Australia to purchase CH-47F Chinooks

The Australian government has approved the procurement of 7 Boeing CH-47F Chinook medium-lift helicopters to the tune of around $666.5 million.  The new helicopters will replace the Australian Defense Force's older fleet of 6 CH-47D Chinooks.  The first helicopter is scheduled to enter service in 2014, with all seven in operational service by 2017.

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With new tanker RFP released, will Northrop still bid?

The final request for proposals (RFP) for the lucrative KC-X Tanker replacement fleet was released on Wednesday, February 24th, with only minor changes compared to the draft version that was released last year.  Boeing and Northrop (in partnership with EADS) are vying for the $50 billion 179 aircraft contract, which will replace the U.S. Air Force's aging fleet of KC-135 Tankers, some of which are older than 50 years.  But Northrop believes that the current evaluation system as specified in the RFP remains biased towards Boeing, and are still threatening to pull out of the competition.  As such, Northrop's political supporters have called for a dual-buy approach, although this could be problematic because the U.S. Air Force envisions an order of 12 aircraft per year.  The dual-buy approach would boost that number to 24, meaning that the Air Force would have to find additional resources to help fund those extra planes.  From Boeing's perspective, they're disappointed that no language was added to the RFP to address the European Union subsidies issue with regards to Airbus aircraft (Northrop's tanker bid would be based on an Airbus A330 platform), but overall they were satisfied with the requirements.

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United Airlines finalizes order for 25 787's

Boeing has finalized a contract with United Airlines to provide 25 787-8 Dreamliners with purchase options for an additional 50 aircraft.  The order is valued at around $4.2 billion.  Having served as the launch customer for the 777, United is most definitely an important customer for Boeing, and this order proves that the airline is still happy with flying Boeing aircraft.  The new fleet of Dreamliners are expected to replace United's older fleet of 747's and 767's that fly mostly international routes.

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3rd 787 Dreamliner takes off

An additional aircraft has now officially become a member of the 787 Dreamliner flight-test program. Today at 11:43 AM PST, ZA004 took to the skies from Paine Field in Everett, WA.  The flight was to last approximately 3 hours with weather permitting.

Virgin Blue to order 50 Boeing 737 Aircraft

Virgin Blue, which is Australia's second largest airline (Qantas being the first), has agreed "in principle" to order as many as 50 Next Generation 737 aircraft from Boeing.  The new aircraft will be used to help boost capacity with their domestic routes.

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Bipartisan group of governors backs Boeing's tanker bid

With the release of the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Air Force Tanker coming soon, congressional supporters are already presenting their case on behalf of either Boeing's or Northrop Grumman-EADS' tanker bid.  Below is a bipartisan list of governors that have thrown their support for the Boeing Tanker:

Chris Gregoire (D-Wash.)
Mark Parkinson (D-Kan.)
Pat Quinn (D-Ill.)
Jodi Rell (R-Conn.)
Chet Culver (D-Iowa)
John Baldacci (D-Maine)
Jay Nixon (D-Mo.)
Ted Kulongoski (D-Ore.)
Gary Hubert (R-Utah)

The Northrop Grumman-EADS team has threatened to pull out of the tanker competition unless significant changes are made to the Pentagon's RFP, which it claims is biased towards Boeing.  In addition, a grassroots campaign (dubbed the "Build Them Both" campaign, a nonpartisan coalition based in Washington, D.C.) was launched yesterday that advocates buying tankers from both companies.  The dual-buy approach did have its supporters, most notably the late Rep. John Murtha and Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), who wielded significant clout as chairmen of the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee and the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces subcommittee, respectively.  But this support has waned considerably with the passing of Murtha, Abercrombie vacating his chairmanship in a bid for the governorship of Hawaii, and pro-Boeing supporters Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) now having assumed the chair of both committees.

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First production 747-8 Freighter leaves factory

Boeing announced that last Thursday the first production 747-8 Freighter left the assembly line and is now undergoing customer modifications for launch customer Cargolux.  This is the 4th 747-8F built at the Everett, WA plant.  The first three aircraft are involved in the flight test program, but will eventually be converted into commercial aircraft once testing is completed.  As for the passenger version (the 747-8 Intercontinental), Boeing expects assembly to begin sometime in May of this year.

Airborne Laser Testbed destroys ballistic missile

Lasers are so freakin' awesome, especially when it's mounted on the nose of a heavily modified 747-400 Freighter and can shoot down in-flight ICBM's.  That is exactly what the Boeing Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) accomplished on February 11th while flying over the Western Sea Range off the California coast, when it successfully destroyed a ballistic missile during its boost phase of flight.  This is the first time that a high-energy laser weapon has ever successfully engaged and destroyed an in-flight ballistic missile.  In fact, the ALTB is the most powerful laser in the world.  This will most likely open the door for a new generation of directed-energy high-precision weapons.  Perhaps bullets and missiles will be replaced by phasers, rail guns, and photon torpedoes.  Captain Kirk would be so jealous.

