What gives anyone the idea that Boeing management would do anything better than Spirit management? That’s where the real problem is. Boeing has to get their own house in order, by getting back to the attitude that building the best planes they possibly can is their #1 priority, and if they do that t...
Jump to postCan someone confirm if or to what extend McDonnell Douglas leaders "took over" Boeing after the merger? I've heard this accusation time and time again, including in the NYT article, but sounds like Boeing people scapegoating MDC for their own problems. IIRC, Boeing kept MDC's employees, f...
Jump to postI am a VFR private pilot who has flown mostly in and out of small uncontrolled airports. So I am always concerned about any other aircraft that may be in the vicinity. But I can understand how an airline pilot who flies only in and out of busy controlled airports and under IFR rules would be less fo...
Jump to postIn thinking about Calhoun’s successor, just remember that the CEO who made Boeing great, Bill Allen, wasn’t an engineer or an accountant or anything you normally promote to be the leader; he was a lawyer. Not who you’d expect to become the best leader of a highly technological company in history, wh...
Jump to postThe A340 was conceived to match the 747’s range with reduced capacity and lower costs. It succeeded at this, and would have sold a lot more had Boeing not come out with the 777, which originally had less range but was quickly followed by the ER, which matched the A343 in range and beat it by a small...
Jump to postI cannot see a viable path forward for the industry with only one engine manufacturer, just as I cannot see one with only one airframe manufacturer. Therefore Airbus must find a way to knock RR into shape; if it’s by taking them over that would be preferable to letting them fold. Putting GE engines...
Jump to postWhile you can gravity drop the gear, flaps and slats are hydraulic with no alternate means of deploying them. Flaps and slats would surely have an electric alternate? No, they don’t. Much too heavy. If they could be operated electrically they would have no hydraulic means. But hydraulics are lighte...
Jump to postI cannot see a viable path forward for the industry with only one engine manufacturer, just as I cannot see one with only one airframe manufacturer. Therefore Airbus must find a way to knock RR into shape; if it’s by taking them over that would be preferable to letting them fold. Putting GE engines ...
Jump to postWhile it is clear that different airliner types have different capabilities, there is broad overlap. What is also clear is that each additional type in an airline’s fleet imposes additional costs. It seems to me that the most successful airlines (with WN being the poster child) tend to be those tha...
Jump to postThe fundamental dilemma still remains, and that is that the cost of developing a clean sheet new design is so mind-bogglingly massive that the performance improvement has to be really substantial in order to justify it. So far Boeing has been unable to close the business case for a clean sheet repla...
Jump to postWhile it is clear that different airliner types have different capabilities, there is broad overlap. What is also clear is that each additional type in an airline’s fleet imposes additional costs. It seems to me that the most successful airlines (with WN being the poster child) tend to be those that...
Jump to postWell, as one whose international travel is pretty much exclusively to the Philippines (look at my profile pic to understand why) the introduction of direct flights between MNL and JFK has been a welcome development. The only problem is that they have been much more expensive than other alternatives....
Jump to postI think some 737-300s, -400s, and -500s are still flying. Do not know which carriers, but WN only got rid of theirs when they started taking MAXs. I think they brought some back during the MAX grounding. UA was the first airline to fly the 777. But I believe they were P&W powered hand have been ...
Jump to postSY for Amazon. Very unlikely. I believe almost all freight operations have started with converted airliners and those that have graduated to new builds have only done so after years of operation and growth. Since the Amazon fleet at this point is really only supplementing the established carriers (...
Jump to postAs I see it Boeing got off track badly when they allowed McDonnell-Douglas to buy them out with their money. They went from having engineers run the company to accountants running it. And the MAX debacle was the culmination. I sincerely hope that they are turning back to focusing on engineering as t...
Jump to posthttps://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/121777-air-india-puts-retired-b747-400s-up-for-sale Interesting to see the hours/cycles on the 4 retired 744s of Air India. Were many of the 744s retired by US carriers during Covid younger? Could India get away with selling to Iranian carriers? Since the lif...
