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RoundUp
Editor's Aviation Notes -
The Tanker Saga Goes On
(April 2010)
The third attempt to buy a new aerial tanker
for the U.S. Air Force (Link)
to replace the aging KC-135
(Link)
fleet just keeps getting stranger. Boeing looked like it would
win the deal when Northrop Grumman and its European partner,
Airbus, said they would not bid on it. The partners said the
proposal was biased in favor of Boeing.
Now, there are reports that EADS
(Link),
parent of Airbus, has requested an extension of 90 days,
presumably to take another crack at the contract. Though many
in Congress would prefer to keep to the original schedule, the
Pentagon would like to see a second bidder. And the European
aerospace company certainly could use a win.
EADS had a difficult 2009, due to the
overruns in the A400M (military) transport program and
lower sales of (commercial) airliners. It is already finding
trouble this year (2010). The World Trade Organization will
shortly announce the results of its investigation of complaints
by Boeing and the U.S. that the European company benefited from
illegal subsidies. Indications are that the WTO will forbid
“launch aid” where governments (in this case, France, Germany,
and Britain) provide loans to help pay for the development of
aircraft that are only paid back when the product is profitable.
If the bidding for the tanker is re-opened,
the Russian state-owned United Aircraft
(Link)
may also join the competition, based on the Illyushin –96
airliner. The company would have to find a U.S. partner to be
the prime contractor and also to do most of the military
integration. The chances of such a bid succeeding are remote –
just consider the political uproar – but stranger things have
happened in the world of defense contracting.
Indeed, the KD-135 replacement process is
strange enough: The attempt to buy a new aerial tanker has now
been going on for almost ten years.
source:
BNet
Dreamliner Flight Test Milestones
(April 2010)
Photo Source -
http://787flighttest.com/boeing-completes-ultimate-load-wing-test/
On 19 March 2010, after 27 test days that
began on 14 February, Boeing completed aeroclastic flutter
testing and ground effects testing with its first two 787
(Link)
test aircraft ZA001 and ZA002. During this period, the
aircraft reached a ceiling of 43,000 ft while maintaining a
cabin pressure of 6,000 ft. and reached Mach 0.97 in a dive as
part of clearing the primarily carbon fiber structure of any
potentially destructive vibration. This clears the way for the
FAA certification campaign to begin to support the target of
delivering the first aircraft this year.
On 7 April, the company said it has met all
the requirements during the ultimate load wing and fuselage
bending test for the Dreamliner. The test also confirmed the
success of a redesigned side-of-body portion of the plane that
last year resulted in another delay for the 787. Loads were
applied to replicate 150 percent of the most extreme forces the
airplane is ever expected to experience while in service. The
wings were flexed upward by about 25 feet during the test. The
fuselage was pressurized to 150 percent of its maximum normal
operating condition.
- from Flight
Payday On Mahogany Row
(April 2010)
Boeing’s top executives saw modestly smaller
bonuses and flat salaries in 2009. But though their pay as a
result nominally fell, they were also granted blocks of company
shares and options. Thanks to the rise in Boeing’s stock price
the package made their total compensation for 2009 much higher
than it was in 2008. In 2009, Chairman and CEO
Jim McNerney received
take-home pay of $10.1 million, plus $3.1 million in stock
grants that will vest in 2012 and stock options vesting over the
next three years valued for accounting purposes at $3.1
million. That brought his nominal total 2009 compensation to
$16.3 million. For comparison, the company’s white-collar
employees in February received inventive payouts equal to seven
days extra pay, compared to six days in 2008.
Jim
Albaugh,
chief executive of the commercial airplanes division, had 2009
take-home pay of $2.7 million, plus $1 million in stock grants,
and stock options. That compares with $5.7 million a year
earlier. Albaugh’s predecessor,
Scott Carson, who in January retired from Boeing, had
2009 take-home pay of $2.9 million, plus $0.7 million in stock
grants, and stock options valued for accounting purposes at $0.7
million, for a total nominal value of $4.3 million. In
addition, Carson was paid $1.5 million in advance for two years
of consulting work, not to exceed 75 hours of work per month.
That’s more than $800 an hour in consulting work.
- from the Seattle Times
New Aviation Museum Set to Open
in Santa Monica
(February 2010)
A new
Museum of Flying, adjacent
to the old Douglas Aircraft Company site in Santa Monica, is
slated to open later this year, and the museum’s directors are
hoping that retired Douglas, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing
employees will not only visit the new location but also will
come aboard as “founding donors.”
