Boeing 787
 

With 787 LN0001 nearing completion, I was curious about what people here thought of it. I'm sure there are plenty of future aero-engineers around. Me, I'm hoping to fly it one day far far in the future. Check out http://flightblogger.blogspot.com/ for tones more info. Planned rollout of LN0001 is on July 8th, this year.

Also of note, the 777 had 2 million lines of code; the 787 has 6.5 million lines of code.

Re: Boeing 787
 

I used to work with a guy at SeaBotix that left to take a job as a designer for Boeing on the 787 project. From what he told me, it's quite an impressive plane. I think he said when he was hired (October of last year) they we hiring roughly 2000 new designers every other week, and paying for their relocation.

On a related note, I read in article in our local paper which might spell bad news for some of the machinists that work for Boeing. The article said that Boeing had outsourced a lot of the fabrication for the plane to outside to company and that it had no plans to return the fabrication to inside the company.

Re: Boeing 787
 

Here's a picture I found of all of the airlines' tails that will be flying this plane so far:

You may have noticed a certain 3 major american airlines missing from there (United, American, and US Air). They have not decided on the 787 yet and it will be interesting to see what they plan on doing.

Credit for the image obviously goes to flightblogger.com

Re: Boeing 787
 

It's honestly an amazing aircraft, I was reading about the virtual rollout that they did to spot production problems without acutally having the airframe present for it and I was pretty blown away by the fact that they could pull that off and still have sourced out parts to so many different countries and manufacturers. In business, engineering and I guess life, its all about the process and making it as streamlined as possible.

Theres one more tail to add so far at least ;) Joseph Lau has personally ordered a dreamliner for his own exclusive use!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070522/...sinessjet_dc_1

Re: Boeing 787
 

There's a rumor going around that American Airlines is planning a massive order with boeing at the paris airshow (June 18-24).

100-125 787's plus options for 100 more
some more 777's (number unknown)
100 737-800's

That's a lot of $$$

The 787's will be for replacing the airline's 767's and A300's. And the 737's will be for replacing the MD-80's. As for the 777 - nothing can replace that right now.

Re: Boeing 787
 

It's going to be one heck of an airplane. As will the other variants that Boeing intends on making, based off of the success of the 787.

Re: Boeing 787
 

Yeah I'm kinda curious to see what is going to happen with the 747-8i (the new variant of the 747 based on 787 tech). I can't figure out if there's actually a market for it right now or not. There's also the 737RS (same type of deal), which may or may not happen.

Also, the assembly process of LN0001, now known as ZA0001, is nearly completed. All that remains is the final integration of the last remaining major parts. The system software for the aircraft is being installed and tested. The aircraft is due to enter the paintshop on June 25th for the July 8th rollout ceremony.

Re: Boeing 787
 

Yes, as an alternative to the A380, but which can land at several hundred more airports. That's the A380's weakness (for now) - during a recent stop at LAX (not a small airport) they didn't even have a gate that could accomodate it. They had to fool with the airstairs trucks to even get in and out...

Don

Re: Boeing 787
 

I was able to see a video of how they redesigned the look for boeing (from what I understand a similar new paint job will be put on all boeing aircraft from now on) for the 787 in order to "target a younger, more active audience" as well as video of the actual painting process. I was even fortunate enough to get to hold the tape covered in paint that was protecting a window of the aircraft (not a 787 obviously, but another)... major observation was that the paint is extremely sparkly... :rolleyes:

All in all an interesting process...

Re: Boeing 787
 

Correct, however, I still don't know if there's a large market for a new 747 right now. They already have the 380 to look at and that's not going well for the 380. The thing is the market is already saturated with 747's, many of them being very new. Those planes are a massive investment and airplanes can't just go willy nilly and upgrade their fleet all the time. Therein lies the problem.

Re: Boeing 787
 

They're starting to put the wings on now. They say that they expect that that will take about 2 weeks. Also the aft fuselage mounting to the center fuselage section has been stopped because they unexpectedly ran out of fasteners. Can you say oops? Someone's in trouble..

Re: Boeing 787
 

Yeah, big oops. But hey, mistakes happen. Unluckily, someone is going to have to pay. I feel sorry for that person and hope their boss is mericful.

Re: Boeing 787
 

I called them and offered them a bag of 1/8" pop rivets, but they said they got some now, but thanks anyway...

Re: Boeing 787
 

"If I work for Boeing and I'm in Seattle on July 8th, where can I watch [the rollout]?

Boeing is permitting 50,000 employees and retirees to come to a simulcast at Qwest Field. Attendance is limited to 50,000 people, and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. The first 25,000 guests will receive a 787 glider as a souvenir."

That is one of the coolest things I've heard a company do. So cool.. It's also going to be broadcast live on dishnetwork and directv, and the internet.

Re: Boeing 787
 

Hmm, I had been hearing about that for awhile and they mentioned that supply was tight because they optioned it out to Alcoa, but I thought they had solved those problems. At least they were aware of it, but its weird that they couldn't solve it?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...yndication=rss