Boeing on the evening of 17 November moved the first 747-8F from the paint hanger in Everett, Washington with a special “light” livery. … The airframer explains the light livery saves time and expense compared with the full Boeing livery, and will remain on the aircraft until the flight test program is completed.
Boeing broke ground in North Charleston, South Carolina for the second 787 final assembly line today, marking the first all-new commercial jetliner assembly plant in the US since then-Lockheed built its L-1011 final assembly line in Palmdale, California in 1968.
The groundbreaking at the North Charleston site comes just weeks after Boeing announced on 28 October [...]
Airbus announced on Sunday at the show that it would offer winglets for its A320 family aircraft starting with an order from Air New Zealand in 2012 that would improve fuel burn by 3.5%.
Taking off from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport’s Runway 32 at just after 10:00 a.m. local time, the A330-200F performed a 4-hour maiden airborne evaluation that was completed with its return to the southwestern France facility for a flyby, followed by a touch-and-go maneuver and the final landing. On the flightdeck of the Pratt & Whitney PW4000-powered freighter (MSN 1004) for the 3h 50min flight were Airbus test pilots Philippe Perrin and Martin Scheuermann, accompanied by test-flight engineers Wolfgang Brueggemann, Stephane Vaux and Pascal Verneau.
Randy Tinseth, BCA’s VP of Marketing, reported in his blog that Boeing Charleston’s Final Assembly Facility should be ready by July 2011 and the first 787 to be delivered from that facility should be handed over by the 1st quarter of 2012. 
The second line for the Dreamliner in Charleston SC. …
Boeing, fed up with over twenty years of labor strife has decided to locate the second line for the 787 in North Charleton, SC right next to its existing facility that produces the rear fuselage for the 787 and the Global Aeronautica facility that integrates fuselage sections from Japan and Italy to form the main fuselage of the 787.
Air France takes delivery of its first Airbus A380 double-decker jet fitted with a lounge bar and on-demand video, luxuries that have complicated assembly of the plane already plagued by production delays. … “The other issue is that customers clearly don’t want the plane now as much as they wanted it a year or two ago.” For now it seems like Airbus just wants to do some complaining, and the company is not really offering any solutions.
Airbus will invest more than €400 million (£358.9 million) in the UK in the next 12 months as it prepares to start production on its latest aircraft, the A350XWB. Airbus has started work on constructing a 46,000 sq m factory at its site in Broughton, North Wales, and is recruiting suppliers to the project.
Boeing evaluated criteria that were designed to find the final assembly location within the company that would best support the 787 business plan as the program increases production rates. In addition to serving as a location for final assembly of 787 Dreamliners, the facility also will have the capability to support the testing and delivery of the airplanes.
My information is that UAL executives are spending a great deal of time in Toulouse and, oddly, but persuasively if true, the November board meeting is scheduled to be held in Paris. Sounds too good a rumour to be true, and yet, and yet, when USAirways defected to Airbus for long-haul a few years back the news very nearly leaked because CEO Stephen Wolf was spotted in Paris 24 hours before the announcement.