The
22,000-square-foot facility will have many of the exhibits that
were housed at the old Museum of Flying off Ocean Park Blvd.,
including the Douglas World Cruiser New Orleans. New displays
include nearly two-dozen aircraft chronicling the beginning of
flight, including a replica of the Wright Flyer, to the jet age,
with the BD-5 micro-jet and a FedEx 727 nose section. The museum
also plans to exhibit a board range of aviation art, rare
artifacts and the mementos of famous aviators.
Those who
would like to donate can contribute at a number of different
levels, with their names to appear on the Museum of Flying
founding donors wall. Such premiums as logo hats, gift shop gift
certificates, guest passes and entries in a drawing for a P-51
ride are included at various donation levels. For more details,
see
http://www.museumofflying.com or call (310) 310-1702.
Boeing
Orders, Deliveries for 2009
(February 2010)
Boeing’s
deliveries of new commercial aircraft climbed 28% to 481 in
2009, though its new orders declined from 662 in 2008 to 142
meeting is forecast of between 480 and 485 units. The net
bookings are the company’s lowest since 2003 and is only one
tenth the total for 2007.
Airbus
said it had outperformed Boeing last year as the top producer
in the world with 498 plane deliveries and 310 orders.
The two
dominant plane makers still face the prospect of more
cancellations and deferrals from the huge order books built
between 2005 and 2007.
Both
companies have pared production rates amid the downturn in
global airline traffic and a shortage of funding. While some
airlines in recent weeks have pointed to an improvement in
premium travel, pricing for passenger and cargo businesses
remains weak.
Just a few
weeks after its Dreamliner 787 took its maiden test flight the
company announced its backlog of aircraft at the end of 2009
reached 3,375 airplanes. Dreamliner orders made up 851 of those
units, although the company reported a net decline of 59 in 787s
for the year.
Boeing
revealed that it lost orders for two of its new 747-8 aircraft
in the final week of last year, ahead of an expected first
flight in January 2010.
Sources -Barron’s and Dow Jones
New Life for the C-17
(February 2010)
Last
month, the United Arab Emirates signed a deal to purchase
six Boeing C-17 cargo jets in a move that should keep the Long
Beach plant and its 5,000-strong workforce operating through
late 2012.
At about
$250 million per plane, the total purchase price is estimated to
be $1.5 billion.
Just a year
ago, Boeing was preparing to end production of the C-17 by
mid-2011: The plant's near-term future was clouded with
uncertainty, as foreign orders had mostly dried up and Congress
was hesitating on more orders for the U.S. Air Force.
The
Indian Air Force has also announced interest in purchasing
10 or more C-17s in coming years as it seeks to modernize an
aging aircraft fleet, and Boeing is reported to be in talks with
at least two other Asian nations considering purchases. If the
Indian deal is signed, the plant could remain open well into
2013.
Other
nations operating C-17s include Canada, Australia, Qatar and a
12-nation NATO alliance based in Hungary, which has three
Globemaster IIIs.
The UAE
will receive four planes in 2011, and two in 2012. The U. S. Air
Force, which operates a fleet of 193 C-17s with more than a
dozen on order, has agreed to push back domestic orders to make
room in the production line for the U.K. and UAE jets.
- Long Beach Press Telegram
Boeing 787
First Flight at Last
(December 2009)
Boeing released
the first artist's conception of
what it then called the 7E7 on Jan.
29, 2003. The company's board
green-lighted the project that
December and Japan's All Nippon
Airways placed the jet's launch
order on April 26, 2004, with first
deliveries expected in 2008.
Boeing now has
orders for 840
787 Dreamliners -- a record for
a new aircraft. And Tuesday's
scheduled
first flight is key to showing
the composite jet is on track for
delivery to All Nippon Airways in
the fourth quarter of 2010 and other
customers soon after that.
That delivery
date, however, depends on an
extremely ambitious schedule of
flight testing and certification.
"Even after
tomorrow's first flight
(search),
they'll be far from out of the
woods," said analyst
Richard Aboulafia, vice
president of analysis at
Teal Group.
The stakes are
stratospheric. The 787 represents a
test of the idea of building a
commercial jetliner with composite
barrel sections and a global supply
chain where partners design and
build components that are then
shipped to Everett for final
assembly.
