The delivery of the 747-8 Intercontinental – Boeing’s largest and most recognizable commercial airplane – caps a development delay of more than a year.

Boeing marked the milestone with an understated ceremony, keeping the media at arm’s length to safeguard the identity of its customer, thought by industry insiders to be the state of Qatar.

Boeing Business Jets president Steve Taylor, who was set to fly the airplane from Paine Field near Seattle, said it will spend about six months at Boeing’s Wichita facility which is  the plant that modified Air Force One.  From there it goes to a facility in Hamburg where it will spend two years receiving customer-specific outfitting like bedrooms, dining rooms and galleys, he said.

Taylor said the unnamed customer wants the new Intercontinental to be the “jewel of the sky.”

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A recent management shift by Boeing seems to indicate the company’s intent to develop a new version of the 777, now that the future of the 737 is well-defined.

Boeing swapped the managers of the 777 and 787 programs to “better align our organization for the challenges ahead,” Jim Albaugh, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told employees Feb. 23. The announcement was made public Feb. 24.

Larry Loftis, who has led a mature 777 program, takes over as general manager of the 787 model, a program with production-rate challenges ahead.

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Boeing received certificates Tuesday confirming two world records its 787 Dreamliner set in late 2011.

The 787 broke the record for the longest flight of an airplane for its weight class and set an around-the-world speed record also for its weight class.

The Dreamliner earned the first record by flying 10,336 nautical miles from Seattle to Bangladesh. The Airbus A330 previously held the distance record with a 9,126 nautical mile flight in 2002.

The crew refueled in Bangladesh then continued eastbound and returned to Seattle 42 hours and 26 minutes after their departure, which set the around-the-world record at 470 knots. No previous speed record for the around-the-world trip exists for the 787’s weight class.

“Around-the-world records are extremely challenging, and Boeing should be very proud of the successful world and national records they achieved with these flights,” said Jonathan Gaffney, the president and CEO of the National Aeronautic Association. Gaffney presented Boeing with the certificates. “We were proud to have had the opportunity to record and certify them.”

Capt. Rod Skaar, who led the crew and was one of the six pilots on the flight, received the award.

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The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) today ordered detailed inspections on the wings of the Airbus A380 jumbo jet after cracks were found in brackets that secure the wing’s skin to the aircraft. “This condition, if not detected and corrected, could potentially affect the structural integrity of the aeroplane,” the safety watchdog warns.

EASA says two types of cracks have been found in the L-shaped brackets, called rib feet, that join the A380′s wing surface to the ribs whose profile defines the wing’s cross sectional shape. The first type of rib foot crack was found when the aircraft damaged in last November’s A380 engine-loss incident was being checked out after repairs.

But after subsequent checking of more of the fleet, engineers found a “more significant” form of cracking has developed on the rib feet of some of the aircraft. So EASA has ordered “detailed visual inspections” within the next six weeks for A380 aircraft that have flown between 1300 and 1799 takeoffs and landings – and within just four days for those with over 1800 flight cycles.

There’s a good reason safety watchdogs take no chances with even the smallest of cracks: it was cracks caused by the then unknown phenomenon of metal fatigue that caused the fatal mid-flight breakups of the De Havilland Comet, the first world’s pressurized, aluminium-skinned jetliner, in the 1950s. Tiny cracks around window portholes eventually propagated, bursting the fuselage, after a certain number of flight pressurizations and depressurizations.

While EASA has not said what might happen if A380 rib feet fail owing to cracking, if a section of wing skin were to separate from the plane the debris could potentially damage any critical structure it collides with – like the tailfin.

Australian aircraft engineers also warned Airbus to inspect the aircraft for cracks in early January.

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Australian aircraft engineers have called for the global fleet of Airbus A380 super-jumbos to be inspected immediately for safety after tiny cracks were found in wing parts of some planes operated by Singapore Airlines and Qantas.

“There is no way on God’s earth that I would be waiting four years to inspect them,” Paul Cousins, the federal president of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, told a New Zealand news organisation.

Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath has issued an e-mail statement confirming that minor cracks were found on “non-critical wing-rib attachments” and that the company has developed “an inspection and repair procedure which will be done during routine, scheduled 4-year maintenance checks.”

Singapore Airlines and Qantas have also claimed the cracks pose no threat to safety and repairs have been carried out.

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Airbus has started joining the first 21 m long front fuselage section for the A350 XWB.  This phase will continue over the coming weeks, and once completed, the front fuselage will be transported to the A350 XWB Final Assembly Line in Toulouse. It will be the first major section of the A350 XWB to enter the final assembly line.

