Boeing may deliver Dreamliner 787 to Air India next week

September 20, 2012
Los Angeles, September 20: Boeing Co plans to deliver the first Dreamliner 787 made in South Carolina next week, a jet equipped with an engine model that recently experienced failures and has drawn federal scrutiny.

The North Charleston-built jet, for Air India, is "ticketed" and certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, which means it is ready for delivery, a Boeing official said on Wednesday. Its General Electric Co GEnx engines also have undergone special inspection, the official said, after the failures raised concerns.

Delivery from the second Boeing plant to make Dreamliners marks an important milestone for a jet that has been beset by assembly problems that caused huge cost overruns and delays.

Carbon composites that replaced aluminum on the jet reduced its weight and cut fuel consumption 20% compared with other planes its size on similar routes - savings prized by airline customers eager to tame soaring fuel bills. But the delays have damaged Boeing's credibility with customers, making the first delivery from the second line all the more meaningful. The engine problems could have caused further delays.

The special engine inspections came after recent incidents in two Boeing 787s in which the fan midshaft on General Electric GEnx-1B engines fractured or showed cracks. On September 14, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended immediate safety inspections.

One of the incidents took place in July at Charleston International Airport when debris from the engine of a Boeing 787 sparked a grass fire near the runway where it was taxiing.

Earlier Wednesday, the FAA told Reuters it would stop short of issuing an emergency directive on the engines, sticking instead to more routine safety notices.

"We have done the checks on all our GE engines," Jack Jones, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina, said Wednesday at an international trade conference near Charleston.

"We're clear and we're good," he told Reuters. "GE has done a great job of figuring out quickly what we have to do to ensure the integrity of the engine. We know that and we've implemented it."

Jones said the engine issue had not affected its schedule of delivering planes. "It obviously didn't stop deliveries. That is absolutely critical."

"Trust me, with GE, FAA, regulatory, Boeing, we would never have let that engine go on an airplane if we even slightly suspected it. So we know it's safe." He said the plane maker "is in probably one of the most highly regulated industries in the U.S."

The plane was finished and the planned delivery next week was timed to suit the customer, Jones said.

Two 787s built at Boeing's Everett, Washington, plant have already been delivered to Air India - one earlier this month and one on Tuesday, both from the South Carolina facility.

Boeing South Carolina, which is currently building a 787 widebody jet every 18 days at its North Charleston final assembly plant, has 6,100 employees including about 200 on the flight line, Jones said.

The production rate will rise to three-and-a-half airplanes a month "later," Jones said. The plant also builds 787 aft fuselages for Boeing's Puget Sound final assembly plant.

"Not just here in South Carolina but in Puget Sound, we're all really focused on production rate because the production rates in several of our plants are going up to unprecedented levels," he said.

Boeing shares fell 0.8% to close at USD 69.90 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Boeing_787-8_Air-India



Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 25,2020

London, Mar 25: Prince Charles on Wednesday has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and is working from home with mild symptoms, according to UK media.
A Clarence House spokesperson said the Prince of Wales was "displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual", the Telegraph UK reported.
"He has been displaying mild symptoms but otherwise remains in good health and has been working from home throughout the last few days as usual," the spokesperson added.
In accordance with the government and medical advice, the 71-year old heir to the British throne and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are now self-isolating at their home in Scotland.
The Duchess of Cornwall has also been tested but does not have the virus.
The tests were carried out by the NHS in Aberdeenshire where they met the criteria required for testing.
"It is not possible to ascertain from whom the Prince caught the virus owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks," the statement further said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 14,2020

Washington, Jul 14: The United States has the biggest Covid-19 testing programme in the world, better than big countries like Russia, China, India and Brazil, President Donald Trump said on Monday, asserting that America has "just about the lowest mortality rate" due to the disease in the world.

"We have one of the lowest mortality rates anywhere," Trump said at a White House roundtable. More than 34 lakh Americans have tested positive for Covid-19 so far and over 1,37,000 have died due to the disease, both of which are the largest numbers among all the countries.

The huge number of positive cases, the president said, is due to the massive testing efforts undertaken by his administration, more extensive than any other country.

"We test more than anybody by far. And when you test, you create cases. So we have created cases. I can tell you that some countries, they test when somebody walks into a hospital sick or walks into maybe a doctor's office, but usually a hospital. That is the testing they do, so they do not have cases, whereas we have all these cases. So, it is a double-edged sword," he said.

At the same time, the United States has the lowest mortality rate or just about the lowest mortality rate due to the disease in the world, Trump added. "We are doing a great job. We are doing very well with vaccines and we are doing very, very well with therapeutics. I think we are going to have some very good information coming out soon," he said in response to a question.

"But we have the best and certainly, by far, the biggest testing programme anywhere in the world. If you tested China or Russia or any of the larger countries, if you just tested India, as an example, the way we test, you would see numbers that would be very surprising. Brazil too. You know, Brazil is going through a big problem, but they do not do testing like we do," Trump said.

"So we do the testing and by doing the testing, we have tremendous numbers of cases. As an example, we have done 45 million tests. If we did half that number, you would have half the cases probably -- around that number. If we did another half of that, you would have half the numbers. Everyone would be saying, 'Oh, we are doing so well on cases'," he added.

Responding to a question, Trump said what China did to the world should not be forgotten.

"I think what China has done to the world with what took place -- the China plague -- you can call it the China virus, you can call it whatever you want to call it. It has about 20 different names. What they did to the world should not be forgotten," he said.

The trade deal with China that was signed early this year remains intact, the president said. "It is intact, they (China) are buying. Whether they buy or not, that is up to them. They are buying," he said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 11,2020

Beijing, Jun 11: Floods and mudslides in south China have uprooted hundreds of thousands of people and left dozens dead or missing, state media reported Thursday.

The bad weather has wreaked havoc on popular tourist areas that had already been battered by months of travel restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak.

Torrential downpours unleashed floods and mudslides that caused nearly 230,000 people to be relocated and destroyed more than 1,300 houses, official state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the Ministry of Emergency Management.

In southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, six people were reported dead and one missing, Xinhua said.

Streets were waterlogged in popular tourist destination Yangshuo, forcing residents and visitors to evacuate on bamboo rafts.

The local government said more than 1,000 hotels had been flooded and more than 30 tourist sites damaged.

One owner of a family-run hotel told Xinhua that the guest rooms were submerged in one metre (three feet) of rainwater.

The extreme weather has dealt a hefty blow to the region's tourism sector, which is still reeling from the COVID-19 epidemic.

The emergency management ministry said there were direct economic losses of over 4 billion yuan (more than $550 million) from the flooding, Xinhua reported.

In Hunan Province, at least 13 people were killed in rain-triggered disasters, and another eight people are missing or killed in southwestern Guizhou province, according to the local emergency response departments, Xinhua said.

The heavy downpours began at the beginning of June and have led to "dangerously high water levels" in 110 rivers, Xinhua reported.

Further rainstorms are expected in the next few days across the south.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.