Aviation

The winner in the category "Most fix aircraft orders" is: Airbus. They were able to gather 756 orders whereas Boeing just got 662. But these numbers show another interesting trend: The boom seems to be over. This years order combined are just a little bit higher as the numbers of each of them last year (Boeing was the winner last year with 1.412 orders. Airbus had 1.342)

As you may have read in the news, there was a plane crash in Denver. A Continental 737 left the runway in the wrong direction at take off. But this one is a little bit different: Mike Wilson - one of the passengers - twittered about his experience.


I don´t think i would have the nerves to even remember that there is something called "Internet" after surviving plane crash. I´m glad that there wasn´t any fatalities at this crash. As far as a read the incoming news they directly crashed in front of a fire station.

(click to view)

There were some rumours last week about the delamination of the wings, albeit the Flightblogger was able to gather some other informations that this rumours was nonsense. But after almost 15 years in the computer business i´ve got a fine sensor for half-a... dementis. Ben Sandilands writes in Boeing avoids the ‘D’ word about a statement he was able to gather from Jon Ostrower (the flightblogger) which he got from Boeing:

Our tests continue to confirm that the composite construction of the 787, including the wing, is sound. The 787, like every commercial jetliner, is going through a rigorous series of tests to verify the safety and certificability of its structure, systems and operations. The FAA will review the results of this compliance activity prior to certifying the airplane for commercial use.

I don´t think, that´s a good dementi. I would like to hear "There is no delamination. Period." instead of "When we get this plane through certification, you can be sure that there is no problems with the wings"

After the last delay in the 787 program many news outlets write, that the delays in the 787 program reached the delays in the A380 program. There is only one important fact, they forget to report. The A380 was late just three months at first flight. The problems leading to the two years delay hit them afterwards. The 787 has already accumulated 2 years of delay before this aircrafts first flight. To be exact: At the moment nobody knows, if this airframe will fly ... there are just computer models and experience suggesting that this heap of plastic will take of at the end of the runway. They made a break-test of the wing box ... not the complete wing. So ... it´s 3 month delay in the A380 program compared to 2 years in the 787 program.

But Boeing has a good chance not to gather that much delay after first flight for the first delivery as the 787 is a much smaller plane. On the other side there are the first rumours and discussions, that Boeing isn´t able to build enough planes fast enough for their ultra-aggressive schedule for flight-testing. But that´s a different story.

Many people in flight communities say "Don´t compare your MS Flight Simulator experiences with real flying" and they are correct about that. But sometimes i have the strange feeling that modern aviation gets nearer to the Flight Simulator (as long the computers are functional). Flight Global writes about an interesting feature ... the Brake-to-Vacate:

The BTV system shows pilots two lines on the electronic airport diagram on the A380's navigation display. The first line shows the minimum stopping distance for dry pavement (assuming no reverse thrust). The second line shows the minimum stopping distance for a wet runway. Pilots can then select their desired turn-off point on the display using a cursor, and the system internally computes the required auto-braking deceleration profile. Contaminated runway scenarios will be addressed in later versions of the programme, says Tarnowski.

The system even warns the pilot, if the remaining runway doesn´t suffice to stop the aircraft. The pilot can order an go-around in that case. At the moment this feature is integrated into the A380, but the article states, that this feature will go into the A320 and A330/340 as well.

May 2005 - i´ve lost my fear of flying ....

December 2008 ...


(inspired by a conversation with a good friend)

The Chicago Tribune reports:

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the first of the largely composite jets isn't likely to be delivered before mid-2010, more than two years behind schedule.

But a source close to the program said the jet's launch could occur even later, especially if flight-testing for the all-new aircraft takes longer than the aggressive schedule that Chicago-based Boeing has planned.

When it rains, it pours.

The flightblogger was able to publish an article in the "once-in-a-lifetime-scoop"-class. He was able to obtain a internal Airbus presentation,that leaked somehow. This presentation is named "Boeing 787 Lessons Learnt October 2008" and it´s based on informations and rumours from suppliers and openly available information. Some of the slides are based on Boeing presentations. This is the reason, why some people cry "Foul!" at the moment ... but this kind of intelligence is quite normal in business (Sometimes all you need is to google for presentation to get very interesting informations about IBM newest FUD).

