Paris Air Show – Day 2 – Orders

Overview about orders that have been made on day 2 of the 47th International Paris Air Show, Le Bourget.

paris07-airbuspress.jpg

Airbus

  • Intrepid Aviation Group has purchased 20 A330-200Fs, the newest freighter model offered by Airbus. This is the largest order received for this aircraft so far. Intrepid’s order has deliveries starting in 2010 and running through 2012. The aircraft will be leased by Intrepid to its cargo customers worldwide. Intrepid also stated interest in a possible future A330-300F model. Airbus will prove this -300F idea.
  • Fly Asian Express (FAX) has signed a contract for the purchase of 15 A330-300s, increasing its initial commitment by five aircraft. This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for 10 A330s in April 2007. The first new A330 will be delivered to FAX, the operating company for AirAsiaX, the world’s newest long haul, low cost airline during the third quarter of 2008.
  • Thai Airways International has placed a firm order for 8 additional A330-300s, taking another significant step in its long-term Airbus fleet development plan. The new A330-300s will provide extra capacity on Thai Airways International’s extensive regional network from 2008 onwards. Furthermore Thai reconfirms its A380 order of 6, delivery of first one in 2010.
  • An unnamed private buyer ordered 1 A380 for personal use as a private jet for him and his entourage. Airbus didn’t want to publish his identity but he’s not from Europe or the US.
  • Russian airline Aeroflot has signed a contract to buy 5 Airbus A321 planes. Aeroflot also said its fleet included 27 Airbus A320 planes and that it planned to raise that number to 55 by 2010. It gave no further details.

Boeing

  • International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) will expand its fleet with a new order for 50 additional 787 Dreamliners. ILFC will take delivery of its first 787 Dreamliner in 2010, with additional airplanes arriving through 2017. Today’s order also includes 10 Next-Generation 737s, which extends ILFC’s delivery stream through 2012.
    In addition, Boeing and ILFC disclosed an order booked earlier this year exercising options for two 787-8 Dreamliners and one 777-300ER (Extended Range) for delivery in early 2009, which was previously listed on Boeing’s Orders and Deliveries Web site and attributed to an unidentified customer.

Engines

  • Colombia’s Avianca has chosen Rolls-Royce Trent engines for up to 30 widebody jets from Airbus and Boeing. The potential value of the contract to Rolls-Royce is $1.1 billion at catalogue prices. In addition, all the engines will be supported by Rolls-Royce under 10-year TotalCare service agreements. The order – the first for the Trent in Latin America consists of Trent 1000 engines for ten firm plus ten option Boeing 787s, and Trent 700s to power five firm and five option A330s.
  • Aeroflot has become the latest customer for the Rolls-Royce Trent engine series. The Russian flag carrier has selected the Trent 700 to power its new fleet of 10 leased Airbus A330-200s. The order includes a long term TotalCare services agreement.
  • AerCap Holdings N.V. signed an agreement with Rolls-Royce to power ten of the new A330 aircraft that it ordered earlier this year from Airbus with Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines.
  • Intrepid has selected Rolls-Royce Trent 700 for 17 of its 20 newly ordered A330-200Fs. No selection has been made yet for the remaining 3, whether PW4000 or again Trent 700.
  • Fly Asian Express (FAX) has choosen Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines to power its newly purchased 15 A330-300

Paris Air Show – Day 1 – Orders

Day 1 of the 47th International Paris Air Show, Le Bourget is over. Many orders have been made. Let’s give you an overview about the hottest news today.

Airbus

  • Qatar Airways orders 80 A350 XWBs and additional 3 A380s
  • Emirates Airline orders 8 additional Airbus A380s
  • Jazeera Airways orders 30 Airbus A320
  • US Airways agrees to buy 92 Airbus aircraft for the airline’s future fleet renewal; The 92 total firm orders are comprised of 22 A350-800s, 10 A330-200s and 60 A320-family aircraft – a mix of A319s, A320s and A321s. Airline increased order for 2 more A350 XWB from 20 to 22.
  • Aircraft financer GECAS orders 60 A320 Family aircraft
  • ALAFCO, the Kuwait-based international Aviation Lease and Finance Company, has signed a firm contract for 12 A350 XWBs. In addition, ALAFCO has also ordered 7 A320s
  • S7 Group, the managing company of S7 Airlines, orders 25 Airbus A320
  • Air France has signed a Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) for the purchase of 2 additional A380s and 18 A320 Family aircraft
  • Tunisian carrier Nouvelair has signed a contract for the purchase of 2 A320s

paris07-qatar.jpg paris07-emirates.jpg

Boeing

  • GECAS orders for 6 Boeing 777 Freighters
  • Jakarta-based Lion Air orderes additional 40 737-900ER (Extended Range)

Embraer

  • Embraer has signed a contract with Germany’s Lufthansa for 30 firm orders of the EMBRAER 190 jet, with the option to take any member of the E-Jets family. The first Lufthansa EMBRAER 190 is scheduled for delivery in January 2009. The existing firm orders for 15 EMBRAER 170 and 15 EMBRAER 195 jets placed by SWISS have been cancelled.
  • Embraer has signed with Japan Airlines (JAL) to deliver 10 EMBRAER 170 jets, with options to acquire another 5 aircraft. The aircraft will be fitted with a single-class interior and the first delivery is scheduled in 2008.

