Boeing sees orders fall sharply, [WATCH OUT AIRBUS FOR BOMBS!]

Folks I've been highlighting and carrying on the knowledge of assassinated Joe Vialls in this area. As we saw Airbus take control of the aerospace game we saw the great Concorde destroyed which wooed customers from Boeing. We saw attacks on the airports involved with the A380. Lets see if this Air France attack gets the media attacking Airbus in the States. You'll know exactly what the game is then. I believe that airliner bought down was it over Queens, NY was a boeing attack back in November 2001 if I remember correctly. -Craig

Boeing sees orders fall sharply

Boeing lost out to rival Airbus in global plane deliveries in 2008

Friday, 5 June 2009 12:57 UKE-mail this to a friend Printable version
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8085238.stm


Aircraft giant Boeing has said orders in May were down by more than 70% from a year earlier after airlines cancelled or delayed plans for new planes.

The company said it had received just 20 orders during the month compared with 67 last May. Deliveries, however, were up very slightly on last year.

But orders could be boosted if Boeing secures a deal with United Airlines, which is looking to overhaul its fleet.

United Airlines is also seeking bids from Boeing's rival Airbus.

United Airlines has been in discussions with both Airbus and Boeing but has, so far, held off on ordering new planes, "until we can generate a return on our investment," said chief executive Glenn Tilton.

And despite the gloom surrounding the airline industry, he may now be ready to take the plunge.

"The analysis we have conducted for more than a year suggests that time might be now," he added.

'Crucial year'

EADS, which owns Airbus, said on Friday that it expected to deliver the same number of planes this year as it did last.

However, it said predicting deliveries for next year would be more difficult.

Next year will be "a crucial year for the crisis. I hope this crisis is not too deep, but we are prepared to face all scenarios," explained Louis Gallois, EADS' chief executive.

Boeing's profits in the first three months of 2009 were down 50% from the same period a year earlier to $610m (£379m).

The Chicago-based firm was forced to make production cuts after airlines reined back on plane purchases.

Earlier this year, Boeing said it would cut 6% of its workforce or 10,000 jobs.

Whenever Boeing gets in trouble or Airbus are ahead you'll always see something negative about Airbus in the media and many a time set-up infact. Boeing is tied to Defense Industrial Security Command and FBI Division #5 in Denver, Colorado. -Craig

Boeing cuts global plane outlook

Boeing has seen demand from airlines fall sharply.

Friday, 12 June 2009 13:02 UKE-mail this to a friend Printable version
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8097177.stm


US aerospace giant Boeing has slashed its long-term view of the plane industry ahead of the Paris air show.

Boeing forecast the number of new planes ordered over the next two decades would be 29,000, instead of the 29,400 it had projected a year earlier.

The overall value of new orders is expected to remain the same at 3.2 trillion dollars, reflecting a rise in the average cost per aircraft.

Aircraft makers traditionally unveil new orders at the biennial show.

Different focus

The airline industry has been hit by recessionary pressures, which have led to falling passenger numbers and cargo traffic, coupled with unpredictable fuel prices.

Last week, Boeing said orders in May fell 70% from the same period a year earlier.

The aircraft maker received orders for just 20 planes, compared with 67 planes last May, as airlines cancelled or postponed orders.

"Any time you go into a downturn it's about getting the backlog in place, rather than acquiring new orders," said Randy Tinseth, vice president for marketing at Boeing.

Crude oil has risen to $71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange back up from its low point just above $30 last December.

American Airlines Flight 587, November 12, 2001.

It was an Airbus A300.

Boeing’s Delayed 787 Is Capable of Flying Today, Carson Says

By Susanna Ray and Rishaad Salamat
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=ajeRR6kkfQKc


June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. said its delayed 787 Dreamliner would probably be capable of flying right now after sailing through some of the last remaining ground tests.

“I personally believe the airplane could fly today,” Scott Carson, head of Boeing’s commercial-airplanes unit, said in a Bloomberg Television interview at the Paris Air Show. The plane cleared so-called intermediate gauntlet testing that simulates flight conditions and multiple systems failures “in a much better condition than we’d anticipated,” he said.

Chicago-based Boeing didn’t want to rush the testing process just for the show and the plan remains for the Dreamliner to fly in the next two weeks, Carson said today. Testing aside, the executive said the company remains “very disappointed in the progress we’ve made.”

The Dreamliner is running about two years late following development and production glitches. After the maiden flight the plane still faces an ambitious certification process in order to meet a target of service entry some time in the first quarter.

The U.S. company is working with its suppliers on the Dreamliner to help them through the recession, and problems have been resolved “for the most part,” Carson said.

“Cash is tight for everybody,” he said in the interview. “We’re staying very closely engaged with them, working through the bottlenecks. We all want to get this airplane delivered.”

While the slump has forced both Boeing and European rival Airbus SAS to scale back manufacturing as demand from airlines crumbles, Carson said there are no plans to cut production of the single-aisle 737, the world’s best-selling aircraft.

There may even be an “upside opportunity” to increase output if the economy picks up, he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Susanna Ray in Paris via Sray7@bloomberg.net; Andrea Rothman in Paris at aerothman@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 16, 2009 03:32 EDT

Boeing Deepens Reliance on 777 to Beat Airbus on Jets, Tankers

By Laurence Frost and Susanna Ray
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aRvgeMZC21ro

June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. surprised the crowd at the Paris Air Show with the new plane it says can outdo the next Airbus SAS jet and win back a $35 billion military tanker deal: the 14-year-old 777.

