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Luxury carrier Emirates Monday exercised options that will see the airline acquire an additional 95 wide-body planes from Boeing to augment its fleet. Photo courtesy of Emirates Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Luxury carrier Emirates Monday exercised options that will see the airline acquire an additional 95 wide-body planes from Boeing to augment its fleet. The United Arab Emirates flag carrier confirmed the $52 billion order on the first day of the Dubai Airshow. The airline will acquire a further 55 Boeing 777-9 passenger jets and 35 of the 777-8 variant of the next-generation wide-body plane collectively known as the 777X....

On Monday, Tarmac Aerosave tweeted that it had started to scrap an Airbus A380 in Teruel, Spain. The aircraft is the seventh to be scrapped by the company, with six having been scrapped in Tarbes. Other companies around the world have scrapped further A380s. ...Meanwhile, Air France has retired all of its Airbus A380s. Out of the entire fleet, two went to Teruel, About MSN 64 As mentioned above, MSN 64 was registered as F-HPJF during its time in service with Air France. The aircraft first flew on August 27th, 2010, and was delivered on June 17th, the following year.

The final Airbus A380 in the Air France fleet is grounded at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG), after taking one last celebration flight to the Mediterranean Sea and back. In a tribute online, the French flag carrier announced the final departure and landing for the superjumbo jet on June 26, 2020. The legendary #A380 bids a final farewell and makes its last #AirFrance flight today, Friday 26 june. 🛬Bye-bye big bird! #AF380 pic.twitter.com/LNkkqX3htU — Air France (@airfrance) June 26, 2020 Originally scheduled for retirement by 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Air France-KLM to reconsider their plans. After flights...

The skill of two pilots was captured on video as they landed the world's largest passenger plane sideways while battling heavy crosswinds at Heathrow Airport. The Etihad Airbus A380, which is flown by two pilots, can be seen hovering metres above the tarmac as it attempted to touchdown on Saturday during Storm Dennis.

European regulators have ordered inspections on some older Airbus A380 superjumbo airplanes after some cracks were detected in wings on the world's largest passenger aircraft. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) directive, which formalizes an instruction from the manufacturer itself, covers part of the outer wing on the 25 oldest aircraft, which first went into service in 2007 with Singapore Airlines . Airbus said the safety of the aircraft was not affected. "We confirm that small cracks have been found on the outer rear wing spars of early production A380 aircraft. We have identified the issue and designed an inspection...

Air France Flight 66 suffered an uncontained engine failure in September of 2017. The engine failure occurred while the aircraft was flying in the proximity of Greenland. Some of the missing engine parts are very important for the investigation into the incident. Accordingly, at this time, the hunt continues for the missing Air France A380 engine fragments in Greenland. As CNN reported, “the entire front part of the engine, including the large fan and engine’s casing, completely sheared away.” the French investigation authority BEA has stated that “Quite early in the investigation, it was established that the recovery of the...

BERLIN: Germany will pick either the Eurofighter or Boeing's F/A-18 fighter jet to replace its Tornado warplanes, knocking Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter out of a tender worth billions of euros, Defence Ministry sources said on Thursday (Jan 31). The ministry will make a final decision after receiving detailed information from Boeing and Airbus about the aircraft, which must be able to carry US nuclear weapons to fulfill Germany's obligations to NATO, the sources said. No timetable for a decision was given, but the process could take time since the US government will have to certify both jets to carry...

Boeing's latest innovation is an extremely thin, folding wing that will offer unprecedented aerodynamic efficiency, according to a news release from the company. The Transonic Truss-Braced Wing...extended wingspan of 170 feet...increased top speed from a planned Mach 0.70-0.75 to Mach 0.80 by modifying the wing sweep and optimizing the supporting structure, changes which allow the truss to carry lift more efficiently. Boeing has developed the wing in partnership with NASA over the course of nearly a decade. Their work is part of the Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research program, which encourages the development of less noisy, more efficient aircraft that...

Former President Barack Obama delivered a speech at Boeing’s annual executive retreat earlier this month after the company donated $10 million to Obama’s library and museum in Chicago. Obama made an appearance at the retreat to provide leadership tips and waived his usual speaking fee for the occasion, Obama’s spokeswoman Katie Hill told Bloomberg. Just last year, former President George W. Bush also provided a speech at the same event. A spokesman for the Obama Foundation, which is overseeing the creation of the Obama Presidential Center, did not disclose the exact amount Boeing donated to the library and museum fund,...

