Boeing porn
Mmmmmm. The new 787 rolled out yesterday, getting it's first public airing. Now that's a good-looking aircraft. Boeing reckon the first flight will be in September this year with delivery to ANA next spring. That's a pretty fast-track for a new aircraft. One of the stuffed shirts at the presentation yesterday was a bit boorish though. He was complaining about his 18 hour flight from Singapore to New York on a "very slow Airbus". He failed to point out that Boeing don't have anything that could cover that distance in a single shot. Given that Airbus congratulated Boeing publicly on the 787, it was pretty poor taste for one of the higher-ups at Boeing to smack them in the face like that. The 787 and A380 and A350 will all co-exist, and to believe anything different is ridiculous. So the pro-Boeing and pro-Airbus fanboys can just stop arguing.
What was entertaining was the amount of pomp and glamour they lavished on the 787, claiming it would bring back the glory days of air travel and so on and so forth. Erm. No it won't. Unless Boeing have designed a floor track that will make it physically impossible for the airlines to jam in a 3-3-3 seating arrangement with a 30-inch seat pitch, the 787 is going to be just like every other aircraft. It will be a miserable, torturous experience to fly in because the airlines will continue to treat their passengers like freight.
The interesting part about the 787 is that because it's mostly composite, it must be painted to protect the structure. I'm keen to see how American Airlines are going to spin this, given that they've historically saved weight by simply polishing the aluminium on their planes. Now they're going to have to paint their aircraft, they'll have to come up with a new livery. That might explain why American haven't ordered any yet. Well, that and the dire financial problems they're in.
What was entertaining was the amount of pomp and glamour they lavished on the 787, claiming it would bring back the glory days of air travel and so on and so forth. Erm. No it won't. Unless Boeing have designed a floor track that will make it physically impossible for the airlines to jam in a 3-3-3 seating arrangement with a 30-inch seat pitch, the 787 is going to be just like every other aircraft. It will be a miserable, torturous experience to fly in because the airlines will continue to treat their passengers like freight.
The interesting part about the 787 is that because it's mostly composite, it must be painted to protect the structure. I'm keen to see how American Airlines are going to spin this, given that they've historically saved weight by simply polishing the aluminium on their planes. Now they're going to have to paint their aircraft, they'll have to come up with a new livery. That might explain why American haven't ordered any yet. Well, that and the dire financial problems they're in.
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