The Chicago-based manufacturer, battling to overcome setbacks to its 787 Dreamliner, said it may build a new wing for the 777, improving fuel efficiency and allowing the plane to compete better with the A350 that Airbus will deliver in 2013. Boeing also will offer a 777 tanker design to the Pentagon in an effort to beat Airbus parent European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. for an aerial-refueling contract.

“When your new flagship is delayed two years, you have to rely on your current bread-and-butter programs for profits and headlines,” said Richard Aboulafia, a vice president of Teal Group, a Fairfax, Virginia-based consultant.

Boeing’s announcements were a highlight at the industry’s largest aerospace gathering, where both of the world’s biggest commercial planemakers say they are concentrating on keeping customers committed to previous orders. At past shows, Boeing and Toulouse, France-based Airbus won tens of billions of dollars in plane orders.

The U.S. manufacturer was unable to finish its 787 Dreamliner to wow the crowds in Paris, and must compete with the larger A350 that will be available to airlines not long after the Dreamliner is flying. At the same time, Boeing is trying to win back a U.S. tanker order initially lost to a Northrop Grumman Corp. design that uses Airbus aircraft.

Size Gap

The 787’s engines limit the aircraft to 290 seats, while the A350 will have 350. That’s where the 777 may be called upon again. With a redesigned wing, the aircraft could fill the spot left between the 787 and the Airbus offering with improved fuel efficiency on a 370-seat model.

The Airbus A350 is a driving force.

“As that airplane has been maturing and as it continues to mature, it will create some market expectations,” Scott Carson, Boeing commercial planes chief, said at the Paris show.

The company also may develop a 310-seat version of the Dreamliner, Carson said. That 787-10 model and a re-winged 777 would offer more alternatives to airlines than A350 variations from Airbus, he added.

“I’m not surprised he’s talking about that,” Airbus Chief Operating Officer John Leahy said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “He’s going to lose the market if he doesn’t do something.”

U.S. Military Tanker

Boeing also said it will pitch a refueling tanker based on the 777 to the U.S. Air Force, after a smaller design based on its 767 lost out to the modified Airbus A330 offered by Northrop Grumman. The bidding was reopened after Boeing appealed to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and the Pentagon is due to announce a winner by March 31.

“The 777 solves the technology and additional cargo capability questions, but it increases cost and it might be too much plane for the requirement,” Aboulafia said.

Randy Belote, a Northrop spokesman, said he couldn’t comment on “what Boeing may or may not offer.” The Los Angeles- based company’s KC-45 “is ready now” and has the right combination of fuel capacity, range and cost, he added.

Boeing’s plan to offer a revamped 777 to fill a void in its commercial airliner stable may not be the most profitable approach, analysts say.

Aluminum Fuselage

Doug Runte, a New York-based analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co., said that developing a new aircraft may make more sense. While less expensive than an all-new airplane, the cost of a new wing may still be “too high versus incremental performance gains,” he said.

“The problem with re-winging the 777 is that you still have an aluminum fuselage,” said Nick Cunningham, an analyst at Evolution Securities in London. “Upgrading existing airframes doesn’t really work -- particularly when you’ve just had a technology change such as a shift to composites.”

Even so, the 777 may be a good base to build upon.

The airliner, Boeing’s newest widebody aircraft, set a record for the longest commercial jetliner flight in 2005 when it flew from Hong Kong to London. It’s also one of Boeing’s most profitable planes.

The 777 program was initiated in October 1990 following an order from UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, with the aircraft entering service with the U.S. carrier in June 1995. While the plane is Boeing’s newest widebody model, the most recent passenger variant, the 200LR -- the world’s longest-range commercial aircraft -- was delivered almost 3 1/2 years ago.

China Southern

A new freighter version was introduced this year, but at least two planes ordered by China Southern Airlines Co. were placed in storage in April as global trade slumped. Boeing said April 9 it would slash 777 production to five planes a month from seven starting in June next year.

As of June 9, 784 of the planes had been delivered, with 323 still on order, representing a backlog of more than five years at the new build rate. The 777 has an average list price of $246 million before discounting.

“A new wing could possibly extend performance by offering enhanced aerodynamic efficiency, weight savings and perhaps greater fuel savings,” said John Dern, a Boeing spokesman.

Hans Weber, president of San Diego consulting firm Tecop International Inc., said a new wing would also hold more fuel.

Boeing said at the Paris show, which began yesterday and runs through June 21, that it’s making other advances in its commercial jet program.

Two Weeks

A prototype of the Dreamliner will fly for the first time within two weeks, the manufacturer pledged yesterday. Boeing also announced that the second of six 787s in the flight-test program was readied for fuel testing.

About 600 engineers and 400 mechanics will work with test pilots around the clock to test the 787, the world’s first commercial airliner with a composite plastic fuselage and wings. Boeing has 865 orders for the plane, compared to 463 for the Airbus A350.

Boeing’s potential solutions for filling the gap between the planes’ abilities, including the 777 alteration, come after the Dreamliner delays allowed Airbus to narrow the time between a flying 787 and a flying A350, feeding Aboulafia’s skepticism.

“There have been serious delays in introducing and funding new products and technologies across the board at Boeing.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Laurence Frost in Paris at lfrost@bloomberg.net; Susanna Ray in Paris at sray7@bloomberg.net;
Last Updated: June 15, 2009 18:16 EDT

Boeing’s Absent 787 Leaves Airspace in Paris Lineup (Update1)

By Susanna Ray
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=ayC0EIF_gqCw


June 15 (Bloomberg) -- The most talked-about plane at the Paris Air Show will be the one that missed the flight.

Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner would be delivered “bang on schedule” in 2008, commercial-planes chief Scott Carson said in June 2007 at the industry’s last Paris gathering. Instead, a date hasn’t even been set for its maiden flight after production and development delays put the model back two years.

Investor confidence in Boeing, whose stock has lost half its value since the first delay in October 2007, won’t be restored until the 787 takes to the skies, said Bill Alderman of Alderman & Co. Capital, a broker specializing in aerospace. That should be in the next two weeks, Carson said in Paris today, without being specific. Even then the plane has hurdles to clear, according to Craig Fraser, a Fitch Ratings analyst in New York.

“The first flight is an important event, but there are still a few years of potential risk with this program,” Fraser said “Flight testing may uncover some other issues that could set back the program, and production ramp-up is always a risk.”

Four delays to the 787 have also ceded ground to Airbus SAS, Chicago-based Boeing’s only bigger rival. Committed to building the larger A380, the European company initially stalled in its response to the Dreamliner, Boeing’s fastest-selling model with 865 orders. Airbus has since begun to close the gap, racking up 483 orders for the competing A350, which will now enter service three years behind the Dreamliner.

Paris Showmanship

The two companies are showing off their wares at the Paris show, a proving ground for planemakers, defense companies and engine manufacturers. The event, which began today and runs until June 21, will have more than 2,000 exhibitors for the first time, though there will be fewer new aircraft, according to the French trade group organizing the show.

The 787 has lost 58 orders so far this year as airlines cut capacity and trim spending to stem losses in a global recession.

While the Dreamliner will “fly when it’s ready,” Boeing is “absolutely committed” to getting it off the ground within the next two weeks, Carson said in a briefing with journalists today. The executive said that while it would have been “great” to have flown the aircraft in time for the Paris show, the company chose not to be driven by any particular event.

Boeing plans to complete the certification process by the beginning of next year. Japan’s All Nippon Airways Co. says it has been told it will get the first 787 in February.

“There’s a confidence factor that’s important,” Alderman said. “The first flight matters in terms of market perception regarding Boeing having its house in order.”

Lighter Parts

The 250-seat Dreamliner is the first airliner to have a fuselage and wings built of composite plastic, making it lighter than traditional aluminum planes, and will use the most extensive electrical system yet to help save on fuel.

Boeing still has to check everything from lights and bathroom plumbing to landing gear and performance of the new materials during lightning strikes. About 600 engineers and 400 mechanics plan to work with test pilots around the clock in the company’s most ambitious testing program yet.

“We’ve made great progress in the last few weeks,” Randy Tinseth, Boeing’s commercial marketing chief, said in an interview last week in London.

Advances in computer simulation will help shorten the process, Boeing says, especially since the manufacturer and its suppliers have had extra time to run the systems during the delays. A test program normally takes about two months longer than Boeing has scheduled for the 787.

Supplier Concern

Boeing aims to build 10 Dreamliners a month by mid-2012 and created a NASA-like mission-control center about six months ago to make sure its suppliers are up to the job.

The manufacturing process counts on vendors from Italy to Japan to gather parts and construct large sections of the aircraft, which Boeing machinists will assemble in just three days. Scott Fancher, the 787 general manager, said last month the company has made tooling improvements to clear up “bottlenecks” in South Carolina where Global Aeronautica LLC, a joint venture with a unit of Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA, is working on a “difficult body join.”

The Production Integration Center overlooks the 787 assembly line at the company’s widebody plant in Everett, Washington -- the world’s biggest building by volume. The center monitors everything that could have an impact on production, from earthquakes and hurricanes to riots and even swine flu. Video cameras at remote plants should speed problem resolution.

Engineers have completed so-called intermediate gauntlet testing of the 787, which simulates conditions ranging from long-duration flights to multiple systems failures. Trials remaining before the first takeoff include a high-speed taxi test where the wheels may briefly lift off the runway.

‘Still Excited’

“The good news is that it seems to be coming together at this point,” said Wolfgang Demisch, a partner at Demisch Associates, a financial consultant that focuses on aerospace and technology companies. “The teething troubles have been just brutal, but they don’t seem to have done mortal damage to the project and the customers are still excited about it.”

The delays may even be a boon to some airlines as the industry seeks to rein in capacity. Research and development costs still are adding up for Boeing, along with penalty payments for not handing over the plane when promised.

“If you start to deliver the airplane during a slow period it takes longer to get to the point where your production breaks even,” Demisch said. “The interest costs and launch costs continue to accumulate and your financial hole gets deeper.”

Weight Concern

Boeing has said the first 787s will be overweight, undermining one of the model’s biggest selling points. Shanghai Airlines Co. said in March it might cancel its orders because of quality problems.

Ultimately, though, the operational savings that the composite-based construction will deliver should make it a success, said Alderman.

“They won’t get it right the first time,” he said. “But it’ll be right enough to be safe, profitable and over time, one of Boeing’s best products ever built.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Susanna Ray in Paris via sray7@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 15, 2009 04:54 EDT

Airbus seals raft of new orders

Airbus is busy developing the new A350 XWB

Tuesday, 16 June 2009 16:33 UKE-mail this to a friend Printable version
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8103545.stm


Aircraft maker Airbus has received a number of new orders worth billions of dollars from a number of global airlines at the Paris Air Show.

The biggest deal, for 10 A350 jets with a list price of $2.4bn (£1.2bn), is with Air Asia. Vietnam Airlines and Cebu Pacific also ordered new planes.