One of
Boeing's gambles with the 787 --
that there is demand for smaller,
highly efficient wide-body that can
provide more point-to-point flights,
rather than a super-jumbo hub-to-hub
airliner -- already has paid off in
Boeing's order book. But Airbus has
followed Boeing's lead with its
composite-panel A350 XWB, and
further missteps with the 787
program could cost Boeing many of
its orders.... So the 787 is
key for the company.
"It's huge,"
Aboulafia said. "You only get one
shot per decade to launch a whole
new aircraft, and this is the big
aircraft of this decade."
(link
to article)
Airbus A400M First Flight
Video link
Boeing wins WTO ruling on Airbus subsidies, says Dicks
Source:
Seattle Times Sept 05, 2009
The World Trade
Organization (search)
has ruled that the European Union
(search)
provided illegal subsidies to Airbus for
its aircraft, Rep. Norm Dicks said Friday.
Dicks, who was briefed by U.S. trade officials
on the confidential decision, said the WTO
ruling confirms a complaint by the U.S. in 2004
that shows "all Airbus aircraft have received
illegal subsidies and that these have caused
material harm to Boeing."
The WTO handed its interim
ruling to the U.S. and European Union, but
didn't reveal the results partly because of the
sensitive company information contained in it.
Both Washington and Brussels confirmed they
received the ruling.
Lutz Guellner, spokesman
for the European trade commissioner, said, "It
is a long document of more than 1,000 pages
which we will study carefully."
In its suit, the U.S.
claimed government subsidies for Airbus
(search)
created unfair competition in a market worth $3
trillion over the next two decades. The ruling
could set important precedents on how far
governments can go to support the aviation
industry.
The EU is likely to appeal
and the companies must wait for a decision next
year in an Airbus challenge to what it sees as
unfair U.S. government support for Chicago-based
Boeing Co. (search)
Some observers said the complexity of the two
cases makes it more likely the issue will be
resolved by negotiations between the parties
than by the WTO....
Still, Plucker said Airbus
enjoys a clear advantage over Boeing because of
the European subsidies, and while many other
countries are using government support for
fledging aviation businesses "because it's a
great source of good jobs and high tech ventures
... eventually Airbus and Boeing need to compete
on an even playing field."
The so-called launch aid
were loans to Airbus that helped it develop new
airplanes as it overtook Boeing as the world's
top producer of commercial airplanes.
(more...)
|
(newsletter #153 Aug-Sep 2009)
Boeing Pushes for More C-17s
image at:
defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2009/01/b...
Boeing Co. and
supporters of the C-17 cargo plane launched a
multi-front public relations offensive on August 20,
hoping to extend the life of one of Southern
California's last major military aircraft factories.
The company ran
full-page advertisements in local newspapers, including
The Times, and about 450 union members staged a rally
near the assembly line in Long Beach urging Congress to
buy more of the aircraft. In Washington, 18 U.S.
senators also wrote a letter seeking support to keep the
aircraft production moving.
The campaign was aimed
at pushing Congress to provide funding for 12 new C-17s
in the fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill. Without
the funding, the production line is slated to stop in
July 2011. The first workforce cutbacks could begin
later this year, a Boeing spokesman said.
"This is the end of the
road for the C-17 factory, unless Congress can get the
new planes into the bill," a policy analyst said. "If
the production lines stop moving, they won't start
again. You can't mothball the ability to build an
aircraft."
Boeing estimates that
about 14,000 jobs will be lost in California if the C-17
program is canceled. The potential job loss was
highlighted in the newspaper ad.
The plane has been in
production since the early 1990s but has relied on
congressional funding since 2006. It's been able to
garner widespread congressional support because the
parts come from more than 650 suppliers in 43 states.
Congress in June
earmarked funding for eight additional C-17s in a
supplemental bill, which funded the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. The C-17 program has provided more than
5,000 jobs in Long Beach and thousands more elsewhere in
the state.
- L. A. Times, Aug.21,
2009
C-17 in
Imaginative Livery for Emirates Air Force
image at:
www.airliners.net/.../1559021/L/
This photo was taken on
August 11 at the ceremony marking the delivery of the
first of two C-17s ordered by the Qatar Emirates Air
Force (search).
The second plane, shown here, was also on display. It
was painted in similar fashion to the Qatar Airways
fleet: purple, white and gray while sporting a
long-horned Oryx antelope on its tail. It is the first
C-17 that is not painted in traditional military gray.
It will be delivered later this year.
