MBN The Monte Bubbles Network

April 1

Boeing [NYSE: BA] and LCAL today announced the leasing company placed an order for one additional 787-9 Dreamliner, expanding its fleet to 15 of the advanced-technology aircraft.

The deal is worth $183 million at list prices. This order was allocated to an unidentified customer on Boeing's Orders and Deliveries website in 2006.

LCAL established itself in 2005 as an aircraft leasing company providing lease services exclusively with the 787 Dreamliner. The company was the first leasing company to order 787s, making a commitment to purchase six 787-8s in May 2005, remaining unidentified until November of the same year.

At the end of 2005, LCAL ordered an additional eight 787s worth another $1.2 billion at list prices. The second order was for the 787-9, establishing LCAL as the first leasing customer for this variant.

"This latest addition to our fleet is further confirmation of our unwavering confidence in the 787 program," said Clive Joy, chairman and founder of LCAL.

"The technological benefits that the 787 brings will set the new standard in operator and passenger preference for decades to come, while taking a significant step to address the environmental issue," said LCAL Chief Operating Officer and President Steve Clarke.

"Today's commitment by LCAL reinforces the remarkable market success of the Boeing 787 among a wide variety of customers and business models," said John Feren, vice president of Sales - Leasing and Asset Management, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "With its dedicated and growing Dreamliner fleet, LCAL is offering its airline customers exclusively an airplane that delivers breakthrough technology, best-in-class fuel efficiency and lower operating costs."

LCAL has selected Rolls-Royce's Trent 1000 engine for a number of its 787s, and is negotiating with GE to equip some of its fleet with GEnx engines.

The technologically advanced 787 Dreamliner will use 20 percent less fuel than today's airplanes of comparable size, provide airlines with up to 45 percent more cargo revenue capacity, and will present passengers with innovations including a new interior environment with higher humidity, wider seats and aisles, larger windows and other conveniences. The Dreamliner will allow airlines to offer more of the comfortable point-to-point travel that passengers want.

Since the 787's launch in April 2004, 39 customers have booked 491 orders, making it one of the fastest-selling commercial airplanes in aviation history.

Additional information about LCAL is available at www.lcal.com.

 

The world's longest-range commercial jetliner, the Boeing [NYSE: BA] 777-200LR Worldliner (Longer Range), marks its first year in revenue service this month. With several airlines scheduled to take delivery of new Worldliners this year, the newest 777 to enter service is set to change how passengers travel by offering airlines more flexibility to serve the nonstop routes that passengers demand.

Pakistan International Airlines was the first customer to put the 777-200LR into service, taking delivery of the first two airplanes built. Other airlines taking delivery of new 777-200LRs this year include Air India, Emirates and Air Canada.

"The Boeing 777-200LR supports our business plan to grow Emirates' route structure to include new nonstop flights to destinations worldwide, including the West Coast of the United States and South America," said Emirates Chairman H.E. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum. "The 777-200LR will complement our existing fleet of 777 jetliners, soon to be the world's largest, and offer our passengers the exceptional level of service and comfort they've come to expect from Emirates."

One of the routes Emirates plans to open with a 777-200LR is a nonstop flight between Sao Paulo and Dubai, making it the first time an airline has offered nonstop service between the Middle East and South America. Air India plans to open a new nonstop route between Mumbai and New York. To date, the 777-200LR has won 40 orders from seven customers.

"The 777-200LR is changing the way airlines fly passengers around the world by opening more direct, nonstop routes that fly passengers directly to where they want to go," said Lars Andersen, vice president-program manger, 777 Program, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

The 777-200LR is capable of flying up to 9,450 nautical miles (17,500 km), enabling the airplane to connect virtually any two cities around the world nonstop, carrying 301 passengers in a typical three-class configuration. Also, the 777-200LR can carry a full cargo load on routes where other airplanes are payload limited. This gives airlines the capability to carry the same number of passengers farther, and with additional revenue-generating cargo.