On Monday, Airbus announced a deal with Qatar Airways for 24 A320 jets.

The orders mean Europe-based Airbus is now well ahead of US rival Boeing in the race to sign deals at the air show.

Speaking about the Air Asia order, Airbus boss Tom Enders said: "Today's order is certainly proof that there are some rays of sunshine in the market, especially in the low-cost sector."

On target

Vietnam Airlines has ordered 16 A321 medium-haul planes worth $1.4bn at list price, and pledged to order two further long-haul A350s.

Philippines-based Cebu Pacific has ordered five A320 planes.

Buoyed by the latest orders, Airbus sales chief John Leahy said the company was sticking with its target of 300 aircraft orders this year.

"Of course, the figure could be less, but I'm keeping this target," he said.

Meanwhile, United Arab Emirates airline Etihad Airways has announced an engine and maintenance deal with US conglomerate GE worth more than $5bn.

Finally, reports suggest that Spanish airline Air Nostrum has ordered 10 regional turboprop planes from aircraft maker ATR.

Lockheed’s F-35 ‘Program Killer’ May Double Sales (Update1)

By Edmond Lococo and Gopal Ratnam
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aLSngSRfWm7o


June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense company, may double sales of its new F-35 fighter jet in a surge of contracts that could squeeze competitors including Boeing Co. and Saab AB out of the market.

The U.S. and eight partner nations already plan to buy more than 3,000 of the warplanes, and with potential exports to countries including Israel, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Finland and Spain the total could “easily” reach 6,000, Brigadier General David Heinz, the top Pentagon official for the F-35, said today.

Boeing and Saab may come to view the Lockheed model as a “program killer,” said Douglas Royce, a market analyst at Forecast International in Newtown, Connecticut. The F-35 will control half the $17 billion warplane market by 2015, aviation consultants Teal Group estimate, bringing a level of dominance unmatched even by the company’s F-16 and threatening to eliminate other primary manufacturers from the industry.

“There may be fewer primes,” Dan Crowley, Lockheed’s F-35 program manager, said in an interview in Paris yesterday. “Just as we’ve seen fewer shipyards and fewer satellite facilities in the U.S. over time, that is a trend you cannot hold back.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ pledge in April to speed domestic F-35 purchases will give confidence to foreign buyers, both among the eight current partners and beyond. Israel and Singapore, which had F-35 security cooperation pacts yet weren’t full partners in the program, have begun talks with the U.S. government that could lead them to join, Crowley said. Government talks have also begun on possible F-35 sales with Finland, Spain, South Korea and Japan, he said.

One Survivor

“It’s entirely possible that by 2020 there will be only one surviving western fighter plane,” Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with Fairfax, Virginia-based Teal. “The F-35 is designed to do what the F-16 almost did: drive competing manufacturers out of the market.”

Lockheed has held 31 percent of the global fighter jet market over two decades with the F-16 Fighting Falcon, exceeding Boeing’s 24 percent share, according to Teal. The Bethesda, Maryland-based company shipped more than 4,400 F-16s over 35 years, including 2,200 to international customers.

Lockheed aims to emulate that success with the F-35, which is also known as the Lightning II or Joint Strike Fighter, Chief Executive Officer Robert Stevens said in a June 2 interview.

“The F-16 is now in the inventory of 25 air forces,” Stevens, 57, said in Washington. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see that happen to the Joint Strike Fighter, even though we are only talking about eight partner countries today. We think it will expand over time.” The original international partners developing the jet are Australia, Turkey, the U.K., Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark and Norway.

‘Bright Future’

Boeing, based in Chicago, and Sweden’s Saab aren’t ready to concede the market. Boeing sees “a very bright future” for its F/A-18 Super Hornet, Tom Bell, the vice president for military aircraft business development, said in an interview. The company “can very easily see ourselves making Super Hornets for at least a decade or more,” he said.

Boeing is promoting the F/A-18 and an updated version of its F-15 called Silent Eagle to international customers in Paris, Bell said.

Saab’s Gripen would be an “ideal plane” to compete for orders with F-35, yet lacks a home market large enough to give it economies of scale because Sweden’s Air Force is only about 100 jets, Teal’s Aboulafia said.

Price, Performance

“From a price-performance perspective I think the Gripen can compete with the JSF,” Linkoping-based Saab’s CEO, Aake Svensson, said in an interview yesterday. “We can compete very tough from a price and cost perspective and then performance- wise also.”

Still, Norway dealt Saab a blow in November with a contract for 48 F-35s in a contest analysts predicted the Gripen would win. The Netherlands selected the U.S. plane as the best candidate to replace 85 older aircraft a month later, and Denmark may also opt for Lockheed later this year.

The U.S. and the eight partner nations plan to buy 3,173 F- 35s. A full-scale model is on display this week at the Paris Air Show, where Heinz and Tom Burbage, executive vice president for F-35 integration, gave a program update today.

“The partnership is strong, the program is stable and the value proposition on which this program was founded remains intact,” said Heinz, the U.S. military’s F-35 program executive officer. He declined to disclose the price of the first test aircraft sold to foreign customers, two to the U.K. and one to the Netherlands.

Biggest Program

At an estimated cost of about $298.9 billion for research, development and the purchase of more than 2,400 aircraft for the U.S., the plane is the Pentagon’s largest weapons program. The F-35, with common parts for Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps missions ranging from air combat and tactical bombing to close air support, is designed to replace legacy aircraft including the F-16 and A-10.