Incoming search terms:

• a380 xwb (1)

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Last week Airbus delivered their 7,000th aircraft and today Boeing delivered their 7,000th 737 to Dubai-based flydubai. The airplane is flydubai’s 14th Next-Generation 737-800 with the new Boeing Sky Interior.

The Boeing 737 is the best-selling commercial jetliner of all time with total orders exceeding 9,300 airplanes, including orders for the new 737 MAX.

Incoming search terms:

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Airbus delivered today its 7,000th aircraft, an A321, to US Airways – the airline that operates the largest fleet of Airbus aircraft in the world – from the Airbus facility in Hamburg, Germany. This milestone comes just two years after the delivery of Airbus’ 6,000th aircraft which underlines the continued vibrancy of the commercial aviation sector and the market’s clear vote for eco-efficient aircraft.

The 1,000th Airbus delivery was an A340-300 that went to Air France in 1993, nineteen years after the first Airbus aircraft was delivered – an A300B2 also to Air France, in 1974. The 2,000th delivery was six years later in 1999. It took half that time, just three years, to get to the 3,000th delivery in 2002 and three more years to reach 4,000 deliveries. The tempo went up another notch taking Airbus only two years to hand over its 5,000th aircraft, an A330-200 to Qantas in December 2007. The 6,000th Airbus was an A380 which was delivered to Emirates in January 2010.

“It’s particularly fitting that our 7,000th aircraft is an A321 going to US Airways. The airline not only operates the largest fleet of Airbus aircraft in the world; with over 220 A320 Family aircraft flying in US Airways colours today, they also operate the largest fleet of our best-selling, eco-efficient A320 Family,” said Tom Enders, Airbus President and CEO. “This milestone is a tribute to the hard work and commitment of Airbus teams around the world. We have improved efficiencies company-wide and this has enabled us to deliver record numbers of latest generation aircraft at continually increasing rates, with an environmental footprint ever decreasing.”

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Boeing Press release for Boeing 747-8i.

Boeing and Lufthansa are fast approaching the next major milestone on the 747-8 Intercontinental program with the start of pre-delivery testing of the new airplane at Lufthansa’s main operations base at Frankfurt Airport from Dec. 6 to Dec. 9.

Lufthansa will conduct a number of tests to help ensure a smooth integration of the newest member of the 747 family into Lufthansa operations. Lufthansa maintenance and engineering personnel will rehearse ground-handling processes for the 747-8 Intercontinental within the airline’s facilities and on its ramps at the airport. In addition, the crews will check how their ground-support equipment accommodates the airplane. These checks will help Lufthansa ensure a smooth entry into service for crews and passengers in early 2012.

The airplane is scheduled to arrive at Frankfurt Airport late afternoon Central European Time (CET) on Dec. 6 after an approximately 9-hour flight from Seattle. Three Lufthansa pilots will join two Boeing pilots on the flight crew for the flight. The airplane will depart early afternoon CET Dec. 9. Lufthansa will release photographs of the airplane’s visit to Frankfurt, at its website http://presse.lufthansa.com/de/mediathek/bildarchiv.html.

The airplane that will visit, known to Boeing as RC021, is one of three airplanes that have served in the 747-8 Intercontinental flight test fleet. It was specifically used to test interior systems such as heating and air conditioning, cabin lighting and systems and galleys.

The airplane is painted white with a gray belly and a blue tail fin – a basecoat of the Lufthansa livery without decals – and will be the fifth 747-8 Intercontinental to join Lufthansa’s fleet when it is delivered in the third quarter 2012. The first 747-8 Intercontinental destined for Lufthansa is completing construction at Boeing’s facility in Everett, Wash.

The 747-8 Intercontinental provides double-digit improvements in fuel economy and carbon emissions per passenger and generates a 30 percent smaller noise footprint than the 747-400. The 747-8 Intercontinental applies interior features from the 787 Dreamliner that include a new curved, upswept architecture giving passengers a greater feeling of space and comfort, while adding more room for personal belongings.

Lufthansa has ordered a total of 20 747-8 Intercontinental airplanes. Boeing and Lufthansa share a strong tradition of innovation and partnership that continues with the new 747-8 Intercontinental.

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Production of the Airbus A340 four-engine commercial jetliner has ended, making it Airbus’ shortest-lived production model. The aircraft entered service in 1993, but soon began losing favor with carriers due to the economic factors associated with feeding fuel to and maintaining four engines. Demand for the A340 also took a major hit with the expansion of extended operations or ETOPS. As regulators increased the amount of time twin-engine aircraft were allowed to fly away from suitable landing sites under more lenient ETOPS regulations, four-engine aircraft lost a key competitive edge. And, Thursday, Airbus confirmed that it had sold zero A340s over the past two years. Meanwhile, some twin-engine jets from competing manufactures have done quite well.

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