In its first year in service, the 777-200LR amassed a 99.7 percent average schedule reliability rate and is in line with 777's best-in-class schedule reliability. The 777-200LR is equipped with the GE90-110B1L, a re-rated version of the world's most powerful commercial jet engine - the GE90-115B.

"The GE90-110B1L engine has performed exceptionally well on the Boeing 777-200LR airplane," said Tom Wygle, general manager of the GE90 program at GE Aviation. "Based on the proven technologies of the GE90 engine family, the engine has demonstrated an outstanding reliability record, fuel efficiency and low cost of ownership."

The 777 family of airplanes is the market leader in the 300 to 400-seat segment, capturing more than 65 percent of that market. To date, 48 customers have placed 918 orders for the efficient, reliable and passenger-pleasing 777 jetliner. Boeing continues to enhance the 777 family with the recent introduction of two new longer-range models and a freighter version currently in development.

 

Boeing Integrated Materials Management Opens Asia Regional Center

-- Boeing [NYSE: BA] has opened a new Integrated Materials Management (IMM) Asia Regional Center in Singapore.

-- Boeing [NYSE: BA] has opened a new Integrated Materials Management (IMM) Asia Regional Center in Singapore.

Boeing's Integrated Materials Management helps maintain and manage an airline's spare parts inventory, providing items to the airline mechanic as needed. The IMM team manages supplier-owned inventory at airline maintenance locations which results in reduced inventory holding and other supply-chain management costs at the airline.

The opening of the regional center enhances the current support of on-site teams throughout the globe and improves communications and visibility of inventory within the IMM network which directly benefits the customer. The center will provide around-the-clock support to all IMM customers and network suppliers.

"We are very excited to enlarge our footprint in the Asia region," said, Joe Brummitt, director of Integrated Materials Management for Boeing. "We have a strong base of customers in the region and our center in Singapore positions us well to better support this important customer base. It's also the next logical step in our strategy to efficiently connect all suppliers and customers in our network."

The IMM Asia Regional Center was developed using Lean principles to standardize processes and reduce the variation in inventory planning. Utilizing Lean within the center's operation will increase productivity, improve communications and enhance demand visibility. This will enable suppliers to better support the IMM supply-chain requirements. The new regional center also postures IMM to support the 787 Dreamliner and the GoldCare service solutions.

The Asia Regional Center will be based at Schenker Singapore's Megahub facility in the Airport Logistics Park of Singapore (ALPS), where Boeing currently maintains a regional distribution center through its lead logistics service provider. This further leverages Boeing's use of these facilities and continues the expansion of a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship in the country of Singapore.

"We congratulate The Boeing Company on the IMM Asia Regional Center," said Manohar Khiatani, assistant managing director for Industry Development, Singapore Economic Development Board. "We are glad that Boeing continues to grow its activities in Singapore, leveraging on our strengths as the leading aviation and logistics hub in the region. The IMM Asia Regional Centre underlines Singapore's attractiveness as a location for the logistics and supply-chain management activities of global companies."

The IMM Asia Regional Center will also serve as a model as IMM looks at centers in other locations around the globe to support the current and expanding IMM customer base. Current customers for IMM include Air Tran, All Nippon Airways, Delta Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Japan Transocean Air and Singapore Airlines. Network supplier partners include Honeywell, UFC Aerospace, Satair, Hamilton Sundstrand, Avio-Diepen, and the recently acquired Boeing subsidiary, Aviall.

 

Boeing Submits Bid to Design AMF JTRS Radio System

An industry team led by Boeing [NYSE: BA] submitted its bid this week to design and develop the Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System (AMF JTRS) for the U.S. Department of Defense.

An industry team led by Boeing [NYSE: BA] submitted its bid this week to design and develop the Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System (AMF JTRS) for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Boeing's best-of-industry team offers a low-cost, low-risk solution based on successful demonstrations that showcased interoperability between JTRS radios and radios currently used by joint forces. The demonstrations also validated the porting of key waveforms and successfully tested a 200-node network that featured self-forming and self-healing capabilities.