The F-35 comes in three variants including a conventional version, a short takeoff/vertical landing jet that can hover in place, and a plane optimized for landing on aircraft carriers.

Lockheed’s principal subcontractors on the F-35 are Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. and London-based BAE Systems Plc. Two separate, interchangeable F-35 engines are under development: the F135 by United Technologies Corp.’s Pratt & Whitney unit, and the F136 by a team of General Electric Co. and Rolls-Royce Group Plc.

Raptor

The F-35 is one of two “5th Generation Fighters” designed by Lockheed, along with the F-22 Raptor, that incorporate stealth technology with the latest avionics and improved combat performance over older jets. Because the more advanced F-22, which is also capable of high-altitude supercruise flight, is banned by U.S. law from export, only the F-35 is available for sale to allies.

Competition in the fighter jet industry will be preserved at the level of suppliers, Crowley said. Rival warplanes already produced will also stay in service, providing their makers with maintenance work for decades, even if new jets aren’t ordered.

The biggest threat to the F-35’s global dominance is development risk, said Eric Hugel, a New York-based analyst with Stephens Inc. Lockheed must keep the jet on schedule and costs under control.

“A lot depends on what price-point Lockheed can hit,” Hugel said. “If you sign up for the F-35, you have to wait and see what you are actually going to get. The F/A-18 is flying today. It’s a lower risk solution, so there are positives and negatives either way.”

Price Equation

Lockheed in February estimated that the F-35’s average flyaway cost, excluding research and development, would be “upper-$40 million” for the conventional version when measured in 2002 dollars and “mid-$60 million” for the short takeoff and carrier versions.

The flyaway cost for the F-35 model mustn’t rise above $70 million or competition such as the Super Hornet “starts to look pretty good,” Aboulafia said. The base cost for the F/A-18 is about $53.8 million, according to Boeing.

Boeing plans to exploit its cost advantage to expand sales beyond the nine nations already flying legacy Hornet jets, Bell said. Another six countries “are seriously considering” Super Hornets, he said, without identifying them.

“We have never seen more robust demand for information about the F-15 Silent Eagle and the F/A-18 Super Hornet,” Bell said. “International customers are very interested in the cost and capability mix that those two products could offer them as they think about how to recapitalize their tactical aircraft inventory in these difficult economic times.”

Stock Performance

Lockheed shares rose 24 cents to $82.05 at 4:15 p.m. on the New York Stock Exchange and have fallen 19 percent in a year. Boeing declined 28 cents to $48.55 and has dropped 35 percent in 12 months.

Production volume will give Lockheed an advantage from economies of scale, Forecast International’s Royce said.

“The F-35 is the only fighter looking to be in production for thousands of aircraft over the next 20-30 years,” Royce said. “Other fighters have much more narrow prospects. These other manufacturers know they are fighting up hill.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Edmond Lococo in Paris at elococo@bloomberg.net; Gopal Ratnam in Washington at gratnam1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 17, 2009 16:28 EDT

China Eastern makes Airbus order

China Eastern is one of China's top three carriers

Thursday, 18 June 2009 15:17 UKE-mail this to a friend Printable version
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8106384.stm


State-controlled China Eastern Airlines has ordered 20 Airbus A320 aircraft despite having announced drastic cost-cutting plans earlier in the year.

The new aircraft ordered have a list price of $1.45bn (£884m) and are to be delivered between 2011 and 2013.

Earlier this year the airline postponed or cancelled half of the 29 plane deliveries it had expected in 2009.

Its shares have been suspended since 8 June as it finalises a tie-up with its local rival Shanghai Airlines.

The merger is supposed to reduce their reliance on state aid.

China Eastern chairman Liu Shaoyong has said that details of the merger plan will be released in the next few weeks.

'Steady growth'

China Eastern has received 8bn yuan ($1.2bn; £714m) in government bail-outs in the current downturn.

But the airline said it had ordered that aeroplanes on the assumption that it would "have steady and organic growth over the next few years... when the economy recovers".

There were suggestions at the Paris Air Show that the planes were an allocation from a previous order by the Chinese government procurement agency CASGC and not a new order.

Nonetheless, Airbus has secured a number of deals at the show, with Hungary's budget carrier Wizz Air signing a memorandum of understanding on Thursday for 50 A320 aeroplanes with a list price of $3.8bn.

Air Asia has ordered 10 A350 jets, Qatar Airways has signed up for 24 A320s and there have also been orders from Vietnam Airlines and Cebu Pacific.

Branson Orders Airbus Planes, Dismisses Aid for British Airways

By Steve Rothwell and Mark Barton
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=acKoEu.4d_0U


June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., said he’s ordering 10 Airbus SAS A330 aircraft and urged the U.K. government not to bail out British Airways Plc as air traffic declines.

Virgin, the biggest rival to British Airways on long-haul routes from the U.K., has agreed to buy six A330-300 aircraft and lease four others for use on routes to the U.S. and Caribbean.

Branson has no plans to bid for British Airways because it has too many liabilities and no paper value, he said in a Bloomberg Television interview today at London Heathrow airport.

“If they do go bust the government should let them go bust,” he said. “Just because they were once the flag carrier doesn’t mean the government should come in and bail them out.”

British Airways fell as much as 8.5 percent in London trading, the biggest drop in a month. Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh is cutting jobs and curbing pay after the airline reported a 375 million-pound ($617 million) loss for the 12 months ended March 31, its first full-year deficit since 2002.

“Willie Walsh is saying they are in a fight for survival and asking his staff to work for a month without pay,” Branson said. “These are obviously fairly desperate measures.” Asked if BA would survive the slump, he said: “I really don’t know.”

