Boeing 7E7 Hype

[stagger]

Boeing have started offering their proposed new aircraft, the 7E7, for sale to airlines (details here (http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2003/q4/nr_031216g.html))

Whatever the merits of the proposed aircraft - the publicity is hilarious.

If you want a chuckle check out the following page.

http://www.newairplane.com/USA/index.htm

Click on "Enter Experience Zone"

When the animation loads up proceed through the airport until you meet the holographic woman and choose the "New Dreams" option.

What you get is a video depiction of the 7E7 being designed - by children on their laptops!!!

The kids love their work because "it looks like dolphin"

[broadreach]

It's a bit difficult to know what's going on in the Boeing corporate mind now, subsequent to Sonic Cruiser, Extended 747 etc. PR people have to do their jobs. It'll be interesting to see what evolves in the next six months or so. I'm a bit exasperated with the advertising emphasising swooping lines.

[seacue]

See my message on Jet Blast. "FLASH! Artist's Conception of True 7E7 Proposal"

[Skypilot]

There was quite an interesting article on this subject in yesterday's Financial Times. Click here: FT article (http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=031216000997&query=7e7&vsc_appId=totalSearch&state=Form) to view it (although I expect that this link will have expired by the 19th).

Quotes include "To them, the villains of the story are McDonnell Douglas executives who, since the merger in 1997, have ripped out the soul of Boeing and steered it towards financial conservatism."

[stagger]

The 7E7 lines look a whole lot less "swooping" and revolutionary without the swooping paint job.

http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2003/photorelease/q3/030909g.jpg

[Groundloop]

Not just the swooping paint job. What has happened to the "shark" fin and horizontal stabilisers so beloved of the marketing department at Boeing? Have the engineers quietly dropped them as not feasible? Or too expensive to manufacture?

[PAXboy]

stagger - thanks for the link and an amusing time was had by all. Right off the top, I enjoyed the opening screen, for the image of the field from which the 7E7 is supposed to be departing. Note the large fast exit turnoffs on to wide open taxiways and the beautiful terminal building neatly to hand, just a few yards away. Does this come as standard with the 7E, or is it an optional extra? :p

The image of the model in the windtunnel shows us what Boeing are designing - the logical development of the 76 + 77. But I think we knew that before Boeing started to waste their money on selling Dolphins.

[cortilla]

My sound card isn't that great, so everyone who speaks sounds like they have a massive retainer in. add's extreme comedy to an already funny piece

[147break]

I see that Boeing has come up with FBP (Fly By Pen) Technology. Now anyone who can draw will be able to fly a plane!!! How cool is that!! :cool:

[BEagle]

No doubt there thouroughly rattled by all the Airbus sales stories coming out of Dubai. Plus the tawdry affaire over the KC-767 isn't helping their image.

No real surprise then that the PR-luvvies have been told to get something positive out for the genpub.

But why, if they're designing 7E7, are they selling the old KC-767 to SAC? They don't really need them right now as they've just spent gazillions updating their KC-135s..

Hmmm - jobs for the boys in the post 11 Sep downturn, perhaps?

[steamchicken]

That Flash show looks like something out of "Our Friend the Atom"!

[Clear_Prop]

I do hate to be cynical, but I get the impression Boeing are releasing this more because they felt it was time they released a new plane, than because they actually had any worthwhile purpose. Not surprising then that it looks like all the other Boeings! It's like when The Stones decide to release another Best of Album! Maybe they should call this the "Best of" airplane!

As for the kids with the laptops - maybe they are trying to cut costs with employing designers? who knows?
:) :D

[car_owner]

The mid sized jet market is about 130 aircraft per year. If 7E7 can get half of that number it makes more than 60 aircraft per year totalling to 1200 aircraft in 20 years. This is a superb business case for 7E7.

Airbus alone cannot supply the world 130 midsized jets per year. So what's the problem ?????

