Boeing lets fly with a jumbo sales pitch (Qantas ... 747-8 efficiency statistics)

The Australian ^ | 24 March 2006 | Steve Creedy

[Paleo Conservative]

Here's the whole title:

Boeing lets fly with a jumbo sales pitch

(Qantas is being wooed with a barrage of 747-8 efficiency statistics)

[Paleo Conservative]

If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.

[Paleo Conservative]

Does this mean Boeing is putting a supercritical airfoil on the wings of the new 747-8?

[greasepaint]

operating cost per seat-mile
fuel burn per seat-mile...

is what in cents?

[RoadTest]

Good for good ol' Boeing!

It reminds me of the internal combustion engine. Every time a new type of engine comes along, the I.C. is tweaked until it's at least as good as the upstart, usually better. Same with steel. New materials keep threatening it and so they tweak the steel to be competitive with the new materials, mostly in cost.

I love it when Boeing moves ahead!

[Jim Noble]

Give me Boeing or I ain't going.

[Blueflag]

AND the '47 can go into existing, unmodified airports/ gates. The '47 also meets noise requirements which the Airbus is rumoured to fail badly.

[NavyCanDo]

Meanwhile back at Airbus – In a required evacuation drill of its new two-deck A380 superjumbo – 21 volunteer evacuees are injured including a broken leg. Ignore all the ambulances says Airbus, it was a huge success.

Airbus evacuated all 873 people from a two-deck A380 superjumbo jet in under 90 seconds in a key certification test. The test took place at an Airbus facility in Hamburg, Germany.

Daniel Holtgen, a spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency, said, "All indications are it was a total success."

[Eric in the Ozarks]

873 trained athletes.

[nightdriver]

"Mooney estimates that about a third of the efficiency improvements come from the 65,000lb-thrust GEnx 2B67 engines, which are based on the GEnx engines launched on the 787 Dreamliner."

If there is one weak point in this it is the GE engine. They never have had a good record for reliability.

[Turbopilot]

I just think it's funny that the guy in charge of developing Boeings is named Mooney.

[Paradox]

Sounds great, but something tells me this might be a case of "funny math". I'd like to see AirBus's response. If these numbers are correct, the A380 will be delegated to only a small flying niche, some of the Asian markets where they really pack in the passengers.

Assuming it is correct, this study really hurts Airbus, IMHO.

[A.A. Cunningham]

You might want to check the data on the GE90 and the F404, as only two examples, and then revise your silly statement.

[Paleo Conservative]

Sounds great, but something tells me this might be a case of "funny math". I'd like to see AirBus's response. If these numbers are correct, the A380 will be delegated to only a small flying niche, some of the Asian markets where they really pack in the passengers.

Except that Boeing has a reputation of meeting or exceeding the performance gurantees it makes on its aircraft. The 777-300ER has exceeded its performance goals by 1.5%. This has been translated into greater than expected range or higher payload. If the 747-8 follows the same trend, the actual performance of the test aircraft will be significantly better than the promises.

[phantomworker]

I agree, PC. Looks like the -8, both the passenger and the stretched freighter model is going to be a super efficient derivative because of its new engines and wings. ;)

[AGreatPer]

Can somebody tell me why Boeing moved from Seattle to Chicago? That makes no sense.

[Paleo Conservative]

Can somebody tell me why Boeing moved from Seattle to Chicago? That makes no sense.

They just moved their top level corporate headquarters. They've merged so many companies into Boeing in the last several years that Seattle isn't central to their other operations especially defense related buisinesses. It was also to send a message to the Washington state legislature and labor unions that Boeing would be willing to locate manufacturing of new aircraft to other states if they weren't treated well.

[RayChuang88]

The best thing about the 747-8 is the fact that you don't need the enormous expense of building 80 x 80 meter gates with dual-level jet bridges like you need with the A380-800. Also, the range the 747-8 (8,000 nautical miles still-air) is enough to fly most of the world's long-range city pairs, too.

I think it's likely that both British Airways and Japan Airlines--already large 747-400 operators--will end up buying the 747-8 instead of the A380-800 because both airlines have far less landing slot restrictions at their home airports (London Heathrow for British Airways and Tokyo Narita for Japan Airlines).

[phantomworker]

That's interesting. I think people might still be debating why the move to Chicago. I never heard it said like that, but you might be right. The Company did offload most of its manufacturing already and has become a large scale integrator.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Boeing usually over engineer their planes and are conservative in their promised performance numbers before the actual plane is either in testing or actual service.