Jump to postSeeing as how both the 778 and the 77XF have to be certified separately, I fail to see why it should make a difference which gets done first. If there is any overlap in the process it should work either way. I also suspect that a difference of one frame in length will be of small cost both in certif...
Jump to postThere has been a lot of discussion about the pros, cons, and cost of adding another type into the fleet. I always go back to one of the most consistently profitable airline in the world-Southwest. A core component of their strategy is to only have one aircraft type. They have flirted with other type...
Jump to postThe A350 sales have certainly slowed significantly. There is no arguing that point. And despite the apologists, losing a potential 200 aircraft widebody order is a major blow to Airbus. The A350 may simply be too much aircraft for AA and UA, who both have relatively young, end-of the line 77W's tha...
Jump to postDoes anyone know the lifecycle of the 787? Can it fly for as many years as a 767/777? This order is mind boggling for a widebody order, and I’m wondering if it’s so huge because the 787 wasn’t meant to go the full 25-30 year gauntlet like its predecessors. In theory it should be able to fly longer,...
Jump to postQuite an order, United has a long history of them, I remember reading about their ‘huge order’ for 60 Boeing 247s ! The UA order for 247s was actually a huge blunder by Boeing. Since at that time UA and Boeing (along with P&W) were all under common corporate ownership UA was slated to get all o...
Jump to postI'd like to nominate the very first A300 and maybe the Comet 1 to join that exclusive group, unfortunately Airbus let it get scrapped, and there are no complete Comet 1's left I see your point, although I do not agree. The Comet was a bold attempt, but it was one of the worst design disasters in av...
Jump to postcodc10: Unfortunately, UA doesn't have any displays of aircraft or Memorabilia at any public viewable location. Take a look at the outstanding display of Delta at ATL and witness the pride, legacy, history of that great airline. Their employees actually bought that 767-200! The N777UA would be a gr...
Jump to postIf we don't save the first ones ever built then which ones do we save? The money to preserve planes is limited. My opinion is that we should select ones that truly changed aviation. I don’t see the 777 as one of those planes. It is a magnificent plane and made long haul flying more economical, but ...
Jump to postHUH? The first 727 and one of if not the first 737 are at the museum at BFI along with the first 747. The first 757 is still active as a Boeing testbed, look up BOE57A. I believe even the first 787 is already at a museum, there is even a 787 at the Pima Air and Space Museum here in Tucson. Airbus s...
Jump to postI have long wondered about the eternal order of 45 A350s that persists like the ghost from Christmas past. At this point I would think that if UA had any intention of ever adding the A350 to its fleet that the first step would be to actually schedule delivery of those aircraft. From the comments of ...
Jump to postWait, what? It got orders from most of the US legacies (NW being the major exception, and TW, but they were circling the drain). It also got orders from almost every notable international major with LH and QF being the most obvious exceptions. And when the 777-200ER hit, offering similar range to t...
Jump to postThe number of people who care about this particular airplane is quite small. Yes, to some (most of whom are probably on this forum) it has great significance, but to 99.5% of the population it’s a “so what?” deal. To aviation buffs the 777 is a very significant plane that solidified the concept tha...
Jump to postThe other problem is that when it was first introduced the 777 was not the runaway success that it later became. The alternatives (767, 747, MD-11, A-330 and A340) all (except perhaps the MD-11) were not outclassed, and each had their own niche. Wait, what? It got orders from most of the US legacie...
Jump to postThe number of people who care about this particular airplane is quite small. Yes, to some (most of whom are probably on this forum) it has great significance, but to 99.5% of the population it’s a “so what?” deal. To aviation buffs the 777 is a very significant plane that solidified the concept that...
Jump to postAs I see it the A330neo is a missed opportunity by Airbus. They launched it betting that Boeing couldn’t do two things: cut costs and increase production of the 787. But Boeing did both. Now the 787 offers equal or better price and performance to the A330neo, so the only compelling reason to go with...
