Malaysia Airlines - Orient Aviation

tycoon Joseph Lau ordered a VIP version,
valued at $153 million at list price, from
Boeing Business Jets – the seventh luxury
VIP B787 to be snapped up.
All this is adding to a Boeing recovery
that doesn’t look like ending any time soon.
The B787 was the star of the show when the
company held its annual investor conference
in late May in Chicago. Chief executive,
Jim McNerney, forecast revenue would
rise from $65 billion to around $72 billion
in 2008, underpinned by “sizzling” sales of
its newest jet.
He believed the orders would continue.
“The U.S. and European legacy carriers have
yet to order in any substantial quantities ... so
we don’t see an immediate end to the cycle,”
he told analysts.
For airlines, the economics are one of
the keys to the B787’s success. As much as
50% of the primary structure – including the
fuselage and wing – will be made of carbon
fibre composite, making it less costly to
maintain.
There will also be 98 kilometres of wiring
within the aircraft, far less than the 145
Final assembly began on the first
B787 in May at the Everett plant
kilometres in a B767, again making it easier
for airlines to maintain, as well as leaving
more space to provide bigger overhead bins
for passengers. In-flight entertainment
systems are lighter and more simply wired.
Production has been streamlined, with
major components and the work of installing
such elements as wiring and hydraulics
performed by suppliers scattered around
the world.
Previously, this was all done in Seattle.
It means when the components arrive, they
can simply be “snapped together”, reducing
production costs.
As Boeing prepared to put the first aircraft
on public display, it was still keeping the date
of its first flight under wraps.
Mike Bair, head of the B787 programme,
said there would be about a one-month
window for those flights, starting at the end
of August.
Boeing will deliver 112 aircraft during
the first two years, with final assembly of
each one taking an average three days. Bair
confirmed the company was already working
on plans to pick up the pace.
“’It’s pretty clear that our initial
thoughts about the market demand were too
conservative,” he said. And that may be the
understatement of the decade.
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JULY/AUGUST 2007 ORIENT AVIATION 31