Boeing set to unveil the 787 today (Airbus takes the high road)

The 787 will be unveiled today in Everett Washington. In addition ot the unveiling Boeing has announced over 60 more orders including another 20 fro Qantas and 25 for Air Berlin. According to Boeing, the production line is sold out untill after 2014

First flight is to be int he next few months.

news.yahoo.com...;_ylt=AiFbdw4Mg8OR3cEXHVSw8Mtv24cA

Edit: Airbus takes the high road

The plane is trouncing rival Airbus, whose competing A350 XWB (extra wide body) has been bedeviled by design changes. The European plane maker conceded that the day -- 7/8/07 in U.S. date shorthand -- belonged to Boeing.

"Even if tomorrow Airbus will get back to the business of competing vigorously, today is Boeing's day -- a day to celebrate the 787," Airbus chief executive Louis Gallois wrote in a letter to Boeing CEO Jim McNerney in a letter made public by Airbus on Sunday.

news.yahoo.com...

[edit on 7/8/07 by FredT]

In case anyone is interested, www.newairplane.com is going to have live coverage of the unveiling. I have also read that dish network and DirecTV will each have a channel covering the event live.

Airbus takes the high road

The plane is trouncing rival Airbus, whose competing A350 XWB (extra wide body) has been bedeviled by design changes. The European plane maker conceded that the day -- 7/8/07 in U.S. date shorthand -- belonged to Boeing.

"Even if tomorrow Airbus will get back to the business of competing vigorously, today is Boeing's day -- a day to celebrate the 787," Airbus chief executive Louis Gallois wrote in a letter to Boeing CEO Jim McNerney in a letter made public by Airbus on Sunday.

news.yahoo.com...

Great, so now when on of those crashes we will lose 5 times the amount of people of a regular plane.

Originally posted by RandomThought
Great, so now when on of those crashes we will lose 5 times the amount of people of a regular plane.

What exactly are you on about? The 787 holds less than a 777, 747, A340, A380, the A350, DC-10/MD-11 etc.

If you are refering to the A380, even if they made an all economy high density version it would still only be not quite 2 times the capacity of a 747-400D which is about 550 seats.

I think he is getting confused between the A380 and the A350 as it states the latter in the article. Anyway, stupid comment to make regardless...

from what I've been told These new supersized airplanes will be part of transportation for the upcoming concentration camps. We'll see if that happens...

Acegotflows... Why would you transport those people in a luxurieus to a concetration camp?? wouldnt you just put as many people as you can in freighter planes like the C5 Galaxy. You could stow in as much as 1200+ people in it, altough a bit cramped but it would be much more efficient and the NWO can use those 787`s / A350`s as their own toys .....

BTW on topic: nice to see a new toy from Boeing seeing the light

Lovely to see this plane completed, it is the prettiest looking plane since the Comet 1 imho.

Fred, I'm a bit confused by the line 'Airbus takes the high road'. Where I come from to take the high road means to quit, clearly this cannot be what you meant so do you mind explaining to silly old me? Ta.

I think , he might mean `moral high ground` - airbus are wishing well of there competition ;

as to `take the high road` as i understand is to take a long an arduous path which is designed to end in failure

(or someone who is out of the head on drugs - sarah she is allways on the high road - well thats what google said anyway )

Originally posted by waynos
Lovely to see this plane completed, it is the prettiest looking plane since the Comet 1 imho.

Funny you should mention the Comet waynos as I feel there is a strong resemblance between the nose/cockpit profile of the 787 and the Comet family. Guess it is a case of everything old is new again, much like the Nimrod.

LEE.

Originally posted by waynos
Fred, I'm a bit confused by the line 'Airbus takes the high road'. Where I come from to take the high road means to quit, clearly this cannot be what you meant so do you mind explaining to silly old me? Ta.

yes they did .


Seriously though in the US taking the high road means they were gracious and had nice things to say about Boeing and the new aircraft as I quoted. If they had bashed the aircraft that would be taking the low road.

Well how about a little comparision. Closest shots I could find quickly of the 2 planes



I can see why you would say that Boz. The look is similar but the cockpit windows are quite different. the shape and feel is very much the same though. (If I have to clarify which is which then please find out your self lol, heck its name on the side)

Cheers Fred, yes it was a classy move by Gallois, I remember Boeing saying something similar at the roll out of the A380 if I remember rightly. Makes a change from the squabbling

Lee, I think you may have found the subconscious link that led me to that comment

Well Airbus has had to eat crow regarding the 787, so to speak, so its about time they said something nice. Their people trashed the whole 787 concept for years in public, while Boeing was much more gracious towards the A380.

