Plane Nation

SINGAPORE - Singapore Airlines said today it will buy 20 Boeing 787-9
aircraft for $4.52 billion, hours after it expressed unhappiness about
delays in Airbus’ delivery of its A380 superjumbo. In a statement, the
carrier said it has purchase rights for another 20 aircraft from Boeing.
Parts of the 787 are built by Wichita’s Spirit AeroSystems. The
decision is a stinging blow for Airbus, which hoped Singapore Airlines
would be one of the first and biggest customers for another new model,
the A350, that would compete directly with Boeing’s 787. But
airline and leasing company dissatisfaction with the design of the A350
has led Airbus to consider a costly

Emirates Airlines has suggested it may cancel some of its orders for the
Airbus A380 ’superjumbo’ aircraft. The £6 billion aircraft is
expected to be a major boon to the aviation industry, with a maximum
capacity of over 800 seats and possible in-flight amenities to include
double beds and a spacious bar. But last week news emerged that
electrical problems were leading to bottlenecks in the delivery of aircraft
parts, meaning that delivery times for the aircraft would be set back (see
Airbus A380 hit by delays). Now Emirates, the superjumbo’s
biggest customer, may cancel some of its 45 orders because delays
could affect its future expansion. “For Emirates,

The Airbus A380 is facing another serious programme delay, but first
delivery to launch operator Singapore Airlines (SIA) is still expected by the
end of the year. Airbus says the delay has been caused by
“production ramp-up problems”. It is not expected to impact certification,
which is due in the fourth quarter for the handover of the first aircraft to
SIA before year end, but will see deliveries of subsequent aircraft slip by
“six to seven months”, says Airbus. The programme has already suffered
one six month delay, which was announced a year ago and pushed the
delivery of the initial Rolls-Royce Trent 900-powered version to SIA back
from April to the end

SEATTLE - Boeing Co.’s 787 program suffered a potential setback when
engineers discovered problems while testing a section of the new
airplane, but the glitch is not expected to delay the 787’s highly
anticipated debut. The 33-foot prototype of a section of the 787’s
fuselage was supposed to be used as part of efforts to gain Federal
Aviation Administration certification for the airplane’s manufacturing
process. But Boeing spokeswoman Yvonne Leach said the company’s
engineers called off FAA certification plans after discovering bubbles in
the high-tech composite materials used for the section, and decided the
part probably would fail the government test. Leach said the bubbles,
created when gases get inside the composite material,

Boeing won its first order for a passenger version of the company’s new
stretched 747-8 jumbo jet. The customer wasn’t identified. The order for
the 747-8 Intercontinental, as the passenger version is known, also
represents the first passenger 747 to be ordered since 2002. Boeing’s 61-
jet backlog of unfilled 747 orders included only five passenger versions of
the plane at the end of May, according to the company’s Web site. The
order was one of three for 747s Boeing said it won last week from
unidentified customers. Demand for cargo planes is being driven by
Internet commerce and improving economies worldwide. Jeff Peace, who
heads the 747-8 program, said June

We came across something very interesting today. We follow an aviation
thread, which has proven to be thorough and reliable. On this list we
learned the following: Airbus is potentially developing an A370. The
information is from secondary and tertiary sources so it may be inaccurate
- essentially a paper plane at this stage. It appears the 370 is a follow on
to the 350.The A370 appears to be targeted at Emirates and Singapore,
to forestall 787 orders. Other airlines probably have been contacted. The
information suggests Airbus will keep the current A350-800. The A370
would come in two sizes; approximately sized like the A350-900 and
A340-600. The A370

Airbus appears to be nearing a decision to tell airlines the specifics of its
plans to develop an all-new commercial jetliner, possibly to be called the
A370, as it seeks to blunt The Boeing Co.’s growing market
dominance with the twin-engine 777 and the soon-to-be 787 Dreamliner.
Exactly what Airbus will do is not clear, but speculation about the A370
was the buzz in Paris the last two days during the annual meeting of the
International Air Transport Association. Airbus isn’t talking, at least
to reporters, but among the 260 airline members of IATA are several that
want Airbus to spell out its plans - soon. They have already ordered

Video: First VIP interior of an Airbus A380 revealed in Lufthansa Technik
sequence Video: First VIP interior of an Airbus A380 revealed in
Lufthansa Technik sequence German business aircraft interiors
completion specialist Lufthansa Technik has put together a complete
computer aided animation video sequence of what it believes the first
private jet made from the giant Airbus A380 will look like. The company’s
VIP and Executive Jet Solutions division, used to modifying large cabin
aircraft such as the Boeing 747 for heads of state and high net worth
individuals, wants to become the first aircraft interiors specialist to
produce a VIP version of the two-storey aircraft. The video (shown
below),  produced as a sales tool

Seattle: Boeing has decided to manufacture a large version of the B787
or Dreamliner following demand from Emirates and other Gulf carriers, a
top official of the US aerospace giant said. Mike Bair, Head of
Boeing’s 787 programme, said Boeing will introduce the 787-10 in
late 2010 with Emirates likely to be the first Gulf customer. “We are
working with Emirates to understand what exactly and how big the plane
should be and we have a pretty good understanding,” he told a select
group of Middle East reporters at the Boeing facilities here. “We are in
the midst of commercial discussions. From our point of view it is not a
matter of

The FAA is about to deliver some welcome changes to ETOPS rules.
Whereas twin engine planes need to be within 180 minutes of an airport
today, the proposed rule would increase this time to 5 1/2 hours. The
impact of this change is significant. For those of you who have seen that
famous line on Virigin Atlantic’s A340s “4 engines 4 longhaul” the
message is apparent. This thinking is now shown for what it always was -
a gimmick. That said, it must be stated that a big reason long range twins
developed such a fabulous reputation for reliability is the GE-powered
777. While the Rolls Royce and P&W engines on 777s have