Hehehe...GO BOEING! They aren't going to just sit and take it any more like a bunch of Republicans!
Posted on 06/12/2005 7:51:51 PM PDT by Righty_McRight
Boeing issued a new challenge to its arch-rival Airbus yesterday, saying it expected to regain its status as the world's biggest supplier of airliners by 2008 at the latest.
Alan Mullaly, head of the American group's commercial planes division, delivered a series of damaging blows to its opponent on the eve of the biennial air show at Le Bourget, Paris, which was meant to be a showcase for the European company's A380 super-jumbo.
First, he said Boeing was in talks with another 27 airlines over potentially 427 more orders for its new 787 Dreamliner - raising the prospect of nearly 700 orders for the fuel-efficient, long-range 250-seater jet.
Airbus has so far secured 10 orders for its A350 twin-engined jet compared with 266 for Boeing's 787. It is due to announce 100 more orders this week, although there are now serious doubts about whether the Emirates and Qatar Airlines will go ahead.
The official launch of the A350, the aircraft at the heart of a transatlantic trade dispute, has been postponed until September. It was supposed to have been approved by ministers from Britain, France, Germany and Spain today.
The plane has been hit by growing production difficulties at Airbus's plants, which have already caused a six-month delay in deliveries of the A380 to its first customers. Mr Mullaly rubbed salt in the wound by claiming that airlines had already seen or heard of four versions of the new A350.
Airbus has also been damaged by a long-running Franco-German power struggle at the top of Eads, its main parent, which has cancelled a series of planned events at the show because it has yet to appoint its new co-chief executives.
Boeing, said Mr Mullaly, expected to deliver 375 to 385 planes next year - 100 more than in 2004, when Airbus outsold it for a second consecutive year. The Europeans expect to deliver 360 planes this year compared with Boeing's 320, and substantially more in 2006.
However, Mr Mullaly indicated that his company's deliveries could be higher next year because it had the capability to raise output at its US plants and had already sold 80% of its 2006 production.
This would bring the date of its projected overtaking of Air bus even closer than 2008. "Our plan is to be the preferred leader in the marketplace where we have been for 99% of our history," said Mr Mullaly.
He indicated a further onslaught on Airbus's precarious supremacy with the expected launch of a stretched version of the venerable 747 jumbo, adding 50 extra seats to current capacity of about 400, compared with the basic 555 seats available on the A380. The Boeing board may give the go-ahead for the 747 Advanced later this month after receiving strong interest from airlines, including British Airways, which have been attracted by plans to fit it with the 787's new fuel-efficient, less-noisy engines.
It is also considering plans for replacing the best-selling 737 single-aisle family of planes, making it available in versions ranging from 90 to 210 seats and capturing a further slice of a market where the Airbus alternatives are much older.
Boeing executives, meanwhile, confirmed they were backing moves in the US Congress to ban Eads and its partners from bidding for the lucrative Pentagon contract for air-to-air refuelling tanker aircraft while the dispute over alleged subsidies remains.
The European Union and United States will formally lodge their tit-for-tat legal actions at the World Trade Organisation today.
Mr Mullaly said a negotiated settlement was still possible - if Airbus gave up the use of risk-free, soft loans from European governments to develop new planes.
It appears that Boeing has had all the happiness that it can stand and is removing the gloves. When they have done this in the past, all sorts of interesting things come from the minds of their engineers.
Boeings spokesman was heard to also add ...
" No Acceptamos Euros"
" No Acceptamos Euros"
Coffee spewing everywhere...
Now Boeing!! DUMP CATIA!!!! That's the Frogs backdoor into your designs. Face it. Get rid of it.
what's CATIA? a consortium?
No ship has ever sailed the sea with two captains. Those that have ended up at the bottom. Ships and organizations have one captain, for good reason.
Airbus is the best thing that ever happen to Boeing. Competition is a good thing.
Yes, competition is good when competing parties bear roughly the same risks. Airbus passes its R&D costs (among other things) off on to the European rate payer because it is, in part, a state enterprise. Other companies have budget concerns that Airbus can simply subsidise.
luckily for boeing, even though their competition is subsidized, it's tragically incompetent.
Hehehe...GO BOEING! They aren't going to just sit and take it any more like a bunch of Republicans!
Yes, I am interested...what is it? I did a search, and it seems like some kind of job pool/CAD training thing...or is it software?
"...tragically incompetent."
I love that line!
CATIA is CAD/CAM software that Boeing uses for design/machining/testing. CATIA is made by Dassault - the French aircraft maker - and marketed by IBM here in the US.
Years ago - when I was in the business of cutting parts for Boeing - the maintenance agreement for one seat of CATIA per year was $42K. That was Boeing's cost. And they had thousands of them. Talk about subsidizing your rivals. How hard would it be for the Frogs to put invisible spyware into that code, to know what Boeing is doing? Not hard at all.
CATIA is a 3d-solid modelling software system, extremely powerful. It was developed and marketed by IBM, but then sold to Dassault, who builds the Mirage fighter. Dassault has been acquiring lots of powerful software for industry.
Wow! Ping!
If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail not by posting to this thread.
Maybe ? the Sonic Cruiser will be launched in 2010 ? 2015 ?
I doubt it. The premium market for high speed is too small.
About a month ago i paid a visit to the Boeing website and their press releases indicate that they still itend to pursue the Sonic Cruiser. Boeing, unlike Airburst, conversed with airlines and airports in order to assess their existing infrastructure and needs and used that "grocery list" as the baseline for the SC. Imagine, asking the customer what they want and what they can handle before you design an aircraft.
You've got it backwards, bud. Dassault developed it long before IBM started marketing it. Dassault used it back when machines were tape readers, or merely NC machines - not even CNCs yet.
Boeing decided to use it, but needed someone to service the contract. Enter IBM.
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