Boeing's teammates -- Harris, L-3 Communications, Rockwell Collins, BBN Technologies, Milcom Systems Corporation and Northrop Grumman -- have supported the AMF JTRS pre-system design and development phase since 2004. Contract award is anticipated third/fourth quarter 2007.

"Our design meets the government's requirements for a low-risk, low-cost solution that takes the joint services to the next level in networked communications," said Leo Conboy, Boeing AMF JTRS program manager. "By leveraging our market-leading experience in network-centric technologies, we've demonstrated transformational networking capability and interoperability with the key legacy radio waveforms needed by the warfighter."

Numerous pre-system design and development demonstrations validated the system's ability to support hundreds of user nodes that serve as routers, allowing warfighters to create self-forming and self-healing mobile, ad-hoc networks that can speed the flow of information across the battlespace.

A key risk reduction demonstration featured five airborne prototype radios running both legacy voice communications and the Wideband Networking Waveform, which enables Internet-like capabilities. The team provided multi-node networking simulations using virtual and hardware-based radios, featuring Boeing's Heterogeneous Networking capability with legacy datalinks and low latency edge networking using Rockwell's Tactical Targeting Networking Technologies. Communications effects models have been developed to demonstrate network performance in a virtual environment, providing the capability to fly various scenarios to demonstrate system improvements.

Boeing's AMF JTRS communications system will provide warfighters with software-defined radios that feature Internet-like capabilities, allowing air, land and sea assets to communicate in a network-centric environment. The battlespace networking capability supports real-time text, voice and multi-media information, including the ability to stream live audio and video, share maps and real-time collaboration and use Voiceover Internet Protocol.

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and partner Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) [NYSE: SAI], acting as the Lead Systems Integrator for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, today announced the selection of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Grand Prairie, Texas, as provider of the FCS Centralized Controller device.

The Centralized Controller is a single, hand-held device that will allow soldiers to command and control FCS Class I unmanned aerial vehicles and their sensor payloads; unmanned ground vehicles and their sensor and weapon payloads; unattended ground sensors; manned ground vehicle functions; and enable superior situational awareness, training, logistics and medical functions.

"The Centralized Controller is a key component of our FCS capability, and we are pleased that Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control will be leading the effort on this new Tier I contract," said Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing vice president-general manager, Combat Systems, and Future Combat Systems program manager. "The controller will consolidate what traditionally would be numerous disparate controllers into a single controller, which will simplify logistics and empower the soldier while reducing his load. Overall, it will allow a Centralized Controller-equipped soldier to remotely control one or more of the nearly 750 systems within each brigade at any particular time."

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control was selected as the Centralized Controller provider based on technical merit, schedule integration, management approach, past performance and cost after a best-value evaluation process by the Lead Systems Integrator team and its government partners. The potential value of the Centralized Controller contract, which will be finalized shortly and will run through 2014, is in excess of $35 million.

SAIC is a leading provider of scientific, engineering, systems integration and technical services and solutions to all branches of the U.S. military, Department of Defense agencies, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other U.S. Government civil agencies, as well as to customers in selected commercial markets. With more than 43,000 employees in over 150 cities worldwide, SAIC engineers and scientists solve complex technical challenges requiring innovative solutions for customers' mission-critical functions. SAIC had annual revenues of $7.8 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2006. SAIC: FROM SCIENCE TO SOLUTIONS.

 

Mar 29

 Boeing, Avianca Airlines Announce Order for 10 787 Dreamliners

 The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and Avianca Airlines, Colombia's flagship air carrier, today announced the airline has ordered 10 787s, making it the first South American carrier to order the 787 and marking the largest 787 order to date for Latin America.

