787 lightning protection

Dominic Gates at The Seattle Times had a long story Sunday (Feb. 8, 2009) about the Federal Aviation Administration relaxing rules on lightning strikes as too stringent and which the new composite Boeing 787 cannot meet. The rules,… Read More

Boeing: 2010 production cut possible

James Bell, the CFO of The Boeing Co., appeared today at a Cowen & Co. investors conference. Here is a synopsis of his presentation, as he gave it. The third bullet point refers to potential production cuts in… Read More

LCAL Cancels 787 order

Also see the Updates after the jump. LCAL, based in Dubai, has canceled 16 Boeing 787s, it has now been confirmed. This is the cancellation we wrote about on January 14 and hinted overtly about in this post…. Read More

Assessing the 747 program

Since Boeing’s earnings call last week, spurred on by the Flight International and Everett Herald stories doubting the future of the 747-8 program, we’ve received media inquiries whether we think the program will be canceled. For those who… Read More

Ryanair and a GTF-powered A320/737

Jon Ostrower has an interesting think piece about the prospect of Ryanair ordering up to 400 Airbus A320s or Boeing 737s powered by the new Pratt & Whitney GTF, or Geared Turbo Fan P1000G. We first broke the… Read More

FAA weighs in on 787 flight test timeline

Update, Feb. 8: The Puget Sound Business Journal has this article focusing on the certification timeline. Original Post: Boeing has publicly said that it plans a flight test timeline of 6-8 months, depending on when Boeing was making… Read More

Keeping or ditching the 747-8?

When Boeing CEO James McNerney gave a somewhat mixed assessment of the 747-8 program last week during the earnings call, this set off a couple of key stories about the future of the airplane. Michele Dunlop of The… Read More

FAA responds to 787 fastener issue

When we were preparing our report about Boeing planning to operate its 787 flight testing program with some non-conforming fasterners still installed on the first six test aircraft, Boeing responded to our inquiries by noting that it worked… Read More

SPEEA to Wichita: Reject contract

SPEEA, the Boeing engineer’s union, today urged its members at Boeing Wichita/IDS to reject Boeing’s last contract. In this market, observers probably think SPEEA is looney, but SPEEA believes Boeing is gearing up to sell the plant and… Read More

Boeing posts loss in 4Q

Update, 3:30 PM PST: It’s been a busy day responding to media requests for comment about Boeing’s financial results and earnings call. This gives us a feel for how the media viewed the call and the issues they… Read More