Busy Week ahead: First flights; and Odds and Ends:Lufthansa to split order; Embraer tells of upgrades

Update, 2:30PM PDT: Boeing confirms that Tuesday is the target day for 787-9 first flight, time TBD and subject to weather and other factors.

Update, 3:30pm PDT: Bombardier says 9:30 EDT Monday is the scheduled first flight for CSeries. Twitter follow is #CSeries

Original Post:

It looks like it will be a busy week in aviation news. Bombardier plans the first flight of the CSeries tomorrow, weather permitting (it looks good). Exact time hasn’t been announced. Reuters reports Boeing plans the first flight of the 787-9 Tuesday, though we haven’t seen notice from Boeing on this yet. And we’re waiting any day for Lufthansa Airlines to announce its long-awaited wide-body order.

Lufthansa said to split order: Lufthansa Airlines reportedly will split its order for widebody airplanes between Boeing and Airbus, according to this Bloomberg report.

Embraer EJet improvements: Flight Global has this story about the improvements and another about production rates.

Air Force One: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a 42 slide photo display of Air Force Ones, past to present, that’s quite interesting.

Update: “Small Airbus:” If you listen carefully, someone at the end of the video notes that the CSeries “looks like a small Airbus 320.” We couldn’t help but chuckle at this.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWgjBNI_l-I&w=420&h=315]

20 Comments on “Busy Week ahead: First flights; and Odds and Ends:Lufthansa to split order; Embraer tells of upgrades

    • LH CEO Christoph Franz changes to Roche pharmaceuticals.
      We will see if LH will announce any order within this month or even year.

      • Wow, that is quite a wrinkle to this story! It does seem to call in to question whether this deal will really see the light of day in its leaked form.

  1. Agree that it looks more like a small 787 than like an A320.

    That guy was obviously not an aviation nuts

    • LIke the 737 the 787 sits closer to the ground.
      Thus the image is dominated by “longer legs” setting it closer to an A320’s appearance.
      The cockpit obviously is sleeker and more 787tiish but it is less of an eye catcher than the ground clearance.

      • Nowadays what differentiates one aircraft from another is the nose section. The cockpit windshield on the A350 is the most audacious styling I have seen since the Dreamliner was introduced. In that regard I would position the CSeries cockpit windshield between the 787 and A350 for its distinct windows contour. But the nose profile is very similar to the Dreamliner. And I would conclude by saying that the A350 has a unique personality for both its nose profile and its windshield windows contour. In short it has character.

  2. Coincidently I saw the first A321 with Sharklets take off last week. First I assumed it was an E190 then I saw the stumb nose and realized it was the Finair A321. Everything starts looking the same..

  3. The A320 was designed in the late 1980ies and is the final evolution of the low-wing, wing-mounted conventional tail aircraft. There is no reason to do it differently. Not because other design teams lack talent, but because there is usually only one optimum solution to a similar set of criteria.

  4. And I got the C-Series cutaway. Looks exactly like the A320. Again, the C-Series is a great aircraft, and BBD an experienced company. Making it similar means they arrived at similar conclusions after many iterations. I hope the C-Series has a successful First Flight, it is a very good aircraft.

  5. Are Boeing actually offering the 777-8x and -9x yet? I thought they only have ATO for the 787-10.

    • What I assume is going on is carriers getting in line to order it and then come Dubai in Nov, it’ll be launched with much fan fare. I expect Eva, Philippine Airlines, QR, EK, MH, BA, NH and JL to be included in mix.

    • Correct. I’m just glad that the thought of the 777-8/9x being tailored to the ME3, primarily EK, is squashed.

  6. It will be very interesting to see if any US airlines are interested in the 8/9X. So far, American is the only US carrier operating the -300ER and Delta is the only one flying the 744 pax and 772LR. All of the biggies fly 772s which have great range, so they work for international routes. The trending seems to be to long rangers in the 290-315 pax size, pus the 788 at 223 pax replacing 767-300ERs. United having famously passed on the -300ER.

  7. Scott, in the Cathay piece cited above, they say the -9X will not be available for ten years, the longest lead time I have read. You have speculated (or know?) that B will offer LH -747-8is at very low prices as interim lift until the -9Xs are delivered in numbers. What does your intel say now about that? Or, my long shot bet, that B will provide -300ERs at very low prices/lease rates as interim lift to -9X buyers, particularly those now operating the tyepe?

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