[OFBSLF]

I do hate to be cynical, but I get the impression Boeing are releasing this more because they felt it was time they released a new plane, than because they actually had any worthwhile purpose.And if Boeing didn't release a new airplane, you'd be slagging them off for not doing so. Based on recent sales, it appears to me that the 757/767 have reached their sell-by date -- Airbus A320 and A330 are outselling them. So isn't it time that Boeing replaced the 757/767 with something that is bigger/better/faster?

[zed3]

Bigger/better/faster .....but they had the idea with that Sonic-Cruiser thingummy which is in the wastepaper bin in Seattle ( or was it Chicago? ) .

[rotornut]

The 7E7 lines look a whole lot less "swooping" and revolutionary without the swooping paint job.
Isn't that a 330?

[broadreach]

What an awful situation for a company to be in. One can only hope the new management team can gather all the stray objectives together into a coherent vision of the future and then get back to designing and building the aircraft the world needs and will buy.

Business Week carried an article on Phil Condit last week. If half of it is accurate, God help Boeing in getting back on track.

Reaching out to the flying public to help you design in more friendly seats, lighting etc sounds like a good idea - and good PR - when you're doing it from a solid base. In the current situation, where nobody really knows who's going to be running the company next month or what the company is collectively commited to, it just sounds a bit desperate.

[RRAAMJET]

"...I can go to the toilet whenever I want to..."

HaHahaha.....and find this commercial in amongst the blue fluid, no doubt...:yuk:

"I can make it turn using my pen..."

Just tried that in my current Boeing - yup, works, been there, done that, didn't even leave an ink splotch on the heading knob... :E Art-into-life, Seattle style, eh? Suggests they've been partaking of something stronger than a Triple-Latte recently in Washington State...

They would have been far more successful using a "Spitting Image" sponge-puppet version of the Airbus CEO drawing on an ExaSketch.

[Clear_Prop]

OFBSLF & zed3

Collectively you made my point - it certainly is time for a new plane, but the 7E7 doesn't really cut it in either the bigger, better or faster categories. The supercruiser was more the sort of innovative product you'd expect from Boeing given the current economic climate, and it's a bit telling that its been dropped and replaced with an 'updated' version of the status quo.

I don't want to knock the 7E7 too much, it clearly is an attempt to 'modernise' existing design and build practices, but I would imagine it will serve better as a proof of concept platform for future variants of other aircraft than as a stand-alone product in itself.

Statements like "mostly composite" and "greater efficiency" are pretty much what you'd expect nowadays but I wonder if perhaps the in-service life of these birds might be longer - a panacea for airlines, but less so for the manufacturer?

RRAAMJET: Yes the toilet remark was a bit of a daft marketing idea! LOL! I'm sure they meant that their plane would offer better access to facilities, but I couldn't help myself from imagining commode-seats the way it was expressed in that clip!!!! :confused: ...but the hint in that scene is perhaps a snipe at the A380, I paraphrase - "imaging not having to share the toilet with zillions of other people"... ...interesting, so Boeing really are getting into this idea of opposing the market for 'bigger' planes - perhaps in twenty years the 7E7 will be the only plane they are selling - one size fits all?

[OFBSLF]

The supercruiser was more the sort of innovative product you'd expect from Boeing given the current economic climate, and it's a bit telling that its been dropped and replaced with an 'updated' version of the status quo.The concensus here on pprune seemed to be that the supercruiser wouldn't work and wouldn't be economical. It offered just a bit more speed, at a time when airlines are losing big money. If the 7E7 meets its hype (a big if), it will significantly lower operating costs (both fuel burn and maintenance costs). Yes, that may be just an incremental improvement. But if it truly does cost 20% less to run than the equivalent Airbus, wouldn't that bring a lot of sales to Boeing?

[Flight Safety]

The photo shown by "stagger" is an early concept in the wind tunnel, with raked wing tips. The later concepts have the "swoopy" look. Personally I like the shark tail. :D

[stagger]

Flight Safety,

You're right - I think they've settled on something a bit more swoopy - including the shark tail!

http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2003/photorelease/q4/021120g.jpg