There are currently 205 C-17s in service worldwide. With
this delivery, 16 have been placed with international
customers. The U.S. Air Force, including active Guard
and Reserve units, has 189. International customers
include Qatar, the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force, the
Canadian Forces, the Royal Australian Air Force and the
12-member Strategic Airlift Capability consortium of
NATO and Partnership for Peace nations. The United Arab
Emirates announced on Feb. 24 that it also will acquire
four C-17s.
- Asian Defence |
|
Court Sides With U.S. in
Scuttled Navy Jet Deal
The United States was justified in canceling a contract
for General Dynamics and Boeing to develop the A-12
Navy jet fighter
(search)
after executives admitted that they couldn't meet the
deadlines, a federal appeals court said.
image at:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A-12_Avenger_...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in
Washington said in early June that even though there was
no agreed-upon completion date, the government was
within its right to cancel the project when little
progress was made.
The federal government has been trying for more than
17 years to get Boeing and General Dynamics to repay
$1.4 billion in progress payments and about $1.4 billion
in interest. Boeing had argued that because the Navy
agreed to extend the terms of the original 1987 contract
without setting a new delivery schedule, it had no basis
for declaring the companies in default in 1991.
While it was a mistake for the Navy to stipulate this
type of contract, it was also wrong for the contractors
to accept it, the court said, echoing the lower court's
finding.
The A-12 was one of the largest defense procurement
failures in history. The plane, designed to penetrate
heavily defended locations, never made it into
production.
original source - Bloomberg News |
(newsletter #149 Nov 2008)
Sculpture of Donald W. Douglas
Victoria Douglas
Thoreson, daughter of Donald Douglas Jr.
(search)
together with sculptor Yossi Govrin (search),
examine a wax impression that will be used in the casting of a
bronze statue of Victoria’s grandfather, Donald W. Douglas
(search).
The completed sculpture will be placed beneath an elevated DC-3
at the Santa Monica Airport next year.
(photo courtesy of
MacDacWestRetirees Editor. All rights reserved.)
Fly DC Jets Site to
Become Movie Studio?
Boeing startled its
present McDonnell Douglas-heritage employees, as well as its
Long Beach-area aerospace retirees, in mid-September by
announcing a plan to unload what remains of the former Douglas
commercial jetliner assembly facility at Lakewood Blvd. and
Conant Ave. to a group of investors hoping to turn the property
into a movie studio.
The story broke in the
business section of the Sept. 19 Los Angeles Times, with a
front-page photo of investors Jack O’Halloran
(search)
and Jay Samit (search)
walking through Building 80 with Long Beach Mayor Bob
Foster (search).
The article caught the several thousand Boeing employees working
in the adjacent Buildings 800, 801 and 802 by surprise. “What
about us?” was a common question. The company has remained
relatively silent, but a source speaking off the record
indicated there is no front-burner plan to empty out the
buildings still in use.
What is known is the
buyers hope to turn Buildings 80 and 84 – once home to the DC-8,
DC-9, DC-10, MD-80, MD-90 and MD-11 assembly lines – and the
adjacent parking area into a movie production complex with an
estimated price tag of $500 million. Plans are said to include
as many as 40 soundstages, a giant water tank for simulated
ocean photography, a permanent metropolitan city street set,
personnel offices, production bungalows, commissary and a
private hotel.
According to the Times,
the investors are already in escrow for the 1.1
million-square-foot location. Leading the group is Jack
O’Halloran, a boxer-turned-actor best known for his performance
as Moose Malloy in the 1975 Robert Mitchum version of
Farewell My Lovely (search).
He also appeared in Superman and Superman II, The Flintstones
and on various TV series. His associate Jay Sami is a former
Sony America executive.
Their hope is to make a
profit by renting out space to production companies that might
otherwise leave California to film in Vancouver, Toronto or any
of the states that now offer financial incentives to film
companies to shoot elsewhere than at the busy studios in
Hollywood, Culver City, Universal City and Burbank.
The City of Long
Beach (search), which frequently makes its streets available for such
shows as CSI Miami and Dexter, brokered the deal by introducing
the investors group to Boeing officials. Mayor Foster said at
the time of the announcement that city officials are “very
enthusiastic” to see the Long Beach Studios, as it will be
named, become a reality for the revenue stream it will mean for
the city. An estimated 1,000 to 3,000 jobs are possible.
The plan does have
precursors: The now closed Rockwell facility in Downey and
former Hughes location in Playa Vista have active film
production, and the old Spruce Goose dome next to the Queen Mary
in downtown Long Beach famously became the bat cave for Batman
soundstage after the plane left town.
