Posted on 03/21/2011 8:47:48 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement
Boeing Co.’s newest 747 passenger jet, the largest commercial plane it has ever built, took to the skies for the first time Sunday, marking the third maiden flight of a new Boeing commercial airplane in the past 15 months. (See video)
Painted in its orange and red “sunrise” livery, the massive, four-engine 747-8 Intercontinental lifted off from Paine Field, north of Seattle, at 10 a.m. local time under partly cloudy skies and gusty northerly winds. At 250 feet long, the 747-8 is 18 feet longer than its predecessor.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagobreakingbusiness.com ...
The very next sentence states that they plan to hit the break-even point in 2015, despite the drop in the US dollar and delays.
As with any industry, you plan and risk for the future. My beef is that I’m seeing some other companies plan, deliver and showcase the future - while I see Boeing polishing and making minor modifications to a ~40 yr old design.
Yes, the 747 is established, yes it is reliable. Keep making it, by all means; but also plan for what you want to do for the next 10 years. The flying wing design is a huge step in the right direction.
Prediction: obama will want to upgrade AF-1 to one of these...
Have the laws of physics or aerodynamics changed in the last 40 years?
It's the Boeing 797 Flying Wing hoax that's been around for a few years.
The seat issue was probably specific to the Singapore Air version, which actually makes it doubly puzzling since SQ is absolutely top notch in every respect, passenger service and comfort in particular. My guess is somebody on their design team had a brain cramp and/or never bothered to sit in the B Class seats for the A380 themselves. Either that or their research showed a 3 foot wide seat was needed for the average Aussie businessman’s backside flying out of Sydney.
And they'll have to sell 2-3 times that to make at least a "paper" profit. God only knows how many they'd need to sell to make an actual profit, and what are the chances of that when only a few of them in service fly at capacity, and when the 747-8 flies at a lower cost per seat.
The 787 isn't innovation enough? It's such a radical departure from the past, 80% composite including the body and most of the wings, that Boeing has been having some serious development problems. It's three years late, but will most likely fly in airline service this year. Airbus initially said it's too soon to do composites. Maybe, given the delay, but innovation means doing things "too soon" instead of following when it's safe. All Airbus did with the A380 was supersize things, not serious innovation.
I can't wait to fly on a 787, with the use of compressors instead of bleed air for cabin pressure, and the higher cabin pressure allowed by the composite body.
When I worked there in the 80s, I was astounded to find that the controls were triply redundant, and that there were literally cables running through pulleys, etc., from the cockpit to the control surfaces. A fully manual control.
Its the cargo version I believe. Been seeing it fly around Palmdale facility for some time now.
Don’t think the B747 can accomodate a forward or rear opening ramp.
It’s more than simple profit. To build the 380, Airbus had to learn to create carbon fiber wings - the largest wings ever attempted out of carbon fiber. When they did this, they learned things that they didn’t know before. This knowledge will carry over to other designs.
If you can make the wings of the 380 out of carbon fiber, you can make other wings for other aircraft using a similar process. This makes future designs more cost effective.
That is progress. If all you do is re-hash an existing design; you are not learning. That is where I’m holding Boeing up to task for. Airbus invested and risked a great deal to develop this aircraft. The lessons learned will make other aircraft better - without having to re-invent the wheel.
Isn’t that a Soviet plane? You may have your genocidal regimes confused. ;-)
Wing roots are the biggest challenge in these huge planes. C-5’s have been flying for decades with “acceptable levels” of cracks in the wing roots. If the carbon fiber works, that would indeed be a big advance.
Good point, let's stop and cease all R&D efforts on aircraft, spacecraft, rockets, cars, boats and motorocycles. < /sarcasm>
What do we have today that we didn't have 40 yrs ago? Let's see, we have computers that can model aerodynamics, fuel efficiency, we have lighter materials than aluminum, we have new processes and new alloys, we have advances in fuel and fuel delivery systems, we have vibrational analysis, improved jet engine performance, plastics and glass materials that are much harder, more flexable and lighter than 40 yrs ago.
No, let's just sit on our butts and wonder why companies that didn't exist when the 747 went into service, are kicking our butts today.
That picture was a photo-realistic image done as part of a piece of what the future of aviation might look like. Note the buildings in the background: there is no such skyline on this Earth...yet.
Isn’t Boeing corporate now in Chicago? Did you expect any different?
“Airbus is throwing down an aircraft like the 380, 49% larger than the Boeing 747-400.”
That just won’t fit in to many of the world’s airports, severely limiting the markets in can be used in.
This aircraft, on the other hand, can use almost any 747-capable airport on the globe.
The big airbus is a piece of crap, only suited for arabs with too much camel competition. Tell me when they can reliably match two electrical fittings together ;).
“The question comes down to the cost/passenger and the volume of passengers on a partiuclar route. Do you fly 1 of the Airbus 380’s or two of the B747’s?”
Frequency wins over capacity, every single time.
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