British Airways said it has no intention of seeking aid from the U.K. government.

Opposed to Aid

“There are no talks with the government and there will be no talks,” the carrier said in an e-mailed statement. “We have opposed state aid and our position has not changed.”

British Airways fell as much as 11.6 pence to 124.8 pence, the biggest slide since May 22, and was trading at 127.6 pence as of 12:54 p.m. in London. The stock is has declined 29 percent this year, reducing the company’s market value to 1.47 billion pounds. Virgin Atlantic is closely held.

Howard Wheeldon, a senior strategist at BGC Partners LP in London, said Branson’s remarks were “aimed at creating unnecessary fear amongst BA investors, staff and customer base” and that Virgin itself faces similar problems.

Remarks from Walsh regarding the likely duration of the global slump in air traffic and the possibility of business travel never returning to earlier levels risk damaging British Airways, Branson said in the interview.

‘Early Grave’

“I think Willie Walsh is talking his airline into an early grave,” he said. “It’s up to Virgin Atlantic and other carriers to go out there, to keep improving, buying young planes and competing to get passengers. We have to offer them good value for money.”

Douglas McNeill, an analyst at Astaire Securities in London, said British Airways is likely to survive the recession.

“Business travel will come back and British Airways will cope courtesy of the cash reserves it has built up when times were good,” said McNeill, who recommends buying the stock.

The airline, Europe’s third-biggest, said separately today that’s it will go ahead with a business-class only service from London City airport to New York beginning Sept. 29. Airbus A318s fitted with 32 flat-bed seats will operate on the route.

“In the harshest trading environment airlines have experienced, we believe it is more important than ever to embrace the future and innovate,” Walsh said in a statement. Passengers will be able to check in up to 15 minutes before departure and the service will offer the in-flight Web access.

Walsh said the worst of the recession is yet to come for the airline industry, the Financial Times reported June 18, citing a speech in Paris. British Airways is assuming that the slump may last two years and Walsh warned that demand for business travel might never fully recover, the newspaper said.

Heathrow Slots

Virgin Atlantic, based in Crawley, south of London, would take up available operating slots at Heathrow airport should British Airways collapse and would establish a short-haul airline to fill the gap, said Branson, who spoke prior to a flight to the U.S. to mark the carrier’s 25th anniversary.

Virgin will buy six A330 planes direct from Toulouse, France-based Airbus and then sell them to Amsterdam-based AerCap Holdings NV before leasing them back, the Dutch company said in a statement. The others four planes will be leased direct from AerCap, the lessor said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Rothwell in London at srothwell@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 22, 2009 08:55 EDT

Boeing will send out the DISC/FBI5 killers again soon. -Craig

Boeing Says Airbus A350
Aid Against WTO Rules

June 15, 2009
http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1245101286.html


Boeing said it was disappointed with a move by European rival Airbus to obtain state financing for its new A350 XWB aircraft and called it illegal under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

"We are disappointed by reports that the Airbus member states intend to provide - and Airbus to accept - billions of dollars of launch aid for the A350," Boeing said in a statement on Monday.

"Such financing would violate the member states' international obligations to abide by the rules of the WTO. It is long overdue for Airbus to fund its airplane development on commercial terms including using its own resources, which it has indicated are ample."

Ministers of three European nations home to Airbus' jet production earlier said at the Paris Air Show that they expected to make a decision on financing for the project by the end of June.

Expect another Airbus to be taken out shortly! -Craig

Qantas cancels Dreamliner order

The Dreamliner is made from plastic composites rather than aluminium

Friday, 26 June 2009 08:15 UKE-mail this to a friend Printable version
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8120276.stm


Australian airline Qantas has cancelled an order for 15 of Boeing's Dreamliner 787 aircraft.

The cancellation came after Boeing this week delayed the launch of the Dreamliner for the fifth time.

Qantas said it revoked its $3bn (£1.8bn) order because of the worsening economic environment, not the delays.

Qantas made the order in December 2005. The "operating environment for the world's airlines has clearly changed dramatically since then," Qantas said.

The long-range, medium-sized Dreamliner is already more than two years behind schedule.

The airline's maiden flight had been due to take place on 30 June, but Boeing said it had now been delayed because of a need to reinforce a side section of the plane.

Boeing has received more than 800 orders for the Dreamliner, the planemaker's fastest selling model.

The Dreamliner is Boeing's first completely new aircraft since 1995.

Child survives Yemeni plane crash

Yemeni authorities said the plane conformed to international standards

Tuesday, 30 June 2009 14:24 UKE-mail this to a friend Printable version
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8126576.stm


A five-year-old child has been found alive, hours after a Yemeni airliner crashed in the Indian Ocean with more than 150 people on board.

Some bodies have also been recovered from the wreckage of the plane.

The Yemenia Airbus 310 flight IY626 was flying from the Yemeni capital Sanaa, but many passengers on the plane began their journey in France.

The EU voiced concern about Yemenia's safety and proposed a world blacklist of those carriers deemed unsafe.

The EU already has its own list, and its transport commissioner, Antonio Tajani, said such a list would be a "safety guarantee for all".

Another EU official told Reuters news agency there were concerns about the airline's "incomplete reporting procedure and incomplete follow-up" following 2007 tests on the aircraft that crashed, but that its record was improving.

