Bob Bogash's diatribe spells out the saga of a corporate trainwreck regarding the Boeing 787 widebody project, his readers responding with a slew of theories. Bob, incidentally, was a manager at Boeing's commercial group. The Boeing 787 rollout was celebrated in 2007 right here on MeFi when the prototype was rolled out. Two years later the plane remains grounded with development costs approaching $10 billion, and Boeing announced further setbacks in a conference call yesterday. The hobbyists and pros and the press weigh in on the news. Bob's site not only addresses the 787 program but raises larger questions about oblique technical and management dichotomies in America's Fortune 500 board rooms.
posted by crapmatic on Jul 23, 2009 - 44 comments

Hiding in "plane" sight. Images and details of the significant efforts made by the United States to prevent the Japanese from bombing our west coast aircraft factories. I wonder what this effort would take today to "fool" Google Maps/Earth. [more inside]
posted by hrbrmstr on Jun 8, 2009 - 15 comments

Today Boeing completed the first test flight of a commercial jet-liner using a mix of conventional jet-fuel and a fuel created from algae and the african weed jatropha. Boeing hopes that biofueled flights will be common in just three years.
posted by Artw on Jan 8, 2009 - 28 comments

Boeing 777 assembled in 4:13 (SLYT)
posted by backseatpilot on May 1, 2008 - 47 comments

After taking possession of a brand spankin' new Boeing 777-300ER airliner, the pilot decided to celebrate by buzzing the airfield, landing gear retracted, at 28 feet above the ground [YouTube]. Killjoy airline executives promptly fired his ass.
posted by LarryC on Mar 2, 2008 - 47 comments

Boeing launches its new plane, the 787, this weekend: 07/08/07. Check it out now or watch it live on Sunday.
posted by salishsea on Jul 6, 2007 - 46 comments

An interesting project from the latest Vectors Journal. "Legend has it that Paglen, who has been called the Fox Mulder of cultural geography, was personally instrumental in provoking the military to extend the perimeter around Area 51 by several miles in an attempt to thwart one of his counter-surveillance efforts" [via]
posted by tellurian on Feb 16, 2007 - 5 comments

Do a Barrel Roll! [emvedded WMV, or view it on YouTube here] Test pilot Tex Johnston shows off the capabilities of Boeing's new 367-80 "Dash 80" prototype -- which would later become the Boeing 707 -- at a 1955 air show. The barrel roll (or aileron roll to others), done twice, was a no-hazard 1G maneuver for the Dash 80, but thoroughly impressed the crowd. Following the roll, it's said that William Allen turned to an elderly attender to ask for heart attack pills. You can still view the Dash-80 today at its final resting place, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.
posted by brownpau on Jun 21, 2006 - 36 comments

Luttig Resigns. Judge J. Michael Luttig, long considered a front-runner for a Supreme Court nomination, at least until he was passed over by President Bush, has resigned his position on the Fourth circuit. Luttig will take over as general counsel to Boeing. Read Boeing's press release and Luttig's resignation letter [pdf].
posted by monju_bosatsu on May 10, 2006 - 29 comments

All things 737: aircraft systems, pilots' notes, deliveries and fleet movements, production methods, technical photographs, blended winglets, rudder news, illustrated history, accident reports, Q's and A's. Know it all? Take the quiz.
posted by breezeway on Apr 27, 2005 - 19 comments

Stonecipher Out At Boeing. While it may seem Harry Stonecipher, the Savior of Boeing, quit over an affair, is that all there is to it?
posted by nj_subgenius on Mar 8, 2005 - 6 comments

