Fast-moving action on 787 in advance of NTSB briefing Thursday

There have been a number of developments within the past two hours on the Boeing 787 situation. Unfortunately, the key articles are from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Boeing has a series of design changes it is… Read More

SPEEA posts YouTube video; vows to return to table if Strike Authorization OK’d, contract rejected

SPEEA, the Boeing engineers’ union, posted a YouTube video this afternoon explaining why negotiators are recommending rejection of Boeing’s contract offer and why they are seeking a strike authorization vote. If members side with the negotiators, SPEEA vows… Read More

KC-46A contract “restructure,” Blue Angels grounded in Sequestration (very local to Seattle)

The US Air Force will have to “restructure” the USAF KC-46A tanker contract with Boeing if Sequestration hits on March 1, according to a new document issued today. The document doesn’t indicate what “restructure” means, but we’d guess… Read More

787 to cost Boeing $6bn in cash-UBS; more on lithium-ion batteries

Update, 7:30am PST: Headline: DJ Boeing 787 Probe Results ‘Probably Weeks Away’ -NTSB Chief We’re trying to track this down, which we received in an email. (We don’t get Dow Jones.) This seems to us like good news–“weeks”… Read More

Odds and Ends: FAA outsourced to Boeing; responding to fires-land within 15 minutes

Update, 4:15pm: From Twitter–Glenn Farley is the aviation specialist for KING 5 TV, Seattle: Glenn Farley ‏@GlennFarley Looks like Boeing test airplane ZA005 is being readied to carry out battery related test flights. Lots of activity Original Post:… Read More

787 test flights sought: Seattle Times

The Seattle Times is reporting that Boeing is seeking FAA permission to begin test flights. This, of course, will be good news and it reaffirms reports by others and by us that Boeing and investigations appear to be… Read More

Odds and Ends: Narrowing the cause on 787s; 30-120 days grounding?

Narrowing the Cause: Aviation Week has a good article with some behind-the-scenes snippets about the grounding of the Boeing 787. Toward the end are comments from Japan Air Lines about narrowing the cause of the battery problems. The… Read More

Mystery Photo #10

OK, have at it. Update, Feb. 3: Well for the first time we stumped readers, though Normand Hamel was 90% correct. This is the Jetcraft Mystery Jet, an attempt to make a business jet out of the Vampire…. Read More

Odds and Ends: Airbus’ frustration over A350 fallout–blame yourself; DC-10 grounding retrospective

Airbus’ frustration: Airbus says it has a Plan B for its lithium ion battery design and the CEO says he’s frustrated over the attention the A350 is getting as a result of the Boeing 787 issues. Airbus has… Read More