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Boeing Sees a 'Land Rush' for the 7E7
A number of airlines, "a lot more than we have announced,"
are in the final stages of formalizing contracts for Boeing's new
7E7, says senior program vp Mike Bair. Market response to the new
"mid-market" twin-aisle airplane has been "nothing
short of phenomenal," he says.
"We have made proposals to more than 30 airlines, covering
600 airplanes—and those were all requested—the airlines
asked for the proposals. It doesn't mean that they'll all result
in contracts, but it's a good harbinger." The first European
orders for the aircraft, from First Choice of the UK and Italy's
Blue Panorama, were announced earlier this month.
Bair says Boeing is seeing a "land rush -- as carriers try
to get early positions" in the first two or three years of
7E7 production. "Few of the aircraft covered by outstanding
proposals are to be delivered more than five years after service
entry," he says. Production numbers for the first two years
"are in the low 90s," and Boeing is planning for rates
"between seven and ten a month."
The customers represent a cross-section of carriers, according
to Bair: "Big, little, well distributed geographically, although
there's a preponderance of interest in Asia because it's the healthiest
market."
Development of the new airplane is "on plan, headed for a
firm configuration in mid-year 2005," Bair says. "Most
of our decisions have been made, and we're down to a laundry-list
of mundane things. Do we use windshield wipers or something else?
Exactly where are the doors going to be? We know enough about the
configuration to make guarantees—the airlines are confident
that we'll have a solution for keeping rain off the windshield."
Work on the airplane's new systems is under way. Hamilton Sundstrand
is Boeing's leading partner, providing much of the power generation
and management hardware, and has started testing prototypes of the
250 kVA starter-generators that will supply power to the hydraulic
pumps and the environmental control system. The compressor for the
ECS is also in tests. The 7E7 will have 5,000 psi hydraulic systems,
energized by both electrical and engine-driven pumps.
Boeing is not ready to unveil the cockpit design for the 7E7, although
Bair says "it will look like a very modern Boeing." It
will have back-driven yokes with motors that make them act as if
they were connected to control cables, like the 777, but will differ
in that it has dual standard head-up displays. "There's a desire
to have commonality, with minimum transition training, with a small
training footprint from one aircraft to the other."
The company is preparing to select a contractor to build the three
modified 747s that will carry 7E7 components to the final assembly
site at Everett. Candidates include Goodrich, HAECO and TAECO (of
Hong Kong and Xiamen), ST Aero of Singapore and Aeronavali of Italy.
Will the 7E7 get a new designation? "It could change, but
I have stayed out of that argument. If building an airplane is hard,
naming one is even harder."
—Bill Sweetman
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Noteworthy
Boeing's decision to use composites for most of the structure
"is turning into a wonderful story," says senior
program vp Mike Bair. "Ramp rash—damage by trucks
and cargo loaders—was a concern of the airlines, but
it turns out that the material is far more robust than aluminum
and is almost impossible to damage." Overall, Bair says,
this should make the 7E7 less costly to maintain than a conventional
airplane. "A forklift at 15 mph will put a hole in it,
like aluminum. We have a patch that takes 40 minutes and it
lets you fly today, and a two-hour patch that will last five
to ten years." Overall, Boeing has been taking aluminum
out of some areas of the 7E7, such as the cargo doors.
The 7E7 fuselage will be made in one-piece sections without
fasteners. "There won't be any paneling," says Bair.
"We are using composites the way composites want to be
used." Boeing plans to produce the skin using fiber placement—"stringers,
frames and skin, cooked as one piece."
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