Engines

  • US Airways choose Rolls-Royce for their new ordered Airbus A350 XWB
  • China Eastern Airlines choose Rolls-Royce V2500 engines to power 30 Airbus A320
  • Rolls-Royce announced that International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) has selected the Rolls-Royce Trent 700 to power up to five additional Airbus A330s it is adding to its fleet
  • UK low-cost airline, Flyglobespan, has selected the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 to power the two Boeing 787 Dreamliners it is leasing from International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC)
  • Rolls-Royce announced the largest-ever firm engine order for its civil aerospace business in an order with Qatar Airways worth $5.6 billion at list prices, which includes a Total Care long term services agreement. The order is for Trent XWB engines to power Qatar’s new fleet of 80 Airbus A350 XWB

787 – Problems Joining Fuselage Sections – Fuselage Gaps

Boeing told that workers have finally joined the nose section of the 787 to the forward fuselage, but a spokeswoman admitted the two composite fuselage barrels were not a seamless fit and the solution proved “challenging.”

A Everett factory source told there were unexpected problems in trying to join fuselage sections and that loads had to be applied by engineers to finally connect the forward and nose sections. This required that some internal structure installed before the sections arrived in Everett be removed to make the massive one-piece composite barrels less rigid, the source said.

This also added to the growing work load that Boeing faces in order to meet the July 8 rollout date.

Boeing engineers calculated the amount of hydraulic load that could be safely applied to the structures to force the sections to fit, the source said.

The problem was on the left side of section 41 – the nose and cockpit – manufactured by Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita. A bulge of more than an inch and a half was discovered when that section was initially lined up in tooling to be connected with the forward fuselage section 43, manufactured by Kawasaki in Japan, the source said.

Section 41 arrives from Wichita as one piece. Section 43 is connected in Charleston, S.C., with mid fuselage sections 46 and 44 that are manufactured by Alenia in Italy. That entire fuselage structure is flown to Everett for final assembly. (Seattle Times)

Photos of the 787 Fuselage Gaps

787 Fuselage Gaps
787 Fuselage Gaps
787 Fuselage Gaps
787 Fuselage Gaps
787 Fuselage Gaps
787 Fuselage Gaps

Boeing begins 787 Dreamliner final assembly

Final assembly of the all-new Boeing 787 Dreamliner began yesterday, May 21, with a ceremony in Everett, Wash.

“Today we begin assembling the first airplane of a new generation,” said Scott Strode, 787 vice president of Airplane Definition and Production. “The 787 not only will revolutionize air travel, it represents a new way of building airplanes.”

With 568 firm orders from 44 airlines, the 787 is the fastest-selling new airplane in aviation history. The 787 production system was designed using Lean manufacturing techniques in a simplified final assembly process.

“The 787 production system is the culmination of the lessons we’ve learned building previous airplanes,” said Steve Westby, 787 vice president of Manufacturing and Quality. “Using composites on the 787 airframe has a number of manufacturing advantages. We are able to build huge structure in just one piece, which means we essentially have six major end items coming together in final assembly — the forward, center and aft fuselage sections, the wings, the horizontal stabilizer and the vertical fin. ”

Since the 787 is assembled from these large assemblies rather than many smaller pieces, traditional monument assembly tools are not necessary. Portable tools, designed with ergonomics in mind, move the assemblies into place. No overhead cranes are used to move airplane structure.

“A composite airframe also means less waste in production and fewer hazardous materials used during the assembly process,” Westby said. “This is good news for the environment and for our team of manufacturing technicians building the airplane.”

Although the first airplane will take about seven weeks to assemble, the 787 team looks to continuously improve flow time as production ramps up. Ultimately, a 787 will roll out of the factory every three days.

The first 787 will roll out of the factory on July 8, 2007.

787 final assembly787 final assembly787 final assembly

X-48B – Boeing works with airlines on commercial blended wing body freighter

According to Flightglobal, Boeing is working with two potential customers to define a commercial freighter variant of its blended wing body large transport aircraft X-48B as it prepares to fly a subscale model of the flying-wing design at NASA Dryden in California.