The order, worth approximately $1.5 billion at list prices, was previously credited to an unidentified customer on Boeing's Orders and Deliveries Web site. Today's order also includes purchase rights for an additional 10 787s.

Avianca made the announcement at an event attended by German Efromovich, President of the Synergy group which owns Avianca, Avianca President Fabio Villegas and some 400 dignitaries including Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon, United States Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Milton Drucker, regional country representatives and Avianca and Boeing employees.

"This order reaffirms the enduring relationship Boeing has maintained with this historic airline for 70 years," said John Wojick, vice president, Sales, Latin America and the Caribbean -- Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "With the 787, Avianca will be able to provide its passengers with the very best in long-range air travel including larger windows, higher cabin humidity, more space and a lower cabin altitude."

"Today's purchase ratifies our commitment to transform Avianca into the leading airline in Latin America," Efromovich said. "We will be the first to offer passengers in our market the most advanced technology guaranteeing more comfortable and pleasurable flights."

Avianca is Colombia's largest airline and the second oldest commercial airline in the world.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, scheduled for entry into service in 2008, provides passengers with a better flying experience and operators with a more efficient commercial jetliner. Thirty-nine airlines have logged 491 orders worth more than $75 billion at current list prices since the 787 launch in April 2004, making the Dreamliner the most successful commercial airplane launch in history.

With the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing continues its leadership and innovation with a mostly composite airplane that consumes 20 percent less fuel, provides airlines with up to 45 percent more cargo revenue capacity and offers passengers a better flying experience.

 

Mar 27

Boeing Prepares Fuel Cell Demonstrator Airplane for Ground and Flight Testing

 In an effort to develop environmentally progressive technologies for aerospace applications, Boeing [NYSE: BA] researchers and industry partners throughout Europe plan to conduct experimental flight tests this year of a manned airplane powered only by a fuel cell and lightweight batteries.

The systems integration phase of the Fuel Cell Demonstrator Airplane research project, under way since 2003 at Boeing Research and Technology -- Europe (BR&TE), was completed recently. Thorough systems integration testing is now under way in preparation for upcoming ground and flight testing.

"Given the efficiency and environmental benefits of emerging fuel cell technology, Boeing wants to be on the forefront of developing and applying it to aerospace products," said Francisco Escarti, BR&TE managing director. "The Fuel Cell Demonstrator Airplane project is an important step in that direction."

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts hydrogen directly into electricity and heat without combustion. Fuel cells are emission-free and quieter than hydrocarbon fuel-powered engines. They save fuel and are cleaner for the environment.

The Boeing demonstrator uses a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell/lithium-ion battery hybrid system to power an electric motor, which is coupled to a conventional propeller. The fuel cell provides all power for the cruise phase of flight. During takeoff and climb, the flight segment that requires the most power, the system draws on lightweight lithium-ion batteries.

Flight tests, which will take place in Spain, will demonstrate for the first time that a manned airplane can maintain a straight level flight with fuel cells as the only power source.

"While Boeing does not envision that fuel cells will provide primary power for future commercial passenger airplanes, demonstrations like this help pave the way for potentially using this technology in small manned and unmanned air vehicles," Escarti said. "It also gives us hands-on experience to complement other fuel-cell studies being carried out throughout the company."

Boeing researchers see promise in other types of fuel cell technology as well as the PEM system. An example is a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell that could be applied to secondary power-generating systems, such as auxiliary power units. This technology could be mature enough in 10 to 15 years for potential use in commercial aviation.

BR&TE, part of the Boeing Phantom Works advanced R&D unit, which is chartered to provide innovative technology and system solutions to meet future aerospace needs, has worked closely with its colleagues in Boeing Commercial Airplanes, its Spanish partners, and with companies in Austria, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States to design and assemble the experimental airplane.

The PEM fuel-cell system used on the flight demonstrator, for instance, was designed and built by the UK-based firm Intelligent Energy.