Originally posted by firepilot
Well Airbus has had to eat crow regarding the 787, so to speak, so its about time they said something nice. Their people trashed the whole 787 concept for years in public, while Boeing was much more gracious towards the A380.

that is totally and complete rubbish - the entire effort of lobbying by boeing was to get the A380 banned from US arispaces as being `too big` and making too much turbulance -they are nothing like gracious they have been trashing it since it was announced.

Quite right. To think that is to take an entirely one eyed view. The art of trashing your rivals planes is one the American industry has employed vigorously ever since it 'apparently'* worked in getting the TSR 2 axed and has been rolled out against every single European programme ever since, including the very creation of Airbus itself. Indeed thiws is oftyen the source of many myths that perpetuate even on these boards about certain aircraft. Notable ones being that the Tornado is too small to be of any use, Typhoon is out of date before it entered service, Concorde would break every window in New York and the A380 would churn up the runways at US airports. If you want to look into a conspiracy take a look at this subject.

Obviously its a two way street as evidenced by Airbus early claim that the 787 was a 'chinese copy' of the A330 but I offer those few examples to show that the notion of Boeing being gracious about its competitors is nonsense. Aviation is a business after all.

What is different to all that marketing malarky however is the very special occasion of a roll out of a completely new aeroplane, which is where Boeing and Airbus have both been big enough to congratulate each other on their achievement, as seen in the full wording of the Airbus letter on this occasion.

"On behalf of the global Airbus team, I would like to offer you and your Boeing colleagues our congratulations on the rollout of your first 787 aircraft. Today is a great day in aviation history. For, whenever such a milestone is reached in our industry, it always is a reflection of hard work by dedicated people inspired by the wonder of flight. Even if tomorrow Airbus will get back to the business of competing vigorously, today is Boeing's day - a day to celebrate the 787."

* I mention the TSR 2 as being an apparent success because there are various reasons given for the cancellation but US insistence of its uselessness and the superiority of the F-111 (as if) undoubtedly played a huge part in influencing the decision.

OK Canada I think what your saying is that the 787 is the one with COMET written on the side?
Seriously though the cockpit window shape aside, yeah the profile is what I meant. And are my eyes deceiving me but do both aircraft appear to have larger than most forward windscreens? Perhaps it's just the rake angle compared to most contemporaries?

LEE.

Someone here a while back, posted a list of quotes from Airbus, where they continually trashed the 787. It was an extensive list, but it was interesting how they had to keep changing their talking points, since the 787 started getting lots of sales.

I would like to see proof of Boeing trying to get the A380 banned from the US.

Whenever i have seen the Boeing people mention the A380, they have said that sure, it will have its place, but that they think the future of aviation travel favors the 787 idea and more point to point flying.

Someone here a while back, posted a list of quotes from Airbus, where they continually trashed the 787.

That would be Carch, I like his posts immensely, sometimes challenging, sometimes silly, always interesting

The thing is Carch doesn't even try to be balanced, and there's no reason why he should. He could have made a perfectly balanced post where each anti Boeing comment was juxtaposed with an anti Airbus one, but he didn't want to. It doesn't mean they aren't out there.

99% of those comments emanate from John Leahy who always seems to come across like the spiteful little kid in the playground who would burst your ball or snap your cricket bat cos you wouldn't let him play

it was interesting how they had to keep changing their talking points, since the 787 started getting lots of sales.

Yes they did, Airbus freely admits that they badly misjudged the 787.

I would like to see proof of Boeing trying to get the A380 banned from the US.

Did they? Wow, so would I.

As far as I knew they just bad mouthed it in broad terms to try to put customers off buying it.

Whenever i have seen the Boeing people mention the A380, they have said that sure, it will have its place, but that they think the future of aviation travel favors the 787 idea and more point to point flying.

Boeings problems with Airbus don't centre on the A380, which is basically limited to a few snidey comments about it being too big and heavy and unsaleable - all par for the course, it is a historical one which goes back 40 years. First they said Airbus would never build a plane, when it was built they said it would never fly, when it flew they said it was unnattractive to airlines and would never sell, when it passed 500 sales they said it was a flash in the pan and Europe would not sustain an airliner business or offer a full range of products, this was also wrong.

This is no different from Airbus constant sniping back in the other direction so I don't know what point you are trying to make, they are as bad as each other.