Third Quarter 2007
July 2, 2007
The four-month in-space demonstration of the Boeing Orbital Express system successfully concludes. The mission was sponsored and led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to validate on-orbit servicing technologies. Orbital Express met or exceeded all of its test objectives to become the world's first spacecraft capable of performing autonomous on-orbit servicing functions.
News Release
July 7, 2007
As part of its 787 Premiere, Boeing honors its 7-Series family of airplanes with a special show featuring customers' Boeing-produced airplanes. The airplanes on display at Boeing Field, Seattle, include an Omega Air 707; AirTran Airways 717; FedEx 727; Alaska Airlines 737-800; Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 Flying Test Bed 747-200; Continental Airlines 757; Delta Air Lines 767; and Air France 777-300ER (Extended Range). In addition, the Boeing 747-400 Dreamlifter is on static display.
News Release
Air Berlin orders 25 787-8 airplanes valued at $4 billion at list prices. The order is the single largest placed by any European carrier. Air Berlin, based in Berlin, Germany, is Europe's third largest low-fare carrier. Long focused primarily on the low-fare market, Air Berlin will add long-haul destinations, with the ultra-efficient 787 serving as the cornerstone of its twin-aisle, long-haul fleet.
News Release
July 8, 2007
The first 787 Dreamliner rolls out at a celebration attended by employees, airline customers, supplier partners and government and community officials. Approximately 15,000 people attend the Premiere at the Everett, Wash., final assembly factory. More than 30,000 participate via two-way satellite from Japan, Italy and locations in the United States. As many as 90 other locations around the world, involving 787 customers, partners and many Boeing employees, also download the event live or watch it prerecorded and host their own viewing event.
News Release
July 10, 2007
The U.S. Navy deems the P-8A Poseidon Critical Design Review held in June a success, with Boeing receiving no requests for action. This paves the way for the P-8A to enter production.
July 11, 2007
QinetiQ and Boeing open The Portal, a new decision-support capability at QinetiQ's Cody Technology Park site in Farnborough, United Kingdom. The state-of-the-art center will enable customers to explore and understand implications of proposed network-enabled systems in a real-time, dynamic environment using the latest in modeling, simulation, analysis and experimentation.
News Release
Phantom Works enters into a collaborative agreement with Tsinghua University in Beijing, Southeast University in Nanjing, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to research and develop new technology associated with wireless communications. The research focuses on onboard entertainment systems for Boeing's commercial airplanes and on communication among maintenance technicians at airports.
July 16, 2007
Boeing and Cranfield University in the United Kingdom sign an agreement to create an Integrated Vehicle Health Management Center of Excellence at the university. IVHM helps improve vehicle maintenance, life span, readiness, availability, and operating costs by using sensors distributed throughout the vehicle to collect and assess data on the condition of its components and subsystems.
July 17, 2007
AirTran Airways takes delivery of its 50th Next-Generation 737. AirTran Airways, which began service in 1995 exclusively using 717-200s, took delivery of its first Next-Generation 737 in August 2004.
News Release
July 20, 2007
Boeing's X-48B research aircraft flies for the first time, taking off at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California, climbing to 7,500 feet and landing 31 minutes later. Up to 25 flights are planned to gather more data in these low-speed-flight regimes. The Blended Wing Body concept is of potential interest to the U.S. Air Force as a flexible, long-range, high-capacity military aircraft.
News Release
Aug. 6, 2007
Nearly 1,000 767 employees and suppliers and several reporters attend a rally at the Everett, Wash., factory to learn more about the KC-767 Advanced Tanker and the capabilities it can provide to the U.S. Air Force.
Aug. 9, 2007
Boeing announces that 14 airlines signed up to use the Maintenance Performance Toolbox in the first half of 2007: Aeroflot, Air China Southwest Branch, Air India, Air India Express, Emirates, Hainan Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, S7 Airlines (formerly Siberia Airlines), Southwest Airlines, transavia.com and Turkish Airlines. Three airlines are not identified. Toolbox represents the industry's first set of productivity tools designed to unify an airline's maintenance and engineering operations from start to finish. It was launched in October 2005.
News Release
Aug. 10, 2007
Boeing Research & Technology Europe, in Madrid, Spain, will lead a consortium of 18 major Spanish aerospace and IT companies to launch a 3.5-year, $40 million project designed to research the introduction of high levels of automation into airspace management of both manned and unmanned vehicles.
Aug. 16, 2007
Boeing completes the first phase of its nanosatellite research and experimentation with the successful conclusion of the CubeSat TestBed 1 mission. The spacecraft, launched April 17 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, accomplished 100 percent of its primary mission objectives. Through experiments such as CSTB1, Boeing is evaluating a variety of technologies, design elements, and attitude determination and control approaches for future operational nanosatellites -- spacecraft weighing less than 22 pounds (10 kilograms). Picosatellites such as CSTB1 weigh less than 3 pounds (1 kilogram).
