Boeing: Bye-Bye Jumbo Jumbo Jet
Boeing is shelving plans for its giant 747X and will instead focus on developing a radically new jetliner that will travel at nearly the speed of sound, the aerospace company announced Thursday.
Boeing officials said there simply wasn't a market for the larger 747, designed to compete with archrival Airbus Industrie's new A380 superjumbo. While Airbus has received 66 orders for its 555-seat jet, no customers have ordered the larger 747, which would have carried 525 passengers.
Instead, Boeing released drawings for a radically new aircraft, with a delta wing near its tail, two smaller wings near the nose, and a pair of engines blended into the wing.
"This is the airplane our customers have asked us to concentrate on," Alan Mulally, chairman and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a news release. "They share our view that this new airplane could change the way the world flies as dramatically as did the introduction of the jet age."
Mulally said Boeing could always resurrect the 747X project if demand materializes.
We also will continue the ability to do a larger 747 if and when our customers tell us they need one," he said.
By concentrating on the all-new jet, it appears Boeing may be leapfrogging Europe's Airbus in commercial aircraft technology.
But Airbus does not see Boeing's move as advantageous. "We've looked at that," said John Leahy, Airbus's chief marketing officer, when asked about the Boeing plans at a presentation Airbus made to Wall Street analysts and investors Thursday.
Leahy said the new aircraft would burn 40 percent more fuel and have significantly higher operating costs per seat.
In addition, because the jet would have to fly at a higher altitude, it could be impractical for flights within the United States, though it "could be good for some routes in Asia," Leahy said.
The limited usefulness for U.S. flights would mean it could not replace some existing jets in the Boeing 757/767 category, Leahy said.
"You've got a $10 billion to $12 billion investment and you've got to build a business case...Personally I'd go to Mach 1.5 or something like that; I'd go supersonic," Leahy said.
The new aircraft could lead to a family of Boeing airplanes that could carry 100-300 passengers while cruising at Mach .95, just under the speed of sound. Sound travels at Mach 1, about 750 mph at sea level or 660 mph at 30,000 feet above sea level.
Boeing believes the 15 percent to 20 percent gain in speed could mean cutting more than an hour from some U.S. air routes, about two hours on some trans-Atlantic flights and up to three hours on some Pacific routes.
The new plane also would have the potential to fly farther than any other commercial aircraft, with a range estimated at 10,350 miles. Mulally said the plane could be flying by 2006 or 2007.
"When we combine higher speed, longer range, the comfort of flight at higher altitudes, and th environmental benefits of quieter landings and takeoffs, we have an airplane that will open a new chapter in commercial aviation," Mulally said. "We are changing our new product development efforts to focus more strongly on this airplane ... It will be an ideal complement to our current family."
Earlier this year, Condit said the company would put more emphasis on mid-sized planes, the market served by Boeing's 767. Last week, Condit and Mulally released some details of the proposed new aircraft, saying customers had shown a great deal of interest.
Flight International Magazine, a trade publication, reported this week that Boeing plans to invite up to 12 key airlines by the end of May to help plan the new jets. A similar group of airlines was used to advise Boeing in developing its 777-jet family in the early 1990s.