The GEnx-1B engine for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner received airworthiness engine certification this week from the US Federal Aviation Administration. The FAR (Federal Aviation Regulation) 33 certification follows an extensive two-year ground- and flight-test program that involved eight engines and two flight-test programs on GE’s 747 flying test bed.
Boeing Co., reacting to reports that design problems have further delayed the 787 Dreamliner, acknowledged it had to strengthen a critical piece of the plane, but said the setback wasn’t the “pacing item” on the jet program.
…Also, Boeing will likely scale back its estimate of how many airplanes it will deliver in 2009, to fewer than half of the original estimate of 109 airplanes, to allow its suppliers to gradually increase their output.
Boeing has started final assembly of the second of six flight test aircraft for the 787 programme, passing a critical milestone after months of production delays.
Boeing has delayed the first test flight of the 787 Dreamliner by about three months to almost July and said it won’t start deliveries until early 2009, the second setback for the planemaker’s most successful new jetliner based on orders.
The Boeing Company recorded 1,413 net commercial airplane orders during 2007, reaching more than 1,000 orders for an unprecedented third consecutive year, and setting a Boeing record for total orders in a single year.
Boeing also set new order records for the 787 Dreamliner, the 737, and for Boeing freighters.
Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet may have a serious security vulnerability in its onboard computer networks that could allow passengers to access the plane’s control systems, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
The computer network in the Dreamliner’s passenger compartment, designed to give passengers in-flight internet access, is connected to the plane’s control, navigation [...]
Boeing Co’s new carbon-composite 787 Dreamliner plane may turn out to be unsafe and could lead to more deaths in crashes, according to a report by veteran journalist Dan Rather to be broadcast in the United States on Tuesday.
The new plane, which is mostly made from brittle carbon compounds rather than flexible aluminum, is [...]
Both Boeing Co. and its European rival, Airbus, emerged with a piece of British Airways’ $8.2 billion order for 36 new long-range aircraft today.
The London-based carrier said it is ordering 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 12 Airbus A380 superjumbo jets. The airline also took options on seven more A380s and 18 787s.
In splitting the order, [...]
The delay has been Boeing’s original plan called for the first 787 to be ready by late-August to launch a nine-month airworthiness certification process ending with first delivery to All Nippon Airways in May 2008. Earlier in the third quarter, Boeing acknowledged that the end of the window for first flight might slip from late September to early October, requiring the company to complete airworthiness certification in only seven months to remain on schedule for first delivery.
Boeing performed a key crash test Thursday on its new 787 Dreamliner, dropping a 10-foot-long (3-meter) fuselage section from a height of about two stories to see how the carbon-fiber composites would hold up on impact…. The top of the fuselage section tested Thursday was taken off to make it easier to lift and drop from a height of 15 feet (4.57 meters) onto an inch-thick steel plate.