The demonstrator aircraft is a Dimona motor glider, built by Diamond Aircraft Industries of Austria, which also performed major structural modifications to the aircraft. With a wing span of 16.3 meters (53.5 feet), the airplane will be able to cruise at approximately 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) using fuel cell-provided power.

The Madrid-based avionics group Aerlyper performed airframe modifications, as well as the mounting and wiring of all components; SAFT France designed and assembled the auxiliary batteries and the backup battery; Air Liquide Spain performed the detailed design and assembly of the onboard fuel system and the refueling station; the Electronic Engineering Division of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (School of Industrial Engineering) collaborated in the design and construction of the power management and distribution box; post-integration bench testing is being conducted in a facility that belongs to the Polytechnic University of Madrid (INSIA); and SENASA (Spain) will provide a test pilot and facilities for flight tests.

Other suppliers for the Fuel Cell Demonstrator Airplane include UQM Technologies Inc. (United States), MT Propeller (Germany), Tecnicas Aeronauticas de Madrid (Spain), Ingenieria de Instrumentacion y Control (Spain), GORE (Germany), Indra (Spain) and Inventia (Spain).

 

Mar 26

Wheelchair-accessible lavatories on the all-new Boeing [NYSE:BA] 787 Dreamliner will be significantly enhanced. The airline-selectable 56-inch longitudinal lavatory features improvements for passengers by offering more usable space and easer access to facilities, including a fold-down assist bar for independent transfers (shown here in the fold-down position).

When Boeing's [NYSE:BA] newest airplane, the all-new 787 Dreamliner, enters service in 2008, passengers will experience a more comfortable flight because of enhanced accessibility features.

"We analyzed accessibility issues passengers face on today's airplanes and incorporated advancements to better accommodate passengers of all ages and capabilities," said Mike Bair, vice president and general manager of the 787 program. "These advancements, coupled with the Dreamliner's larger windows, bigger carry-on bins, lower cabin altitude and cleaner air, will ensure that everyone enjoys a better flying experience on the 787."

Boeing partnered with the National Center for Accessible Transportation at Oregon State University to research accessibility improvements. As part of the research, Boeing engineers who design interiors were placed in simulated environments to better understand accessibility issues faced by persons with mobility, sensory and cognitive disabilities. In addition, the team worked with individuals with these disabilities to verify improvements.

Virtually all aspects of the Dreamliner's interior enhance passenger comfort. For example, all lavatories aboard the 787 Dreamliner feature universally designed interior and exterior door handles that are more intuitive and enable easier access by passengers with limited hand agility. Assist-handles installed in all lavatories are easier to grip and offer passengers better stability through improved design and location. "Touchless" features including faucets, toilet flushing and waste flaps can be activated by infrared sensors in addition to their traditional mechanical operation, making them easier to use.

Boeing is offering two wheelchair-accessible lavatories on the Dreamliner, each with significant advancements. The 56-inch longitudinal lavatory repositions the entryway door and toilet to provide extra usable space and makes it easier for passengers to reach and use the facilities.

A 56-inch by 57-inch convertible lavatory includes a movable center wall that allows two separate lavatories to become one large, wheelchair-accessible facility.

Other wheelchair-accessible lavatory improvements include an additional toilet flush button on the sink cabinet and a fold-down assist bar to aid independent transfers.

Additional enhancements are sprinkled throughout the airplane. Exterior assist handles are better positioned to accommodate passengers of all heights and levels of mobility. Overhead stowage bins are easier to reach, and latches work whether they are pushed or pulled, eliminating uncertainty. Bigger closets are offered that enable personal wheelchair stowage in the passenger cabin, while special closet features will better secure the wheelchair. As on current airplanes, aisle seats will have movable arm rests that offer passengers with disabilities easier access to their seats.

"Boeing is making an ongoing effort to identify opportunities to improve the flying experience," said Bair. "The 787 Dreamliner will set a new industry standard for accessibility on airplanes."