Roller coaster of emotions at Boeing | Economy | '
This is the worst crisis in his over 30-year career with Boeing, said the head of civil aircraft division Kevin McAllister opening the world's largest aviation exhibition in Paris Le Bourget. "We apologize and pray for the families and relatives of the victims of the two 737MAX crashes," said McAllister at one of Boeing's rare press conferences. Every stone is currently being turned around and watching what lessons you can learn from the MAX disaster.
That seems urgently needed, because the world's largest aircraft manufacturer runs just about nothing. Leanne Caret, the defense chief, also assures her sympathy for the MAX victims and apologizes. However, it also has to shoulder the responsibility for massive failures in its area – in particular, there were embarrassing problems in the production of Boeing tank aircraft for the US Air Force, forgotten tools were found in machines already delivered. "That's totally unacceptable," Caret admits.
It crunches on all corners
Airline customers of the bestselling Boeing 787 from the North Carolina plant also complain about quality issues. Boeing does not look good no matter where you look. After months of silence, the current condolences are almost like a rehearsed ritual. A particularly bad figure gives it off CEO Dennis Muilenburg. In Paris, he does not dare to face the press, gives only a few television interviews and meets a handpicked circle of 15 journalists. He also admits errors in communication.
Boeing's trauma – the crash of a Type 797 Max 8 aircraft in Ethiopia
Then on Tuesday afternoon the dramatic and completely surprising turnaround for Boeing. It comes so suddenly that many journalists fail to make it to the short-term press conference in time. There sits one of the leading figures among the world's airline chiefs, the dry Irishman Willie Walsh, head of the airline holding IAG, which includes British Airways and Iberia among others. Walsh himself was a former Boeing 737 pilot and, given the current circumstances, orders an unbelievably large order for up to 200 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
The symbolic turn
Since the recent crash in March, there has not been a single order and never in aviation history has there ever been any order for a plane that was officially banned at the time of issuance for regulatory reasons. Probably Boeing has never received a symbolically important order. Even CEO Dennis Muilenburg appears, who usually publicly anything but affectionate men hug each other before the world press. "I trust Boeing, and I have no doubt that people will realize in the longer term that this is a great aircraft," says Willie Walsh, who flew the 737 MAX himself in the simulator before placing his order, with old and new MCAS software, the automatic that is responsible for the crashes.
In the industry, among other airline bosses, the IAG major order ensures head shaking and incomprehension. Maybe some are also jealous of the chutzpah of Willie Walsh, who probably gets his 200 MAX MAX almost "given", as the competition suspects. Almost at the same time, the head of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam, is passing in front of the Boeing Chalet where the gig took place. He is as surprised as everyone else about the assignment. His airline, he emphasized, will be one of the last to put the MAX back into service after the release. Tewolde emphasizes that he is in close contact with Boeing and continues to have confidence, "but these public sympathy statements are clearly coming too late," Tewolde told Deutsche Welle.
Short hops with the autonomous air taxi
The usual duel for orders between Airbus and Boeing on the Aerosalon gets this time almost in the background. The Europeans are putting Boeing in distress in an important market segment since they officially launched their ultra-long-range version of the A321neo in Paris on Monday. Originally designed for medium-haul two-jet aircraft with only one aisle can fly up to 8,700 kilometers, and thus about from Frankfurt to Miami, and much more cost-effective than the wide-body aircraft previously used there.
All in all, Airbus collected orders and preliminary contracts for 363 new aircraft – 126 orders of which for the new A321XLR. According to previous information Boeing came to orders and preliminary contracts for 272 jets. Boeing had postponed the launch of its new mid-range aircraft during the MAX crisis and now has to leave the field to Airbus.
Really new in Paris is the strong focus on electric, hybrid and autonomous flying. Both Airbus and Boeing, but also a handful of start-ups have partially issued original aircraft, which initially serves test purposes. The big challenge, says a Boeing Future Program Manager, is "that we need to redevelop not only the aircraft, but most of all the infrastructure in which these types of aircraft will travel in the future."
Electric air taxi from Boeing in Le Bourget
As little as it is clear how everything will look exactly, so sure are all industry representatives that mankind will start in a decade or less, to make short hops in large cities by autonomous air taxi. At the other end of the spectrum, Blake Scholl, head of the US startup Boom Supersonic, promises that his company will launch 50-seat passenger jets again by about 2027, flying faster than the Concorde at 2.2x the speed of sound. But this time, so the promise, sustainable and quiet. Japan Airlines has already ordered 20 supersonic jets at Boom.
ليست هناك تعليقات