Boeing is set to debut its biggest plane ever next month, and the 777X has finally been paired with the gargantuan GE9X engine that will propel its flight. The plane is currently housed in Boeing's Everett, Washington, assembly plant, where pictures show it looming over workers as they prepare it for its maiden flight. The GE9X engine is the biggest turbine engine in the world. At roughly the size of an entire Boeing 737's fuselage, it was subjected to test flights last March when a single turbine was hitched to a 747 testbed. The engine includes a composite fan more...

Boeing has officially delivered 2,000 aircraft to China. The latest plane — a Boeing 737 MAX operated by Xiamen Airlines — marks yet another milestone for Boeing and China. It took Boeing four decades to reach the first 1,000 deliveries. But with China’s rapid growth rates, this new milestone was reached in just five years. Boeing says that currently one out of every four aircraft it’s producing is headed to China. Boeing has heavily invested in China, now the second largest economy on the planet. Its work there reportedly accounts for $1 billion in economic activity in China. Every...

A German investment company said on Tuesday it would strip two unwanted Airbus A380 superjumbo passenger jets for parts after failing to find an airline willing to keep them flying following a decision by Singapore Airlines not to keep them in service... ...Throwing the loss-making program a lifeline for a decade, Emirates recently ordered up to 36 more A380s and set out plans on Tuesday to install 56 Premium Economy seats.

It's an outcome that rival Boeing anticipated about 25 years ago when it outplayed Airbus with a brilliant bit of judo strategy (using Airbus's strength against itself), according to my 2008 book, You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing... As the Journal reported, in 2000, Airbus bet over $10 billion on the 555-seat A380 because it wanted to replace Boeing's 50 year old 747 jumbo jet. The A380 went over budget due to development delays and while passengers liked the plane, airlines preferred Boeing's 787 Dreamliner or Airbus's A350... This A380 denouement was envisioned by Boeing's...

Airbus has won a patent for a hypersonic passenger plane, but Concorde’s hydrogen-powered successor is unlikely to leave the drawing board any time soon. The proposed aeroplane would cut the journey time from Paris to Tokyo from 12 to under three hours. The idea, first published in 2011, is to use three different kinds of engine power to jump above the atmosphere while still using regular runways for takeoff. It has now won approval from the US Patent Office. The concept comes as commercial space companies such as Virgin Galactic pursue plans for low-level space flights. Airbus’s proposed plane has...

New jet could cut flight time from London to New York to just one hour The new jet could fly from London to New York in an hour - opening up the possibility of a transatlantic return journey in a day. Concorde 2 would be capable of flying more than four times the speed of sound – or more than 2,500mph, according to documents lodged with the US Patent Office by the aerospace and defence group The filings refer to an “ultra-rapid air vehicle” and “method of aerial locomotion” for the aircraft, which would cruise at an altitude of more...

After a three year delay the long-awaited maiden flight of China’s 158-seat C919 passenger aircraft is scheduled for Friday, the latest step by the country to break the duopoly of Western giants Airbus and Boeing. According to Xinhua, the first flight of the C919, assembled by state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), will be conducted at the Shanghai International Airport on Friday, but could be delayed if weather conditions are not suitable. The timing for the first flight was set after the passenger jet passed a thorough assessment in April. A successful maiden flight, followed by a series of...

The Russian government is getting into the business of commercial planes. The Russian United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), which is majority owned by the government, has just unveiled the MC-21 300, which it boasts will be a rival to the best planes coming out of commercial aerospace, like the Airbus A320neo and the Boeing 737Max.

For the last decade, the U.S. has pursued a case before the World Trade Organization (WTO) against illegal subsidies provided to Airbus by four European governments, which have given the European plane maker an unfair advantage in the global market. With government help, Airbus has captured 50% of the global commercial airplane market . The European Union has used delay and stall tactics to continue evading global trade rules by filing their own cases against the United States and ignoring WTO compliance rulings against their illegal practices. They’ve lost badly at every twist and turn, and now it’s time for...

A World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance panel ruled Thursday that the European Union has fallen dramatically short of remedying the harm to Boeing from illegal subsidies to Airbus. The decision opens a path for the U.S. to implement trade sanctions against the EU — potentially imposing billions of dollars in tariffs on its goods or services.

“I can’t get no respect,” moaned the late and overweight comedian Rodney Dangerfield. The Airbus A380, largest and heaviest airliner in operation today, could say that too after Air France reportedly will dump half of its A380 fleet—aircraft built and tested at the “hometown” Airbus factory in Toulouse. Like the quashing of a recent rumor that Lufthansa was on the verge of ordering another 15 A380s, this is another black eye for the world’s largest passenger plane. After all, if France and Germany, the countries that build the A380, don’t want it, who will?