A Pilot’s Blog
A blog about aviation, aviation news, and space.

Boeing continues to rack up orders for their soon to be debuted 787 wide-body aircraft.

Boeing and International Lease Finance Corp. ( ILFC ) today announced that the two companies have finalized orders for 63 airplanes worth approximately $8.8 billion at current list prices.

ILFC will expand its fleet with a new order for 50 additional 787 Dreamliners. ILFC will take delivery of its first 787 Dreamliner in 2010, with additional airplanes arriving through 2017. Today’s order also includes 10 Next-Generation 737s, which extends ILFC’s delivery stream through 2012

This brings the order total for the 787 to 634 airframes. Not bad for a program where the first airframe isn’t even completely assembled yet.

Related: 787 Passes 500 Orders

I wonder if this is going to be the sequel to the cult hit “Snakes on a Plane”?

LONDON (Reuters) – A passenger plane was forced to land after flying into a swarm of British bees Thursday.

The Palmair Boeing 737, with 90 passengers on board, had to return to Bournemouth Airport in southern England shortly after take-off following an engine surge.

The pilot decided to abort the flight to Faro in Portugal and returned for safety checks. The plane’s engine was thought to have become clogged with bees, the company said Friday.

Huge clouds of bees have been seen around Bournemouth over the past few days, a spokeswoman said.

A new airline is taking to the skies with promises of $10 tickets and a no-frills service that makes even Southwest look regal by comparison.

Skybus said that every flight has at least 10 seats for the $10 fare. Other airlines have offered superlow fares, but only temporarily. Skybus, however, said the $10 fare is here to stay. “On every flight, there will be at least 10 seats for $10, said Skybus CEO Bill Diffenderffer. “That fare won’t go away.”
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There is no first-class on Skybus, and to speed up boarding, seats are not assigned. However, for an extra $10, the airline offers some passengers the privilege of boarding first. But you still have to climb the stairs. To save time and money, the airline boards passengers directly off the tarmac, avoiding costly airport gate charges.

You also have to pay extra for any checked luggage, and for any food or drinks you want to consume on the plane – you can’t bring your own.

Is this the new breed of low-cost carrier? With the airline industry going the way it is nowadays, I bet we’ll see more airlines move to this model of ala carte service, rather than all services provided with the ticket. It just might be what the industry needs to start making real money again.

A pilot arrested on suspicion of being over the alcohol limit has been cleared after tests found heavy dieting had caused his breath to smell like drink.

The Virgin Atlantic employee – held at Heathrow on 31 March before a flight to New York – had failed a breathalyser.

I’ve never heard anything about dieting causing your breath to smell like alcohol, but I’m happy that that was apparently the case here and the pilot was not drunk and trying to carry out his duties. I’m always very irritated to hear about that sort of thing.

Today Boeing announced that with an order from Japan Airlines, the total number of confirmed orders for the 787 has passed the 500 mark, sitting currently at 514. It hit this mark in just under 3 years, making it the fastest selling commercial aircraft in history, all before the first airframe has even been completed. Way to go Boeing!

As if we couldn’t see this one coming a mile away. Boeing will hold its first public unveiling of the very first 787 airframe off the line on July 8th, 2007. I, for one, can hardly wait. With over 400 firm orders already placed, I can see the 787 easily having 1000 or more by the time Airbus’ A350 is ready to enter service.

Boeing Co. plans to debut its much-anticipated 787 Dreamliner model on July 8 at an event at its assembly plant in Everett, Washington, the plane maker said on Wednesday.

The mid-sized 787 aircraft, which uses lightweight carbon composite material to reduce operating costs, has racked up roughly $70 billion in orders in about three years on the market.

At the event—to be held on 7/8/07, according to American dating conventions—the public will be able to see the aircraft fully assembled for the first time.

Today, in a not altogether unexpected move, UPS canceled its order for 10 A380 freighter variants.

PARIS/BOSTON, March 2 (Reuters) – Troubled Airbus suffered its second hammerblow in a week on Friday when the last cargo customer deserted the freight version of its delayed A380 superjumbo, days after the planemaker announced 10,000 job cuts.

United Parcel Service Inc. said it planned to cancel an order for 10 Airbus A380 freighters, worth approximately $3 billion at list prices, joining its rival FedEx which canceled an identical order last year.

Since no other company has ordered the freighter version, this most likely spells the end of any freighter variant of the A380.

Related: More Cancellations Loom? | Fedex Drops A380, Chooses 777 Instead

UPS announced today that they are ordering 27 brand new 767-300ER freighters from Boeing. While the press release doesn’t disclose the dollar amount of the order, Boeing’s official price list pegs the order in the ballpark of between $3.9 and $4.2 billion. With an investment this huge going to Boeing, and rival Fedex already having cancelled their A380F order last year, one wonders if UPS will also soon cancel theirs. If so, that probably marks the death blow to the freighter version of Airbus’ already struggling A380 program.

With slightly over a week left to go in 2006, it looks as if Boeing will come out on top of all aircraft orders this year, beating Airbus by as much as 400.

The Boeing Co. has won orders for 38 more jets worth about $3 billion at list prices, moving it within striking distance of having its second consecutive year with more than 1,000 orders.

The latest orders were for three 787s and 35 737s. That gives Boeing 904 net orders this year.

It is also not unconceivable that Boeing will top 1000 total orders for the year as well. However, I wouldn’t put it past Airbus to be unscrupulously holding back a number of orders in an attempt to circumvent Boeing’s triumph.

Boeing has not beaten rival Airbus in orders since 2000, but will likely do so this year unless Airbus, which had more than 600* orders through November, has another remarkable December. Last year, Airbus won more than 400 firm orders in December.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, but regardless, way to go Boeing!

*I was able to confirm the exact order total for Boeing from their website, however, I could only find company-lifetime cumulative order numbers on Airbus’ website and no exact total for just this year.

Update: Boeing’s Randy Baseler has a much more detailed round-up over at his blog.

According to reports released yesterday, Boeing recieved several military contracts from both the US Navy and US Air Force worth approximately $93 million.

The Navy said Friday it awarded a contract modification worth $56.9 million to a joint program of Boeing Co. and a unit of Textron Inc., to provide logistics services for the CV-22 aircraft.

The Navy on Friday said it awarded a contract modification worth $23.2 million to a subsidiary of Boeing Co.

The U.S. Air Force on Friday awarded a nearly $13 million contract modification to a unit of Boeing Co. for small diameter bomb test hardware supporting integration of the weapons on various aircraft.

It looks as if the recent challenge of another Air Force contract by Lockheed hasn’t hurt them as of yet. Keep up the good work, Boeing!

Related: Air Force Order Challenged | Boeing Wins Military Orders