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Pictures of 747-8 Test Plane

Wired.com has a neat article on one of the 747-8 test aircraft.  It has great pictures of the inside of the aircraft as well as some of the test rigging installed within.  A great way to kill 10-15 minutes of your time, with the added benefit of learning something new too!

Wired.com Article

Chinese spy given 15-year prison sentence

Dongfan (Greg) Chung, a stress analyst at Boeing (and Rockwell International, later acquired by Boeing) who had high-level security clearance, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing over 300,000 pages of sensitive and proprietary information from Boeing and allegedly passing them to China.  The pages he stole included data on the U.S. Space Shuttle, the Delta IV booster rocket, and the C-17 Globemaster III.  Chung becomes the first defendant to be tried under the economic espionage provisions of the United States' Economic Espionage Act (passed by Congress in 1996), and will most likely serve as a precedent for future espionage cases.

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747-8 Freighter makes successful first flight!

Bah, I WOULD have reported this yesterday, but I guess I was still a little bit hungover from Super Bowl Sunday.  Congrats to the New Orleans Saints by the way.  Good for the team and especially great for the city.  WHO DAT??!!!!  Anyways, yes indeed, the 747-8 Freighter did accomplish first flight yesterday at 12:39PM PST, and landed safely back at Paine Field around 4:18PM PST.  The test pilots reported that the aircraft performed as expected, and handled just like a 747-400.  It reached an altitude of 17,000 ft. and maintained a cruising speed of around 264mph.  The official news release from Boeing and a webcast of the flight is available below:

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747-8F First Flight Webcast

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747-8 Freighter first flight set for Monday, February 8

Earlier today, Boeing conducted both low speed and high speed taxi tests on the 747-8 Freighter at Paine Field in Everett, WA.  These taxi tests are essentially the final hurdle before first flight can proceed.  It looks as if the taxi tests went really well, because now Boeing is expecting first flight for the 747-8F to commence next Monday, February 8th, at 10AM PST.  Hopefully Boeing will provide a streaming live link of the first flight, similar to what they did with the 787 Dreamliner's first flight.

Turkish Airlines places 737 order

Today Turkish Airlines (the national airline of Turkey) placed an order for 20 Next Generation 737 aircraft.  10 aircraft will be the -800 model, and the other 10 will be the -900ER model.  These aircraft are expected to be delivered between 2011-2014.  The contract also includes options for an additional 15 aircraft for either 737 model.  The order is valued at around $1.6 billion.

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747-8 takes to the skies... via a flight simulator

Here's an interesting two-part article I found about flight testing that is being performed on the 747-8 through an elaborate flight simulator.  Very insightful and a good read.

We Fly Boeing's New 747-8 (Part 1)

We Fly Boeing's New 747-8 (Part 2)

GOL Airlines receives record-making 737

In December last year, Boeing delivered a Next-Generation 737-800 aircraft to GOL Airlines (based in Brazil).  Now deliveries such as these are pretty much routine for Boeing, but this particular 737 delivery is quite special.  In fact, it's a historic event in the lifetime of the 737 family, because that aircraft marks the 3,133rd Next-Generation 737 that Boeing has built, surpassing the total number of older generation 737 Classics that rolled out of the factory (the 737 Classic family consists of the -100, -200, -300, -400, and -500 models).  In addition, it took the Next-Gen 737 factory (based in Renton, WA) only 12 years to achieve this milestone, compared to the 32 years it took to build the same number of 737 Classic aircraft.  Because of a strong focus on efficiency (dubbed Lean+ by Boeing) and on-going improvement efforts, the factory now rolls out Next-Gen 737 aircraft to the tune of 31 per month, with a single aircraft being produced in just 10 days (compared to 22 days in the past).  I think it's a safe bet that the factory will continue to produce Next-Gen 737 aircraft for at least the remainder of this decade.  Rumors of a replacement 737 aircraft (which will incorporate some of the groundbreaking new features that the 787 Dreamliner currently utilizes, including the use of advanced composites) is still far out.  Boeing is believed to be waiting for a more fuel-efficient engine to be developed first before they begin putting designs on the 737 replacement prototype to paper.

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New website for 787 Dreamliner Flight Test

Last Friday, Boeing unveiled a new website called 787 Dreamliner Flight Test, which will allow aviation buffs to keep track of the 787 Flight Test program.  There's also a feature that allows users to subscribe to an RSS feed, so they can keep track of any new 787 developments on their iPhone / Blackberry / Google Phone / etc.  The website will detail the number of flights and total flight time that each of the six test aircraft has logged.  And it will detail the type of test that each aircraft is currently undergoing, along with some really neat photos and videos.  One such test that was recently performed on January 29th was a stall test, where pilots intentionally bring the aircraft to a period of stall by reducing engine power, and then attempting to restore normal flight once the stall has occurred.  Currently there are two test aircraft (ZA001 and ZA002) already performing flight tests.  ZA003 and ZA004 are expected to fly this month.

787 Dreamliner Flight Test Website