100 million to watch dreamliner launch

The Australian

MORE than 100 million people are expected to watch Boeing roll out its first new aircraft in 13 years on Monday in what is being labelled one of the biggest ever corporate television broadcasts.
The unveiling of the US plane maker’s revolutionary 787 “Dreamliner” will be hosted by veteran US television anchor Tom Brokaw as up to 15,000 people descend on Boeing’s Everett factory near Seattle for the rollout at 8.30am Sydney time.

The event has particular significance for Australia: Qantas has ordered 45 of the efficient aircraft and is considering converting another 20 options.

Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon and chief financial officer Peter Gregg and Jetstar chief executive Alan Joyce are attending.

The sleek 787 will join the double decker Airbus A380 to become a mainstay of the Qantas Group’s fleet and will help fuel the aggressive expansion of Jetstar.

The rollout is timed so it occurs in the US on Sunday July 7 – or 07/08/07 in the US way of writing dates. It will crown the most successful launch of a Boeing plane and mark a watershed in aircraft efficiency.

The manufacturer has already sold 635 planes worth more than $US90 billion ($104.7 billion) to 45 customers and predicts the market will be worth $US400 billion over 20 years. It has put proposals to an additional 30 customers for another 500 planes, but the first five years of production are largely committed.

More than half of the plane is made of carbon-reinforced composite, a type of super-tough plastic, to reduce weight.

Composite components include the fuselage and the wing.

The combination of reduced weight, improved aerodynamics and new engines is expected to cut fuel burn by 20 per cent, compared to similarly sized aircraft flying today.

The plane to be unveiled this weekend will be a 787-8 capable of carrying up to 250 passengers on routes up to 15,200km.

It will be joined from 2010 by a bigger 787-9 that can carry up to 290 passengers on routes up to 15,750km. Qantas is among 11 customers to have placed orders for a total of 115 787-9s. It plans to use them for non-stop flights to the US and one-stop flights to Europe.

Boeing has also agreed to build a short-range 787-3 that can take up to 330 passengers and is optimised for shorter routes of between 4600km and 5650km. At this stage, it is mainly intended for the Japanese market.

It has yet to commit to an even bigger 787-10 but is working with customers, including Qantas, on the design.

Program head Mike Bair said last month that he believed it was a matter of when, not if, the 787-10 would be introduced.

“We continue to see good interest in this airplane and we are working to define what the best offering will be,” he said in Paris last month.

“We have time. In fact, we moved out the anticipated entry into service for the -10 because there is such high demand for the initial versions of the airplane. We expect the 787-10 to be introduced sometime around 2013.”

The new plane heralds a radical change in Boeing’s manufacturing philosophy.

The design phase involved 800,000 hours of computing time on Cray supercomputers and 15,000 hours of wind tunnel tests.

Sections of the 787 are manufactured in plants around the world, and major components are transported to Seattle in converted jumbo jets called Dreamlifters.

Overseas parts include Australian-made flaps, ailerons and fairings produced by Melbourne-based Hawker de Havilland, a division of Boeing Australia. The Australian involvement of at least $4billion and 450 jobs over 20 years is the biggest aerospace project undertaken in this country.

Only final assembly takes place at Everett as the segments are fitted together in a four-position construction regime.

The first 787 is scheduled to enter service next May after an extensive testing regime and a first flight scheduled for later this year.

The first 15 Qantas 787s will go to Jetstar, with deliveries expected to start from August next year.

The US aerospace giant is also promising passengers an improved ride with bigger windows strategically positioned to provide an improved view.

The company has joined universities around the world to conduct extensive studies of the effects of altitude, humidity, air contaminants, lighting, space and sound on passengers.

The 787 will have sensors installed in the nose of the aircraft, causing certain control surfaces to react to turbulence to maintain a smoother ride.

The use of composites will allow it to maintain a cabin pressure about 2000ft lower than the 8000ft used in today’s planes after studies found this would be more comfortable for travellers.

This will be combined with new gaseous filtration technology and increased cabin humidity to combat symptoms associated with dryness, such as throat and eye irritation, headaches and occasional dizziness.

Boeing is also promising that serrated “chevrons” on its engines will reduce cabin noise and make the plane quieter for people living near airports.