Posted on 01/29/2005 7:04:25 AM PST by cp124
Boeing to fly high in China with sale of 60 wide-body jets
By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter
Boeing confirmed yesterday in a Washington, D.C., signing ceremony an agreement to sell 60 of its new mid-size wide-body jets to the six major airlines in China, a deal worth $7.2 billion at nominal list prices.
Boeing also announced that the jet formerly called the 7E7 would henceforth be designated the 787, continuing the company's 7-series model numbering.
And it signaled that a substantial amount of work on the plane will be subcontracted to China.
Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and Xiamen Airlines will each receive at least one jet in time for the opening of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and deliveries are expected to be complete by 2012.
All six airlines will get the long-range 223-seat model, the 787-8. Boeing did not disclose how the 60 jets would be divided among the carriers.
In a conference call with journalists, Mike Bair, who heads the new jet program, said the redesignation of the model number to 787 was carefully timed to please its Chinese customers.
"We felt it was appropriate to honor this Chinese order in some way," Bair said. "The numeral 8 is good luck in China; 787-8s for the 2008 Olympics made a nice package for them."
Since the naming of the initial 707, Boeing's first and highly successful commercial jet, all of its airliners have been named in succession based on the 7-7 formula.
Boeing had announced in June that the new plane's rudder would be made in China, at the Chengdu plant of China Aviation Industry Corp.
Bair said yesterday that additional contract work will go to China through Boeing's major subcontracting partners. This suggests that some of the major Japanese work on the 787 airframe will be farmed out to China.
"Our expectation is that there's a fair amount of this airplane that ultimately is going to be produced in China," Bair said.
Although 60 percent of the commercial jets in China today are Boeing-made, Airbus has made strong gains there in recent years.
Airbus also formalized a deal yesterday that had been announced earlier: the sale of five super-jumbo A380s to China Southern Airlines, worth about $1.4 billion at list prices.
"Long term, the Chinese have decided that they want to balance their purchases," between Boeing and Airbus, Bair said.
Geopolitics complicates sales to China. The government of the People's Republic of China has been unhappy with a prospective U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, which it considers a breakaway province that is only temporarily independent.
According to sources in China and the U.S., negotiations around the Taiwan issue created delay in nailing down the Boeing order, which the company had originally expected to announce in 2004.
"I can't say for sure there was a political motivation around some of that delay," Bair responded when asked about the political issues.
Bair also announced minor changes to the 787's configuration. He confirmed that the number of seats has increased slightly to 223 seats in three classes on the standard long-range 787-8; 259 seats in three classes on the 787-9 stretch version; and 296 seats in two classes on the short-range 787-3 model.
In addition, the wing span of the two longer-range models has been lengthened by four feet to 197 feet.
Bair said that the use of light, strong composites for the wings allowed this performance-enhancing adjustment without adding weight.
"With composites we can make a lot thinner wing a lot longer," Bair said.
Boeing has a list of 186 announced orders for the 787, of which 56 are firm contracts. Details of the other 130 deals, including the Chinese order, will be finalized later.
??? I believe that maestro was being sarcastic when he said
"Boeing to fly high in China with sale of 60 wide-body jets to be modified into ICMB and Cruise-missile 'rack' airborn launchers?"
I added "MUCH cheaper and easier for them to buy up some of the dozens of 747's put into mothballs -"
WHICH, if turning them into just flying launchers was the paln would be much better for them..
Did you think that he was telling the truth... that Boeing was actually helping them build ALCM platforms ?
Sigh.........ya know..............it ain't always about Linux or Microsoft or UNIX, dude. You truly need to change to a different station every now and then.
Really. It'd be healthy for you. I care.
In this case, it is. It's about America losing its technological edge. It's about our own people being so arrogant and stupid about promoting "open source" that they're falling all over themselves to help our enemies...
Keep up the good work. We need to sound the alarm.
I think the logical application for any aircraft the Chinese procure would be an AWACS and JSTARs style application and beef up their anti submarine warfare (ASW), maritime patrol (read vs. > US CVBG), airborne recon and command and control capabilities.
I would NOT rule out their using aircraft to launch air launched fast attack cruise missiles, however. Sadly, they are making progress in this area.
Suffice it to say, I am 100% dead against any and all technology exports to China, whether it's a GPS system, satellite hardware or even a basic jet. Expect them to use any and all aircraft in maritime patrol operations, ant-submarine ops, airborne surveillance and recon, etc. against US. I would like to see them have zero military aircraft.
We need to place a firm kick on the Chinese air and naval assets and send them down the stairs HARD technologically speaking and make damn sure they can not stand up again. Same deal with traitors at home that help China.
I firmly consider any US aircraft company that sells technology to China which has any potential military application to be SUBVERSIVE.
http://www.silent-warriors.com/shootdown_list.html
"I think the logical application for any aircraft the Chinese procure would be an AWACS and JSTARs...."
No, I think that the logical application for brand new wide-body passenger jets is to fly passengers - ESPECIALLY if you are going to INCREASE the number of seats that you will just be ripping out if you intend to divert them for other use...
They will have plenty of old widebodies to retire from pasenger service to convert if they like. Why bother with new, when you allready have mechanics and pilots and spare parts for the others ?
From Air China webpage -http://www.air-china.co.uk/
"Air China operates one of the worlds most modern fleets, the average age being only two years, comprising 70 aircraft and including Boeing 747s, 737s and 767s. Air China has made orders for further aircraft including 12 Boeing 777s and 35 Boeing 737-800 regional aircraft."
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