Boeing X-48B Prototype

“We have been working with a couple of customers,” says George Muellner, president, advanced systems, for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. “We have a customer, we have finalised what they want, and it is now an issue of customer funding and our desire to invest. The basic design is not a tube, it’s a rectangular pressure vessel, so material design is an issue,” Muellner says. “The internal structure is like an array of ISO containers,” he says, which is one part of its appeal to freight operators. “It’s fuel efficient and it’s easy to load.”

Boeing has been working on the BWB concept for years, but the design is still at an early stage.

“The earliest it could be out there is eight to 10 years, initially as a commercial freighter and beyond that for military applications,” says Muellner.

Boeing X-48B Prototype

The X-48B cooperative agreement by Boeing, NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) culminates years of BWB research by NASA and Boeing. AFRL is interested in the concept for its potential future military applications.

“We believe the BWB concept has the potential to cost effectively fill many roles required by the Air Force, such as tanking, weapons carriage, and command and control,” said Capt. Scott Bjorge, AFRL X-48B program manager. “This research is a great cooperative effort, and a major step in the development of the BWB. AFRL is inspired to be involved in this critical test program.”

NASA also is committed to advancing the BWB concept. NASA and its partners have tested six different blended wing body models of various sizes over the last decade in four wind tunnels at the Langley Research Center.

“One big difference between this airplane and the traditional tube and wing aircraft is that — instead of a conventional tail — the blended wing body relies solely on multiple control surfaces on the wing for stability and control,” said Dan Vicroy, NASA senior research engineer at the Langley Research Center. “What we want to do with this wind-tunnel test is to look at how these surfaces can be best used to maneuver the aircraft.”

Boeing X-48B Prototype
Boeing X-48B Prototype

The two X-48B prototypes were built for Boeing Phantom Works by Cranfield Aerospace Ltd., in the United Kingdom in accordance with Boeing requirements and specifications. Made primarily of advanced lightweight composite materials, the prototypes weigh about 400 pounds each. Powered by three turbojet engines, they will be capable of flying up to 120 knots and 10,000 feet in altitude during flight testing.

737 stuck in Mumbai

Now that’s a quite funny story. The fuselage of an ex Air Sahara Boeing 737 being transported on a trailor to Delhi, is stuck on a lane in Mumbai, because the driver of the trailor was given a wrong direction, came to a dead end and apparently cannot be turned around on this narrow lane with garages and small shops.

“It was such a shock to find it there when I came to open my shop in the morning,” said Parminder Kaur, whose Laxmi Medicals now stands in the generous shadow cast by the tail of the Boeing.

The plane is not only lost but orphaned. Local residents said that the three men with the trailer fled the scene when angry shopkeepers heckled them. “It has nowhere to go from here as the whole thing is 75 feet long and cannot be turned around or brought back to the highway in reverse,” said Gurvinder Singh, who runs an auto workshop on the road.

But as always in Mumbai, there is opportunity even in adversity. Keenly aware of the predicament of the Delhi buyer of the fuselage, scrap dealers from nearby Govandi have already started recceing the site to size up the cargo and sniff out a possible deal.

Obstruction though it clearly is, the Boeing has certainly spiced up the daily routine of local residents. It’s a curiosity for schoolchildren who stare at it and ask hopefully if they will be allowed a joy ride.

This particular plane has been something of a problem child. Last year it was stuck on a Mumbai runway, blocking air traffic for five days. This time it has held up road traffic for three days. The rest of the plane has already been broken into 1,700 pieces and sold to a US-based company for an undisclosed sum.

Full story: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

If you have any photos of this incident, please post a comment with the link or e-mail me!

Photos:


Thomson Fly 757 Birdstrike Captured

A spotter captured the moment when two herons were sucked into a Thomson Fly Boeing 757-200 moments after lift-off from Manchester airport at 9.15 on Sunday morning.

The engine, a Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4, was shut down and the pilot made a successful emergency landing on one engine.

The aircraft, with 221 passengers on board, was heading for Arrecife, Lanzarote, when the birds hit the right hand engine, causing a flameout and repeated puffs of black smoke. The pilot declared an emergency and dumped excess fuel before landing at 1030.
Source: Flightglobal

High Quality Video:

Lower Quality Videos:

BMW presents Bond-style 787 cabin concept

Boeing commisioned BMW to come up with a 787 interior concept for an imaginary mid-thirty Russian tycoon. To be presented at this year’s Aircraft Interiors Show in Hamburg, the result is this very sleek, sophisticated and masculine design that even Roman Abramovich would love.

http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getAsset.aspx?ItemID=17289

View all pictures: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/04/17/213328/pictures-bmw-presents-bond-style-787-cabin-concept-for-russian.html