But the important point is something different: The 787 programm seems to be in a horrible state according to this presentation. Just half of of it would be really bad from my perspective. Let´s wait and see, how Boeing reacts to this document.

Update: Two sources near to the A380 program told me, that this presentation is a fake, albeit a good fake.

Okay, we all laughed about the comment of a Boeing guy who stated that the A380 is too quiet. But there seems to be an "too quiet" problem in this aircraft. There is a crew restroom in the A380 for long distance flights. Normally it´s located in the front of the aircraft, but in Emirates machines have this room in the back. The problem: They can´t sleep - the passengers are too loud and there are no engine noises to overlap the passengers.Flightglobal writes:

The pilots say that the lack of engine noise in the A380's cabin compared with other long-haul airliners means they are constantly disturbed by sounds created by passengers, such as crying babies, flushing vacuum toilets and call bells. Passengers also mistake the rest area for a lavatory, and pull the door handle.

(Thanks to Kris for the hint)

Vowe got me at my two weak points with linking to this video: aircrafts and good music. I can look at such videos for hours:



PS: Perhaps i should really thinking about learning to fly. I´m asked about that by colleagues, friends and readers in quite a regular manner. But at the moment i´m glad that i´ve lost my fear of flying.

The delays at the 787 program hide a little bit the delays at another important programm of Boeing. The regenerated 747 will be delayed, too 747-8 schedule undone by 787 crisis, management errors . Stephen Trimble writes in his article:

Boeing shifted the delivery date for the 747-8 Freighter to Cargolux from late 2009 to the third quarter of 2010. First delivery of the 747-8 Intercontinental, a passenger variant struggling to attract orders, dropped from late 2010 to the second quarter of 2011.

and

The flight-test phase is now allotted between seven and nine months to complete, Teal says. By comparison, Boeing completed the flight-test programme for the 777-200LR, a perhaps less ambitious derivative programme, in about 10 months in 2005.

At just 20 (+8 for Boeing Business Jet as a customer) orders for the 747-8 but 78 for the freighter i wouldn´t be suprised a lot if see more delays for the passenger variant to help the 747-8F. It´s like in computer engineering ... given a fixed number of engineering cyles you have to find an economical sensible distribution.

The problem with faulty (without anticorrosion plating) nutplates just got bigger. James Wallace writes in "Faulty parts on all Boeing jets":

Those nonconforming nutplates that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago are on all Boeing jets, not just the 737. But there are far fewer on the 747, 777 and 767 than are on the 737. Still, Boeing said Tuesday that they must all be found and replaced before any more planes are delivered.

I assume, those faulty nutplates are in already delivered aircrafts, too.

The flight blogger published an really interesting article, again - 787 Dreamliner production frozen as fastener issue paces program

At first it looks like there is finally a number of fasteners awaiting their substitution.

The Seattle Times, citing sources familiar with the situation, reports that 2000 fasteners will need to be replaced on the aft fuselage and 3000 for the forward fuselage produced by Spirit Aerosystems.

Furthermore they had to disassemble the Dreamline One again. They had to remove more than just the engines:

Dreamliners One through Four have had their engine pylons removed and returned to Spirit AeroSystems for fastener repairs. As a result, the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines from Dreamliner One have been removed and positioned behind the aircraft.

Airbus says Boeing strike was big help:

"PARIS -- Airbus benefited from the recent strike by workers at The Boeing Co. as it gave stretched suppliers more time to focus on orders from the European jet maker, the company said Friday."

I assume the people at Boeing bite their back at the moment. The strike did not only postponed the delivery of all airplanes at Boeing. They even helped their biggest competitor.

I assume the ongoing delays in the 787 Delayliner, 747-8 and 777F programs will help Airbus, too. Some suppliers stopped already the manufacturing for Boeing for some time. More time for them to work for Airbus. At the end many parts of an aircraft (either Boeing or Airbus) are from the same manufacturers. BTW: This is the the same reason, why "Buy american" or "Buy european" is nonsense. Building aircraft got an global business a long time ago ...