RECENT AIR CRASHES
1 June: An Air France Airbus plane travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappears in the Atlantic with 228 people on board
20 May: An Indonesian army C-130 Hercules transport plane crashes into a village on eastern Java, killing at least 97 people
12 February: A plane crashes into a house in Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground

Yemeni Transport Minister Khaled Ibrahim al-Wazeer told Reuters that the plane had undergone a thorough inspection and conformed to international standards.

Reports say the plane was due in the Comoros capital Moroni at about 0230 (2230GMT on Monday). Most of the passengers had travelled to Sanaa from Paris or Marseille on a different aircraft.

The flight on to Moroni, on the island of Njazidja (Grande Comore), was also thought to have made a stop in Djibouti.

There were more than 150 people on board, including three babies and 11 crew.

An airport source told AFP news agency that 66 of the passengers were French, although many are thought to have dual French-Comoran citizenship.

Anxious relatives of passengers wait at Paris airport

This is the second air tragedy this month involving large numbers of French citizens.

On 1 June an Air France Airbus 330 travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board.

Relatives' anger

Gen Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, French naval commander in the Indian Ocean, said the plane had come down about 15km (eight nautical miles) north of the Comoran coast.

A search is under way, with the French military assisting with the operation.

As well as the rescued child, five bodies and some wreckage of the plane have been recovered.

"The weather conditions were rough; strong wind and high seas," Yemenia official Mohammad al-Sumairi told Reuters news agency.

The three Comoros islands are about 300km (190 miles) northwest of Madagascar in the Mozambique channel.

A resident living near the airport told the BBC that about 100 people were trying to get into the building to find out more information, but without much success.

Radio stations in Moroni have stopped playing music and are broadcasting passages from the Koran as a mark of respect for those killed, a local reporter, Abubacar Omar, told the BBC.

The government had appealed for people to stay calm, he said, and key politicians were returning to the Comoros to take charge of the recovery and rescue operation.

"Everybody here is talking about only one thing - the crash," another local journalist, Abdul Rahman Bar Amir, said.

"There are groups of people huddled everywhere, talking. Nobody seems to know what is going on. All we can do is wait for information.

"Nobody is eating, nobody is drinking. All we are doing is waiting."

In France, relatives also gathered at Paris' Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport and at Marseille Marignane airport to wait for news.

Some expressed anger at the state of the airline's planes.

"They put us aboard wrecks, they put us aboard coffins. That's where they put us. It's slaughter. It's slaughter," one relative in Paris told French TV.

The airline Yemenia is 51% owned by the Yemeni government and 49% by the Saudi government.

In 1996, a hijacked Ethiopian airliner came down in the same area - most of the 175 passengers and crew were killed.

First of all folks it is not proven we are in Global Warming, we are actually in GLOBAL COOLING! This article even mentions for godsake the Solar Minimum which means COOLING whilst the article then promotes bullshit that we're warming. Also why would a geo-magnetic storm take down two Airbus planes and not a Boeing? Why both French planes? Who hates Airbus? Who's planes aren't selling and who's are? Who is based in Toulouse, France? Theres your answer. Now remember that Sorcha Faal has been claimed to be part of FBI Division #5. Now who's behind FBI Division #5? Why its Boeing of course with NASA. All tied into the Defense Industrial Security Command. The same Denver crew who bought the Concordski from Russia to try to make sure they also took out Jacque Chirac when they bought down Concorde, two agendas in one. Why attack Concorde? Due to it being the greatest European passenger plane in the World. The same plane used to woo customs away from dull Boeing and onto innovative Airbus. Expect more attacks on Airbus. Expect a big attack on the A380 at some point soon. Do NOT fly on an A380 until they bring down the first one, they won't bother with a second for a while. Now articles like this are tiny conditioners for chemtrails believe it or not. They'll soon use the excuse that chemtrails have to stay to stop geo-magnetic storms taking planes etc out. We do note how many planes do fly under the chemtrail level sometimes and rerouted often to do so. -Craig

June 30, 2009

Russia Orders Flight Changes After “Magnetic Storm” Downs 2 Airliners, Leaves Nearly 400 Dead

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers (Traducción al Español abajo)

Reports circulating in the Kremlin today are saying that Russian Air Force Commanders have issued warnings to all of their aircraft to exercise “extreme caution” during flights “in and around” an area defined as Latitude 17 North [North Atlantic Ocean] Latitude 3 South [South Atlantic Ocean] to Latitude 8 North [Indian Ocean] Latitude 19 South [Indian Ocean] between the Longitudes of 46 West, 33 West, 46 East and 33 East, and which covers the greater part of the African Tectonic Plate.

The reason for this unprecedented warning, these reports state, are the rapid formations of “geomagnetic storms” emanating from the boundaries of the African Tectonic Plate that due to their intensity have caused the loss of two major passenger aircraft during the past month leaving nearly 300 men, women and children dead.

The first aircraft to be downed by this phenomenon was Air France passenger flight 447, and which these reports say that upon encountering one of these geomagnetic storms, on June 1^st, near the western boundary of the African Tectonic Plate close to Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha Islands, was “completely annihilated” causing the deaths of 216 passengers and 12 crew members as their plane plunged in pieces into the Atlantic Ocean.

The second aircraft to be downed occurred on the eastern boundary of the African Tectonic Plate today when another of these geomagnetic storms slammed from the sky a Yemeni Airways flight to the Island Nation of Comoros in the Indian Ocean of which of the 153 passengers and crew aboard, only 1 “miracle child” has been rescued, so far.

