80ktsClamp

I don't like RR engines because they spin the wrong way. SO THERE!

QuietSpike

They were designed in the southern hemisphere...


Get it... toilets??

80ktsClamp

I think someone on here has a few pictures under their bed of RR engines with some of their panels off.

Perhaps looking to get inside those petal doors someday??

11Fan

SEATTLE (AP) - Boeing Co. has resumed flight tests of its 787 jetliner aimed at achieving Federal Aviation Administration certification.

Boeing halted test flights of the long-delayed jet last fall because of an in-flight electrical fire in the plane's power distribution system that forced an emergency landing Nov. 9. It resumed flight tests in late December, but not until Monday did it resume tests for FAA certification. The federal agency must certify aircraft before they can enter service.

Boeing says it has four 787s back in the test program, including the one that had the fire. Two more are expected to be flying again in the next week or so.

Boeing resumes 787 certification flights | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News | Boeing

mmaviator

Great job Boeing..........nothing like outsourcing coming back to bite your A$$. Maybe should of spell A$$ with 18 Billion $'s.

Sunday Buzz | A 'prescient' warning to Boeing on 787 trouble | Seattle Times Newspaper

One bracing lesson that Albaugh was unusually candid about: the 787's global outsourcing strategy — specifically intended to slash Boeing's costs — backfired completely. "We spent a lot more money in trying to recover than we ever would have spent if we'd tried to keep the key technologies closer to home," Albaugh told his large audience of students and faculty.

Boeing was forced to compensate, support or buy out the partners it brought in to share the cost of the new jet's development, and now bears the brunt of additional costs due to the delays.

Some Wall Street analysts estimate those added costs at between $12 billion and $18 billion, on top of the $5 billion Boeing originally planned to invest.

strfyr51

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the Rolls Engine's 3 spool design is only a problem because of the intermediate bearing and they've pretty much seemed to solve that problem. As far as the Trent 900 on the airbus A380?. Well you need to look back at the start of the JT9D program because they had Loads of problems after the 747 was launched. After we at United got the RB211-522's in the L1011-500's we bought from Pan AM we had a problems until we got them all through the shop. Then the problems were minimal. Now I'll NEVER tell you that a Rolls engine is superior to GE and In NO WAY superior to a PWA engine but a Lot of airlines have bought and fly them and they seem to be making them money. And that's the bottom line.
It's all preference. I think Prat is making a BOG mistake in not fielding an updated PW4000 for the 787 but then again I thing GE is blowing it by Not having a Mid range powerplant in the 18-45,000 lbs of thrust range. So all the rest is just Business!

Group W Bench

Boeing to miss 787 performance spec: Albaugh

By Jon Ostrower

Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh, for the first time, has acknowledged that the 787 will miss its intended performance specifications, though the majority composite jet will still meet the mission requirements of its customers.
"I'll be the first to admit that we're not going to meet the spec, but I think we'll be able to meet what our guarantees are," said Albaugh today at the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Boeing's current spec calls for the aircraft to fly 14,200km to 15,200km (7,650nm to 8,200nm) range at maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 227,930kg (502,500lb) with 242 passengers in a three-class configuration.
Albaugh says "the first airplanes are going to be a little heavy" and the company has engine and airframe performance improvement packages to "clean the airplane up".
He adds: "I feel pretty comfortable that over time we'll be able to get to [14,800km (8,000nm) range]." However, adds Albaugh, "When that date's going to be, I can't tell you."
Originally designed to fly 14,200km to 15,200km with a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 219,540kgs (484,000lbs), the MTOW has creeped up to 227,900kg (502,500lbs) in part to regain the aircraft's payload range performance, starting with Airplane 20.
Mike Bair, who currently heads Boeing's 737 advanced development effort, said in a recent interview that the 787 would achieve "high teens in terms of fuel burn" advantage over the 767 and "high single digits in terms of cash operating costs," but adds: "It would've been higher, but we decided to trade some of that currency for payload range, so to give the airlines an opportunity to work the revenue side of the equation."
Both 787 engine suppliers Rolls-Royce and General Electric are working on improvement packages for their respective engines. Rolls-Royce will introduce its 'Package B' model, expected to bring the Trent 1000 engine within 1% of originally planned specification, while GE is currently flight testing its Product Improvement Package (PIP1) on its 747-100 test bed.
The Rolls-Royce 'Package B' Trent 1000 includes a revisedsix-stage low pressure turbine (LPT) design, high-aspect-ratio blades, relocation of the intermediate-pressure (IP) compressor bleed offtake ports and a fan outlet guide vanes with improved aerodynamics. Boeing says the Package B configuration has not yet flown on any of the 787 test aircraft.
Further, industry officials suggest that Rolls-Royce is working on a 'Package C' engine intended to further improve engine performance on the larger 787-9.
GE says PIP1, which includes a revised low pressure turbine (LPT), will be test flown on ZA005 mid-year. The revision increases the blade, vane and nozzle count after a weight-saving reduction in these areas reduced performance. PIP1 is believed to bring the GEnx-1B engine within 1% of planned specification, say industry officials.
A second PIP2, which features aerodynamic improvements to the high pressure compressor (HPC), has been in ground testing since December and GE expects to flight test the changes in the second half of 2011.Certification of these changes is likely in the first quarter of 2012, followed by entry into service in late 2012, says GE.
Japan's All Nippon Airways anticipates taking delivery of the first 787 in the third quarter of 2011.

MatthewAMEL

I wonder if Boeing still thinks outsourcing to the lowest possible bidder was a good idea.

Riddler

Has there ever been an airplane that met/exceeded all its original promises?

aerospacepilot

For those who are looking to bash Boeing about outsourcing any chance they get, I refer you to the quote above. This is very common in new aircraft design. Boeing built an aggressive product, and it has been successful on 95% of its promises. As the design gets more mature, this will improve.

Boeing would love to have these components built in house, with competitive labor rates, but Boeing's unions drove the labor rates out of the water to the point that it was no longer competitive to do much of the work in house, therefore Boeing began outsourcing. People who turn wrenches making huge salaries with triple time on Sunday would not allow Boeing to stay price competitive.

Anyone who has been to Detroit recently knows what unions with too much power can do...