Everything's bigger in Toulouse. The world's biggest plane has started rolling off assembly lines and is expected to take its first flight in March 2005. The quarter-billion-dollar, twin-deck, four-aisle plane can carry 555 passengers. Thanks to its design's outsized wings, future versions of the economical plane may carry as many as 800 passengers.
With the A380, Airbus hopes to do to Boeing what Boeing did to its competitors over 30 years ago with the 747. Already, Airbus Industrie has outsold and out-delivered Boeing for the last two years. But don't boycott just yet! It turns out the A380 is 51% American-made. Parts are so big they don't fit in this whale-like record-size transporter (though this Russian monster may have a claim); they are transported to Toulouse on a barge. More pics. Let's hope this latest high-tech aerospace gamble does better than the last one.
Europe, of course (troll alert), already makes the world's biggest truck, the fastest trains, the best cars (sorry Japan), and the most successful rocket launchers.
On a darker topic, 10 years ago, French commandos boarded an Airbus and killed Islamic terrorists planning to fly it into the Eiffel Tower.
posted by Turtle on Dec 26, 2004 - 63 comments

It has been four years since the dot-coms crashed, sweeping ideas like mylacky.com, pets.com and kozmo.com into the circular file. The remaining survivors have been remarkably successful. Google owns the search space and has redefined web mail. Orbitz and Expedia take most of the pain out of travel planning and reservations. Tenzing has spent close to half a decade pushing for IFE certification for Linux. Once properly certified, they built a system light enough, cheap enough, and reliable enough for installation aboard aircraft. All this effort just so you can read email the next time you travel by air. Aerospace giant Boeing is hard at work on a similar product but their demonstration is far more limited than start-up Tenzing's. (no, not that Tenzing)
posted by b1tr0t on Oct 15, 2004 - 12 comments

On 1 July 2002 at 21:35:32 hrs a collision between a Tupolev TU154M, which was on a flight from Moscow/Russia to Barcelona/ Spain, and a Boeing B757-200, on a flight from Bergamo/Italy to Brussels/ Belgium, occurred north of the city of Ueberlingen (Lake of Constance). Investigation Report as of May 2004, PDF. Very detailed, intelligibly written.

71 people were killed in one of Europe's worst peacetime air accidents. The report comes the the conclusion that human error was the main cause. The TCAS system (PDF) which should have prevented the collision worked, but the Tupolew crew followed the ATC instructions. It turned out that the air traffic controller missed a key warning on his radar screen in one of a chain of errors. ATCs from nearby airports realized what was going on but weren't able to contact the responsible Skyguide controller because the telephone network did not work: the main telephone line was switched off because of work being done on the telephone network, and the collision warning system was temporarily shut down for maintenance.
The ATC in charge was stabbed to death in February 2004 by a Russian man who lost his wife, son and daughter in the plane crash.
posted by tcp on Jul 1, 2004 - 9 comments

Get the plane out of the garage for me would you dear? Not only is John Travolta a qualified pilot (to commercial level) he has his own Boeing 707. And what does any self respecting jetliner owner do? Buy a house with a 1.4 mile runway attached and taxi on up to the door of course...

Oh, and if you hear "Bring your Daughter to the Slaughter" blaring out from the cockpit next time you fly, don't worry it's probably just Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson at the controls.
posted by jontyjago on Nov 7, 2003 - 29 comments

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I don't even play one on TV. But every once in a while, I run across the website of one of these individuals that, in its own way, at least appears to make sense. Using photos from the US Army, the DOD and the US Marine Corps., this English translation of a French site asks, "Can you find the Boeing 757 that 'crashed' into the Pentagon on 9/11/01?" [Linked page scrolls to the right, not down as one might expect...]
posted by JollyWanker on Oct 27, 2003 - 28 comments

Flying Cloud flies for the last time On Wednesday, August 6, the last Boeing 307 Stratoliner landed at Dulles [WaPo; may require registration]. [more] [more] [more] This was the plane that ditched off Seattle in March, 2002 after being fully restored. Now, re-restored, it has arrived at its final destination, the Smithsonian's new Hazy Center. Dry eyes were a rare commodity.
posted by SealWyf on Aug 7, 2003 - 9 comments

Buy a Flight Manual, Get a Grand Jury Subpoena? A guy qualified to fly and instruct on the Boeing 737 buys a CD on Ebay that contains the ground course for the same plane. Then the FBI gets involved, and, courtesy of section 501 (d) of the "USA Patriot Act", he can no longer even discuss the issue. [more inside]
posted by Irontom on Dec 23, 2002 - 24 comments