At the moment Buildings
80 and 84 are empty, home only to pigeons roosting in the
rafters and the occasional homeless cat. But from the time
Douglas opened them in the 1950s until Boeing closed them in
2006, they housed final assembly lines that produced 556 DC-8s,
more than 2,300 DC-9s/MD-80s/MD90s, 646 DC-10s, KC-10s and
MD-11s, and the final 156 MD-95s, renamed Boeing 717s.
No official
decision has been made on the famous Fly DC Jets
(search)
sign atop Building 80, but Boeing Realty, which is developing
Douglas Park
(search)
on the west
side of Lakewood Blvd., briefly showed a plan in 2001 that
called for moving the neon landmark to the property over there.
Douglas
Aircraft Company - 'The Globe'
 (Long
Beach, CA) On the left is a picture of the original globe
that was mounted over the entrance to Bldg 7 on Lakewood Blvd.
The entrance was later covered up, “but you could still see the
light fixtures and the tile if you went behind the wall in a
somewhat hidden area of building 7 ( I did check it our for
myself when I was in building 7),” says Pat McGinnis. Below,
is the replica bronze globe before it was installed at the
roundabout at the new Douglas Park
(search) on
April 3.
from the Editor
A DC-3 Monument
It is not an
exaggeration to say that Santa Monica
(search)
is the city that the Douglas Aircraft Company
(search)built. Proximity to a coastline and the
never-ending sprawl of Los Angeles helped, but Douglas was the
primary employer in Santa Monica for 50 years and the reason
homes were built and population expanded.
But today the Douglas
legacy in Santa Monica resides only in the memories of those who
were there sometime between 1920 and 1974. That is about to
change. A monument park honoring the Douglas Aircraft Company
will open this December at the south end of the Santa Monica
Airport
(search),
adjacent to a new aviation museum.
The monument park, as
imagined in the rendering below, will be built around an
elevated DC-3
(search)
that came off the Santa Monica assembly line in 1942. Primary
construction funds are being provided by a challenge grant from
the Douglas White Oaks Ranch Trust, which is administered
by the Employees Community Fund of Boeing California, the
successor to the old McDonnell Douglas Personnel Community
Service operation and Douglas Aircraft Welfare Foundation.
Donald W. Douglas
(search)
set up the Douglas Aircraft Welfare Foundation, now known
as the Douglas White Oaks Ranch Trust, in 1964 with the money
received for the sale of the assets of the former Welfare
Division, including the company stores and vending machines and
364 acres of undeveloped recreation land in what is now Simi
Valley. Interest from the trust has been used in recent years to
underwrite DAC-era historical projects and to fund college
scholarships for the sons and daughters of employees.
“We think it’s crucial
to preserve the historical ties between the Douglas Aircraft
Company and the citizens of Santa Monica. They were practically
one and the same for so many years. The city, which is committed
to keeping its heritage alive as well, will take on financial
and physical responsibility for maintaining the site. It’s a
renewed partnership,” said Beverly Hoskinson, ECF executive
director of the Employees Community Fund who began her career
with the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1957.
 The
illuminated and elevated DC-3 that will be on display is
courtesy of David Price
(search), who operated the old Museum of Flying
and is the man behind the new aviation museum set to open next
to the monument park. Among the historic airplanes likely to be
on exhibit is the "New Orleans"
(search),
one of the Douglas World Cruisers
(search) which first circumnavigated the globe in
1924.
Former employees and
others who would like to aid in preserving the history of the
Douglas Aircraft Company are invited to make contributions also.
“While the Douglas Trust and the city are covering primary
costs, there will be additional enhancements and expenses that
pop up. Contributions will be matched dollar for dollar by the
Douglas Trust grant.
“We plan to honor all
those whose contributions are received by Sept. 30 by creating a
founders wall with their names,” said Hoskinson. Those who would
like to participate can do so by making a contribution in any
amount to the Donald W. Douglas Trust,
P.O. 8113, Long Beach, CA 90808, or telephone (562) 593-2612 or
(800) 606-3639 access code 00 (zero–zero). All
contributors, in addition to being listed on the founders’ wall,
will also receive invitations to the opening ceremony and
commemorative pins created from the original Douglas logo die
cut.
-Bill
Wasserzieher
TOP
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|
DC-3 Photo courtesy of J.Hennessy
