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Boeing beats the drum for its 777 range

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Old 2nd Sep 2004, 15:56
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Boeing beats the drum for its 777 range

Fri "The Australian"

Boeing beats the drum for its 777 range
Geoffrey Thomas
September 03, 2004

NEXT year, Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport will be the centre of some spectacular record-breaking flight tests to demonstrate the extraordinary capabilities of Boeing's 777-200LR, which when it flies early next year will become the world's longest-range commercial aircraft.

Prime targets for sales are airlines such as Qantas, and Boeing is focused on winning the majority of Qantas's medium capacity long-haul business with a mix of 365-seat 777-300ERs, which Singapore Airlines ordered last week, and the 300-seat 777-200LR.

From late 2006 the flagship of Qantas's long-haul fleet will be the stunning 555-seat A380s for the prime Sydney-London and Sydney-Los Angeles routes, while the airline is taking the 300-seat A330s for regional international routes.

This combination, however, leaves a significant gap in capacity/range capability for a 350-400 seat aircraft with the range to fly Los Angeles-Sydney and Singapore-London carrying a full payload.

And Qantas does not have an aircraft capable of opening new city pairs such as Sydney-Dallas or Los Angeles-Adelaide, where optimum seating requirements are no more than 300. Qantas has a one-gateway US strategy, whereas Air New Zealand serves both Los Angeles and San Francisco nonstop from Auckland.

Boeing is advocating a mix of 777s as a solution. The 777-200LR is the latest variant of the 777 which first flew in 1994 and is capable of flying nonstop from London to Sydney or Chicago to Sydney with 300 passengers.

Insiders at Boeing have told The Australian to expect a series of world record flights from the 777-200LR to highlight the aircraft's performance capabilities.

The 777-200ER already holds the world distance record, flying without payload from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur, a distance of 20,044km, in 21 hours 23 minutes.

The 777-200LR would easily smash that record but it is the aircraft's payload-range capability that grabs airline executives' attention, and it is here that Boeing believes it has an ace.

Qantas is facing serious competition from Emirates, which has new nonstop flights to its super-hub at Dubai from Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. Through Dubai, Emirates is able to offer one-stop flights to more than 20 destinations in Europe, while Qantas operates to just three – London, Frankfurt and Paris.

Boeing argues that a combination of 777 models powered by General Electric engines would give Qantas the flexibility to serve smaller cities in Europe with an economic payload and to offer passengers the first Britain-Australia nonstop flights.

Adding to the commercial pressure on Qantas is Air New Zealand's recent order for up to 52 777s and 7E7s for delivery from September next year, and last week's order from Singapore Airlines for up to 31 777-300ERs.

The latest models of the 777 are undergoing certification to meet the expected expanded rules governing the operation of twin-engine aircraft away from suitable diversion airports, dubbed extended twin operations (ETOPS).

Currently, twin-engine aircraft can fly up to 207 minutes from a diversion airport and the FAA plans to extend that to 240 minutes, based on the extraordinary reliability of today's commercial aircraft and their systems.

ETOPS-capable aircraft must be maintained to higher standards and are equipped with more back-up equipment.

The dramatic improvement in reliability in ETOPS-equipped twin-engine aircraft has prompted Airbus, which pioneered ETOPS flights, to certify its new four-engine A340-500 and 600 aircraft to ETOPS standards.

The new regulations would eliminate hard diversion limits on operation of twin-engine aircraft, giving compliant operators the freedom to fly certified aircraft types virtually unfettered on routes taking them over remote and inaccessible areas of the world such as some South Pacific and Southern Ocean routes.

But to get this approval, the manufacturers must demonstrate the unprecedented level of reliability of one engine shutdown per 50,000 flight hours (0.01/1000 flight hours) – or one every 13 years in normal flying operations.

Boeing's 777-200ERs are demonstrating a shutdown rate of just 0.005/1000 flight hours and the 777-300ER and 200LR are designed for a rate of 0.002/1000 flight hours.

The industry has gained enormous experience with twin-engine aircraft with almost 4 million ETOPS flights of 767, 777, A300, A310 and A330 aircraft over the past 18 years.

According to Lars Anderson, manager of the 777 Longer Range program, "including flights to Hawaii, there are now more twin-engine trans-Pacific operations than the combined operations of four-engine and three-engine jets."

"There are also now more ETOPS flights – 429 a day – in the Pacific region, than across the Atlantic," he said.

Qantas and Air New Zealand pioneered twin-engine operations in the Pacific region with their 767-200ERS in the mid-1980s.

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Wirraway is offline  
Old 2nd Sep 2004, 22:41
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or Los Angeles-Adelaide
BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
Air New Zealand's recent order for up to 52 777s and 7E7s
WTF! They've come through the AN debacle better than I expected!
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Old 3rd Sep 2004, 08:55
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Maybe they got better than expected prices for all those stolen spares, tools, spare donks, anything else that wasn't bolted down that they looted as they were leaving.

Hard to imagine runty little 3 foot high hobbits being able to carry all that gear. They must be stronger than they look.

They must've stolen all the telephone books too... to sit on so they could see over the instrument combing.

Another one sits on the floor and pushes the rudder pedals wuth hus hairy luttle feet.

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Old 3rd Sep 2004, 09:50
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maybee they hid all thats tuff in the caverns the dwarves lived in???


could you image sitting in 1 seat for 20Hrs +! you would have to take your entire dvd collection with you!
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Old 3rd Sep 2004, 11:06
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Ultralights, isin that what the IFE is for something like 500+ movies or hasnt that happened yet?
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Old 3rd Sep 2004, 11:26
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I have no idea, Fortunatly i got out of the Aircraft modifying/repairing game 3 yrs ago!
back then, the IFE was only just being installed on every seat! with very little regard for content!
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Old 3rd Sep 2004, 14:46
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He's talking about the crew. You need a lot of DVDs on your laptop to get you through a long haul like that. Gets boring staring at the AI the whole time.

That's the only time it'd be okay to be flying the Deathstar or its bigger version, because you could put your laptop on the fold-out table and recline.

The frogs installed tables so they can eat their snotty snails and frog legs.

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Old 3rd Sep 2004, 21:35
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but those super-reliable statistics quoted don't include instances where one donk was throttled back to idle with a sunsequent diversion.
Four hours is a long time over middle of nowhere on one....
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Old 4th Sep 2004, 00:24
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Thats because ETOPS is not just about losing an engine.
Operating an engine at idle gives you a lot of system redundancy that shutting it down does not.

Most of us will never see one engine shut-down. The chances that you will see both gone in one flight is so small as to be not worth worrying about.
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Old 5th Sep 2004, 00:41
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Pretty bloody smart hobbits eh!
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Old 5th Sep 2004, 10:20
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Someone is taking the sips(anag) - perhaps Mr. Boeing is having a wet dream
Adding to the commercial pressure on Qantas is Air New Zealand's recent order for up to 52 777s and 7E7s for delivery from September next year, and last week's order from Singapore Airlines for up to 31 777-300ERs.
From memory I think the figures stated were 8 773's and 2 plastic 7E7's (but only if they meet the expected criteria for range and consumption), and options for 42 (which is Air NZ dreaming!)
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Old 5th Sep 2004, 10:35
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Oh Sulphur boy.... why the negative vibes..

It's 8 772 ERs initially & 2 7E7s.

The rest (42) are "Purchase Rights" not options.

Possibly with the 773ER replacing the 744 when they go about 2014.
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