Jump to postThe problem both Boeing and Airbus are facing is that both of them have a product line that pretty well covers the demand for large airliners. The hole that the NMA was supposed to fill is not really there; the main problem is that it is filled by long single-aisle planes that are slow to load and u...
Jump to posthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent ... light_1713
Jump to postSince there are smaller planes with lower seat-mile costs than the A380 it only makes sense to fly them if they can reliably be filled enough that because of equipment or staffing shortages enough additional passengers can be carried at high enough fares that profit is higher. Just because there are...
Jump to posttvh wrote:SEPilot wrote:I take it that all 747s have now been delivered except for the VIP one originally built for the Saudi prince?
And the 2x V-25B, Air Force One
I take it that all 747s have now been delivered except for the VIP one originally built for the Saudi prince?
Jump to postTo bad we do not know what reference "fuel burden" refers too - and is it the same in both cases? If it is trip fuel vs. the 777-300ER it would be very good, if it is per passenger, it would be roughly in the bracket of the a350-1000 vs. 777-300ER - which is still good, but not as spectac...
Jump to postAs I understand it, the A343 is competitive economically with the 77E. I think it was slightly inferior, which is probably why it did not sell as well. But you can buy an awful lot of fuel and maintenance for the payment on a shiny new A350. Plus, since it is more than likely paid for, it is much le...
Jump to postAs an retired machine design engineer (I designed the grinding machines that grind the bores of nearly all Boeing landing gear struts) who has also been a do-it-yourselfer all my life, I can attest that this is an extraordinarily stupid idea. In my main area of expertise, I was thorough, fast, and e...
Jump to postAirbus canceling QR’s remaining A350s is the least surprising headline since Tom Brady unretired.
Jump to postP2F conversions appeal to operators with limited capital; they trade low acquisition cost for higher fuel and maintenance cost. Both FX and 5X seem to have come to the point where they can afford the capital cost of new planes and prefer the reliability and lower maintenance downtime that they bring...
Jump to postPreserving aircraft is expensive and takes a lot of space. What’s more, that space pretty much has to be adjacent to an airport where space is at a premium. And the percentage of the population that cares is very, very small. Derelict aircraft that have been sitting at a minor airport and are not fl...
Jump to postIt would not be a big job to create a 767F NEO. As I understand it the 748 engine meets 2027 rules, and the 747 and 767 use the same engine. I suspect that due to the troubles Boeing has been having with the FAA since the MAX fiasco they would like to get the 779 and MAX10 sorted out before they eve...
Jump to postHas anyone considered that this might have nothing to do with politics but might simply be a case of CI buying the plane that best suits their needs? Especially if they are looking at the 787-10, for which Airbus has no direct competitor. If they don’t need the range of the 789 or A339 then the econ...
Jump to postNot at all surprised. Didn't the 77W "overperform" after EIS? From what I recall the unexpectedly good performance of the 77W is what led to the slowdown in 77E orders. But the 77E is still a very capable plane. Once the 77W and 77L were in production Boeing effectively discontinued the 7...
Jump to postMy primary instructor taught me that if you need an emergency landing site first choice would be an interstate, but never a secondary road. Of course I am (and was) in Vermont where traffic is usually sparse and fields are relatively abundant. His reasoning was that interstates have traffic going on...
Jump to postReplacing a wing on a passenger jet is not a small operation ... sure the manufacturer has a procedure for doing so (as well as all associated part #s you'd have to order) ... but time/effort/cost? It's like a bent frame on a car : you go buy a new/used car. So with that in mind, here's a question ...
Jump to postLooking at the infographic, it seems that they want to keep the whole fan diameter below the wing as it can introduce a lot of aero interactions. This gives CFM a little bit more than 4m for their Open Fan design. will tail mounted engines be making a come back? :hyper: No. Tail mounted engines are...
Jump to postThank you. Still wondering what kept NH from streamlining their narrowbody fleet to all A32xNeo now that they had the opportunity. Price? Delivery slots? Something else? Using the right tool, for the right job. The 737 fits well in into their stable, as does the 320. What are you trying to say? You...
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