch A380 will be able to seat 1000 in all-economy. It gives the airlines the ability to take advantages of economies of scale on busy routes for low fares, or to customize their aircraft into a premium service for people who are willing to pay. For example, when the economy picks up, it will be easy to attract investment bankers to fly from London to SF on a plane that has proper conference facilities (meeting rooms, comms, etc). Flat(ish) beds in business class are great for the redeye, but what if you could have showers too? And so forth...
Boeing are going after a different kind of flexibility, the many-small-planes model. The idea behind Sonic Cruiser was a premium for a faster service on mid-haul routes. The Dreamliner may be meeting a need that doesn't exist; certainly Asian airlines are huge fans of large airliners, they have the passenger numbers and distances that justify them. But the Dreamliner is in a bit of a funny niche. It has some of the facilities on board that business travellers would pay for - but without the amenities that allow the airlines to generate revenue actually in flight. If they all come kitted out with the fancy comms, how do you cater to budget travellers, especially on short haul routes where no-one really cares about entertainment anyway? You might be able to use them profitably on some business routes (i.e. London to Frankfurt) where everyone on board is a business traveller, but for a mixed load of business people and vacationers (say London to NYC) does Dreamliner cater to all those budgets?
I think that Airbus have the right idea, apart from the fact that the A380 standard - let alone the stretch - is so damn big that it will require upgrades to airport infrastructure to handle it. Everything from being able to board and deplane through existing terminals to just being able to park them in a hangar! But for mid to long haul routes, they're pretty compelling. I just don't see where Dreamliner fits in - too elaborate for short to mid, not elaborate enogh for mid to long and long.
'cut codes'? You mean 'write computer programs'?
Am I getting old? Or have you just been reading wayyy too many cyberpunk novels?
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
It seems to me that maybe Boeing is producing too little too late. As the Airbus representative said, "This is a market where we already have an airplane." And weâ(TM)re talking 5 YEARS away from rolling off the assembly line. They havenâ(TM)t even chose a site for manufacturing yet!
So it seems to me they have a few things to get ironed out if they have any chance of competingâ¦.
A) Tall people on 20-hour trans-Atlantic flights NEED MORE LEG ROOM! (Iâ(TM)m 6â(TM)3â or 195 cm) Iâ(TM)d WEEP FOR JOY and never ride in a competitorâ(TM)s plane again if I stepped aboard and found that I could comfortably plant my ass in a seat without having to put myself in uncomfortable positions to accommodate my long legs.
B) Some sort of ACTUAL reclining would be nice. Iâ(TM)m sure its possible to allow just as many people to board a flight and provide a little comfort without the fear that youâ(TM)re cramping the passenger behind you even more.
C) Iâ(TM)m sure all those 6 figure a year making brainy-boys out at Boeing could do a little tinkering and figure out SOME way of allowing passengers to use assorted electronic gadgetry on flights without causing nose-dives and fiery apocalyptic deaths for everyone on board. Perhaps some sort of array of jacks on the back of the seats that would allow all outgoing and incoming transmissions from said gadgetry to be channeled through a single antennae or array that could be monitored and checked against the data coming to the pilot in the cockpit, thereby avoiding disaster and making customers happier.
D) Do something about the food. Good lord you could excavate a TV dinner from the 1970s out of a landfill, heat it up and it would be more palatable than the garbage they serve on some flightsâ¦*cough cough* United *cough cough*
In my infinitely humble opinion, if Boeing would catch on to consumer demand and implement a few or all of these suggestions theyâ(TM)d be able to truly revolutionize the airline industry and make a few billion in the process and thus enhance shareholder confidence along with personal assets!
Belief that Perspectives matter more than Facts = Mark of the Truly Ignorant