To the catastrophic events occurring within the African Tectonic Plate it has been known for over a year with the reporting of a “new ocean” forming in Ethiopia, and as we can read as reported by Nature News Service:

“Although the birth of an ocean is an extremely rare phenomenon on the largest of historical scales, the geophysics is currently experiencing such an event. Even more dazzling, this occurs in one of the Earth's most inhospitable and arid regions, the Afar Depression in Ethiopia.

The African continent is literally unstitching itself apart just like the sleeve of an old shirt, along the area known as the East African Rift, which traverses it beginning with the southern end of the Red Sea, going through Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. The molten lava beneath the Earth's surface makes it thin by constantly pushing against it, and eventually breaks it and tears it apart.”

Though Western scientist assert that the formation of this new ocean is not likely to be finished for millions of years, Russian scientists state, unequivocally, that due to the Suns current unprecedented Deep Solar Minimum, our Earth is in danger of being, literally, “ripped apart”, at the worst, or nearing a “total pole reversal” due to an as yet unexplained, but extremely powerful, gravitational force emanating from the outer reaches of our Solar System that some researchers state is the mysterious Planet X, and which many believe to be a large brown dwarf and known to the ancient peoples of Earth as Nibiru, and by called by the name of Wormwood in the Christian Bible.

Russian scientists further warn that the West’s “obsession” with manmade Global Warming is a deliberately designed propaganda effort to shield their peoples from the fact that not only our Earth, but all of the planets in our Solar System are currently undergoing rapid warming, and as proved, beyond all doubt, by Doctor Scientist Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, when in 2007 he released his findings that for the previous 3 years the ice caps of Mars have been melting at an unprecedented rate.

And, as reported by one, of many, dissident Western news sites, “Photographs of the merging of two red spots on Jupiter, evidence of warming on Neptune's largest moon Triton, warming on Pluto that is "puzzling scientists" and, of course, the already documented warming trend on Mars all add up to convincing evidence for increased solar activity across the entire solar system.”

To the most chilling parts of these reports on the current instability of the African Tectonic Plate are those Russian scientists who assert, that, should a powerful enough gravitational force be exerted upon this region [such as that which would occur in our Earth’s presence with a Planet X type body], it would cause this plate to be subsumed with the Atlantic and Indian Oceans completely covering what is now known as the African Continent, and further cause a corresponding rise of what were known to the ancient peoples as the Continents of Atlantis in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and Lemuria in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Interesting to note about these current events is that the most important seer of 20^th century America, Edgar Cayce, predicted that both Atlantis and Lemuria would arise again during the ending of our Earth’s present age, and which many in the World currently believe will be in 2012 as predicted the Mayan Calendar left to our modern World by a race of mysterious people living in the America’s and having a knowledge of mathematics, science and astronomy far surpassing that of even today’s most gifted scientist.     

There are those in the West, of course, who remain blinded to the true facts regarding the catastrophic Global events soon to take place, and as evidenced in 1950 when the Russian born American independent researcher Immanuel Velikovsky was turned down by 8 US publishers in his attempt to warn humanity of what was to come in his book Worlds In Collision which told the true facts of our Earth’s history, to include:

Planet Earth has suffered natural catastrophes on a global scale, both before and during mankind's recorded history.

There is evidence for these catastrophes in the geological record and archeological record.

The extinction of many species had occurred catastrophically, not by gradual Darwinian means.

The catastrophes which occurred within the memory of mankind are recorded in the myths, legends and written history of all ancient cultures and civilizations.

Velikovsky pointed to alleged concordances in the accounts of many cultures, and proposed that they referred to the same real events.

For instance, the memory of a flood is recorded in the Hebrew Bible, in the Greek legend of Deucalion and in the Manu legend of India.

Velikovsky put forward the psychoanalytic idea of "Cultural Amnesia" as a mechanism whereby these literal records came to be regarded as mere myths and legends.

The cause of these natural catastrophes were close encounters between the Earth and other bodies within the solar system — not least what were now the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Venus and Mars, these bodies having moved upon different orbits within human memory.

To explain the celestial mechanics necessary to permit these changes to the configuration of the solar system, Velikovsky thought that electromagnetic forces might somehow play a greater role to counteract gravity and orbital mechanics.

And, to the “cultural amnesia” that Velikovsky warned the average Westerner about, the same cannot be said of their leaders, who by their actions in looting from their populations over $60 Trillion in just the past 8 months alone, in the deliberate “dumbing down” of their societies where even the most simplistic fact is unknowable to them, by their creation of Orwellian police state populations where everyone is used to inform on everyone else so that all live in constant fear, by their deliberate terrorizing of their own citizens to, again, keep these simpletons living in constant dread of death, by their creation of a “Doomsday Vault” near the North Pole so that these elites can rebuild and populate a devastated Earth, to the building of the most mysterious, and bizarre, airport in the World in Denver, Colorado, able to whisk within 48 hours notice these Western elites to their vast underground cities scattered throughout the Western United States at a rate of over 25,000 an hour, to all of these, and much, much more, these Westerners continue to ignore.

Even worse, when those, like us, try to warn them about what is to come, and as we’ve warned them about for years, we, not their elite slave masters, are the ones derided as not telling them the truth.

But, then again, a people who can be convinced by their slave masters that for the first time in known history, and unsupported by any scientific fact, fires caused by planes brought down in freefall three of our Earth’s largest skyscrapers, one of which wasn’t even hit by a plane, and that in the week prior to these skyscrapers being destroyed the brother of their current president headed the security company that had unprecedented, and unlimited, access to these buildings for an entire weekend for reasons still never explained, these are poor souls who are beyond lost…they are, frankly, dead people walking.

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