Plane Nation

Planemaker Airbus said its A380 superjumbo had made its first flight powered by engines from Engine Alliance, a joint venture between General Electric and Pratt
& Whitney. Airbus said the Engine Alliance-powered A380 took off from its Toulouse base in southwest France on Friday at 0800 GMT. Since the A380 made its
maiden flight last year, flight testing had been carried out using Rolls Royce engines. The four-engine aircraft is available with a choice of either engine model.
Six customers of the A380 plane have chosen the Engine Alliance GP7200 engine for a total of 82 firm orders. General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, a unit of
United Technologies, each hold a

Talk of new delays in the A380 super-jumbo jet program has emerged
among some Airbus employees, French newspaper Les Echos reported
this morning. However, others still say it will meet thenew delivery
schedule developed in July after parent company EADS admitted the
project was behind schedule.

Boeing apparently also has decided to lengthen the 747-8
Intercontinental to the same length as the 747-8F to meet demands for
greater capacity. Currently, the passenger variant has a 3.6-m. stretch
and the freighter is stretched by 5.6 m. Lengthening the passenger
version to match the freighter adds 20 seats, plus an additional 12 when
combined with overhead galley cart storage, lifting passenger capacity to
496 in a standard Boeing three-class configuration. It is expected that the
stretch will be confirmed at a 747-8 airline conference to be held in Hong
Kong the first week of September. Boeing has been working with 25
carriers interested in the passenger version to determine

Supersonic business aviation took a step closer to reality this week after
NASA began flight testing Gulfstream’s patented Quiet Spike sonic-boom
mitigation device on a Boeing F-15. The Quiet Spike is designed as part
the design for Gulfstream’s proposed Supersonic Business Jet (SSBJ),
which also features wings that sweep back and centreline engines (see
animation below). On an operational SSBJ, Quiet Spike will probably
have four sections. It has yet to be determined whether a tail spike is
needed to deal with the aft sonic shock. Image: © Gulfstream Animation:
Justin Wastnage/ flightglobal.com The Gulfstream SSBJ will
transform from subsonic configuration to supersonic configuration The
initial shake-down flight from NASA Dryden at Edwards

Australia’s Qantas Airways is to receive more than A$100 million in
damages from Airbus for delays in deliveries of its 12 firm-ordered A380-
800s. It has meanwhile confirmed orders for four more Airbus A330
twinjets, two of which will be leased.

Boeing announced today that it is to close its high speed onboard
internet service provider division, Connexion by Boeing. The company
says that following a “detailed business and market analysis”, it has
decided to exit the cabin connectivity market. Connexion was started in
2000. The decision comes after an announcement on 26 June as part of
the company’s first half year earnings analysis that the division’s future
was uncertain. Boeing says it will “work with its customers to facilitate an
orderly phase out of the Connexion by Boeing service”. The company is
understood to be seeking a buyer for the service. Boeing chief executive
Jim McNerney says: “Regrettably, the market for this

TOKYO, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd (7012.T:
Quote, NEWS, Research) is considering building a second plant to make
components for Boeing Co.’s (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 787
Dreamliner, the Nihon Keizai business daily reported on Saturday.
Kawasaki Heavy’s first plant for the project began operations in
Yatomi, central Japan, in July. But in view of solid orders for the next-
generation passenger jet, the company may build a second plant by fiscal
2008/09, the business daily said. Investment in the new plant is expected
to exceed 15 billion yen ($130 million), it said. The widebody plane, slated
to start

Boeing [NYSE: BA] has rolled the first 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter
(LCF) out of the hangar at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport.
The enormous airplane is the first of three specially modified jets that will
be used to transport major assemblies for the all-new Boeing 787
Dreamliner. “This is one of the most unusual modifications Boeing has
ever done,” said Scott Strode, 787 vice president of Airplane
Development and Production. “We’ve relied on the world’s
best talent to design and build the LCF and we can all be proud today to
see it standing on the tarmac.” Ground testing is under way to prepare
the LCF for its first flight. After initial

Singapore Airlines ordered 20 new Airbus A350 XWB planes today, making it the first carrier to commit to the revamped aircraft unveiled by the European
manufacturer earlier this week. The Asian carrier also said it would exercise its options to pick up nine more of Airbus’ double-decker A380s – the model
that led to a high-level management shakeup at Airbus and its parent company European Aeronautic Defence & Space last month when the company warned of
delivery delays. The contract for all 29 planes is worth around $7.5 billion, the Asian carrier said. Airbus unveiled a $10 billion revamp of the A350 jet at the
Farnborough International Airshow on Monday in response to airline

THE battle of the superjumbos has hit new levels with European
manufacturer Airbus accusing US rival Boeing of telling “big lies” about
its double-decker A380. While manufacturers have always sniped at
each other’s usually conflicting comparisons of aircraft performance,
Airbus says it is incensed at Boeing’s latest attempts to sell the 747-8, the
stretch version of the venerable jumbo jet. The Europeans are back on
the offensive after being thrown into crisis earlier this year when
production problems forced it to delay the delivery of the first A380s by
another six months. “Quite frankly, we have to put a few things right
regarding the A380 compared with the 747-8 and their freighter
stablemate because Boeing