News Release
Aug. 27, 2007
Boeing delivers the 3,000th widebody airplane from its Everett, Wash., site -- a 777-200ER (Extended Range) -- to Korean Air. The 3,000th-delivery milestone comes just nine years after the Everett site celebrated its 2,000th delivery, a 747-400 taken by British Airways May 15, 1998. The plant's 1,000th widebody delivery was a 767-300ER delivered to Scandinavian Airlines on Aug. 14, 1989.
News Release
The new CH-47F Chinook helicopter joins the U.S. Army's aviation fleet. Following extensive testing, the Army authorized First Unit Equipped, which certifies the combat readiness of the aircraft. Bravo Company, 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based at Fort Campbell, Ky., is the first unit to be equipped with the new Chinook. "The CH-47F is a next-generation aircraft, providing greater safety, mission management and situational awareness for our soldiers," says Jack Dougherty, director, Boeing H-47 Programs.
News Release
Aug. 28, 2007
Boeing is awarded a NASA contract valued at approximately $514.7 million to produce the upper stage of the Ares I crew launch vehicle. This element provides the navigation, guidance, control and propulsion required for the ascent of the second-stage Ares I into low-Earth orbit. The Ares I launches the Orion crew exploration vehicle, which will be joined with other elements of NASA's Constellation program to help propel astronauts to the moon by 2020.
News Release
Aug. 29, 2007
Boeing announces its 1,000th 777 order. Brazil's TAM Airlines orders four additional 777-300ERs, bringing to 1,003 the total number of 777s ordered since 1990. The fuel-efficient 777-300ER is the world's largest long-range twin-engine jetliner, capable of carrying 365 passengers up to 7,880 nautical miles (14,594 kilometers). The efficient twin-engine design provides the lowest fuel consumption and overall operating costs in its class.
News Release
Aug. 30, 2007
Boeing and Norwegian Air Shuttle announce an order for 42 Next-Generation 737-800s, valued at $3.1 billion at list prices. The order from the Norwegian low-fare operator is the largest from any Scandinavian carrier.
News Release
Aug. 31, 2007
Boeing, industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully demonstrate in flight tests that the Airborne Laser's battle management and beam control/fire control systems can complete the full series of steps required to support a ballistic missile intercept.
News Release
Sept. 5, 2007
Boeing and Aeroflot, Russia's flagship carrier, finalize an order for 22 787-8 Dreamliners. The order is valued at $3.6 billion at list prices.
News Release
Sept. 6, 2007
Boeing and China Southern Airlines announce an order for 55 additional Next-Generation 737s, valued at $3.8 billion at list prices. China Southern, the largest airline in The People's Republic of China, already has 129 737s in its fleet, with 14 more to be delivered from previous orders.
News Release
Boeing says Turkey's Peace Eagle Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft has made its first functional check flight from Boeing Field in Seattle. Boeing Pilot Regis Hancock and First Officer Randon Stewart performed a series of tests during the 2.5-hour flight to verify the airworthiness of the aircraft's systems and structures. The flight follows major modifications that include installation of a Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array antenna, ventral fins and mission system equipment.
News Release
Sept. 11, 2007
Boeing says it has been awarded a 10-year, $1.1 billion U.S. Air Force contract to continue providing programmed depot maintenance for the U.S. KC-135 Stratotanker fleet. Under this contract, more than 200 KC-135 aircraft will be worked on at facilities in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
News Release
Sept. 18, 2007
Boeing Capital joins customer airline Lufthansa at a series of financiers' roundtables to attract airline financing for the new 747-8 Intercontinental airplane. Around 20 representatives from about a dozen of Lufthansa's key aircraft financing banks attend the sessions, which are designed to highlight the 747-8 product discriminators and convince financiers of its investment value.
Sept. 20, 2007
Boeing is one of the top 15 U.S. companies for college graduates looking to start a career, according to Business Week magazine. The rating is based on extensive surveys of career-services directors at U.S. colleges, the employers they listed as best for their graduates, and the college students themselves. "This ranking validates our hard work to become an employer of choice for U.S. college graduates, particularly the shrinking pool of engineering graduates," says Rick Stephens, senior vice president, Human Resources and Administration.
Sept. 25, 2007
Boeing delivers the first production EA-18G Growler to the U.S. Navy ahead of schedule and within budget. Unlike the two aircraft already in flight test, the EA-18G Growler delivered today was entirely assembled and tested on the same production line as the existing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
News Release
Sept. 28, 2007
Boeing, Air New Zealand and Rolls-Royce announce a Memorandum of Understanding to conduct a biofuel demonstration flight in the second half of 2008 using an Air New Zealand 747-400 equipped with Rolls-Royce engines. The flight is designed to help accelerate the development of viable and sustainable alternative fuels for commercial aviation uses. Boeing is exploring second-generation biofuel feed stocks and processes that have the potential to reduce greenhouse gases throughout their entire lifecycle.
News Release
Boeing, working with industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, successfully completes a Ground-Based Midcourse Defense flight test that results in the intercept of a target warhead and demonstrates the capability and reliability of the United States' only defense against long-range ballistic missiles.
News Release