"Bird of Prey" unveiled. Boeing revealed the formerly supersecret stealth prototype last Friday in St. Louis. More information at: a New Scientist story, a Popular Science report, Jane's Defense Weekly (subscription required), Boeing's press release and a couple of movies (13 Mb mov or 50 Mb mpg). More...
posted by Irontom on Oct 23, 2002 - 22 comments

Looks like Boeing finally decided to exploit the wing-in-ground effect. Did they get inspired by the most famous ekranoplan ever, the Caspian Sea Monster?
posted by titboy on Sep 16, 2002 - 22 comments

Tupulev and Boeing crash in Germany A tupulev and a boeing crashed in southern germany. Number of victims yet unknown.
posted by knutmo on Jul 1, 2002 - 24 comments

Boeing creates "flying machine" called a "Blimp." They say it will be used for homeland defense. Ha. I doubt they can get it off the ground. Blimp - what hogwash, indeed.
posted by password on May 3, 2002 - 11 comments

"Heck with the tiger. What about the plane in the driveway." Maybe this plane was piloted by an invisible network of terrorists aiming to disrupt LA traffic.
posted by fpatrick on Apr 11, 2002 - 8 comments

Boeing 307 Stratoliner lands in Puget Sound If you're in downtown Seattle, take a look across the Sound towards Alki - somebody's restored Boeing Stratoliner is semi-submerged near shore. Hope everybody's okay. Anybody know who's plane this is?
posted by skyscraper on Mar 28, 2002 - 14 comments

Remember the missing boeing? Well, the man behind that revelation has now come out with a book that will blow all previous conspiracy theories out of the water. (and by conspiracy theories i don't mean 9/11 - but also who shot JFK, etc). Interesting way to get rich.
posted by dabitch on Mar 18, 2002 - 18 comments

Lockheed Martin beat out Boeing for a $200 Billion contract to build the new F-35 fighters jets earlier today. Missile defense, planes that can take off vertically, bombs that fry electronics...military technology is accelerating at a really frightening pace.
posted by catatonic on Oct 26, 2001 - 36 comments

Boeing's Memo to bin Laden Here's a little PowerPoint presentation making its way around the defense industry. A memo (supposedly) from Boeing's CEO, to Osama bin Laden discussing bin Laden's interest in Boeing's 757 and 767 commercial airliners and Boeing's desire to do a demonstration of some of their non-commercial products for Mr. bin Laden. It's summed up pretty nicely, Don't bother making an appointment for the demo, we'll just drop in.
posted by billman on Oct 18, 2001 - 13 comments

Boeing lays off approx 30,000. Wow...in my neck of the woods, this is a big deal. Combined with yesterday's stock losses, and potential airlines bailout.... (more inside)
posted by epersonae on Sep 18, 2001 - 32 comments

Boeing is upping the chance you'll be able to surf while you fly.. Question is: will more of these devices also mean a lower price?
posted by jackstark on Jun 12, 2001 - 9 comments

Boeing chooses Chicago for new corporate headquarters. This, despite O'Hare's growing reputation for cancellations and delays, and the gridlocked politics that prevent a near-term solution to the air transportation problems in Chicago.
posted by ktheory on May 10, 2001 - 10 comments

Boeing's new boat will be able to fly 6,000 nautical to 10,000 nautical miles nonstop which means it could circle the earth having to only refuel twice. The linked page includes a nice rendering of what the plane will look like (with concords permanently grounded, boeing might actually pull this off)
posted by Zebulun on Apr 30, 2001 - 16 comments

Bending over for Boeing: What does it mean when your city will spare no expense in an effort to impress a few corporate suits?
posted by aladfar on Apr 19, 2001 - 21 comments

The difference between intelligence and wisdom. How can someone that smart do something so foolish? (Borland Interbase has a hard-coded backdoor account name politically and password correct in it. Word has gotten out. It's used by such small organizations as Nokia, MCI, Boeing, and the US Army.) Here's the CERT advisory on this blunder.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jan 12, 2001 - 0 comments