Posts for category ‘Boeing’

Winding down a week of gloomy news of the first Boeing vendor to cancel 787 orders due to production delays, everyone needs a little humor to lighten things up. The farcical newspaper, The Onion published the following story on Friday.

Boeing Lays Off Only Guy Who Knows How To Keep Wings On Plane

CHICAGO—With the airline industry continuing to suffer under the ongoing recession, the Boeing Company was forced Monday to lay off Al Freedman, the only guy left at the corporation who knows how to keep wings from falling off planes. “We used to have a whole team of engineers who knew how to make the wings stay on, but those days are long gone,” Boeing CEO James McNerney, Jr. said. “We’ll make it work, though. The wings are not necessarily the most important part of the plane, anyway.” McNerney added that at least they were able to save the job of the guy who knows how to prevent jet engines from exploding.

read The Onion here:
www.theonion.com/articles/boeing-lays-off-only-guy-who-knows-how-to-keep-win,17845

Boeing [NYSE: BA] today announced that it has received a contract from Inmarsat to build three Ka-band satellites to add to Inmarsat’s current mobile satellite services fleet. Financial details were not disclosed.The fixed-price contract, with options, calls for three 702HP commercial spacecraft with 89 Ka-band beams that will operate in geosynchronous orbit with flexible global coverage. The new satellite series, called Inmarsat-5, draws on Boeing’s four decades of experience gained from the production of more than 175 commercial communications satellites and its extensive expertise in Ka-band satellite communications systems. Read more »

The Everett-built Boeing 787 Dreamliner made its international debut landing at the Farnborough Airport at 9:09 a.m. (local time) today in support of the Farnborough International Airshow that begins Monday. This is the first international trip made by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The airplane came via nonstop flight to Farnborough, U.K., from Seattle.

“It’s an honor to showcase the 787 here at the Farnborough Airshow,” said Scott Fancher, vice president Read more »

The Washington State Labor Council and the AFL-CIO is organizing a rally with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, July 9 in Everett at the Machinists 751 Hall, at 8729 Airport Road. Friday’s rally is intended to show community support for Boeing’s bid and for the positive economic impact it would have in our state and country. As WSLC President Rick Bender and other AFL-CIO state federation leaders from around the country pointed out in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, building the tankers “in America, with American workers, suppliers and materials will go a long way in protecting not only our economic recovery but it will also help maintain a domestic industrial base and will help protect our national security.” Read more »

U.S. Aerospace and Antonov to bid for U.S. tanker

Are you ready for the next round in the KC-X Tanker smackdown? Reuters reported on Friday that Antonov, the state-owned Ukrainian plane builder is joining forces with U.S. Aerospace Inc, a small cash-strapped U.S. company, to enter the hotly contested competition to build a new generation of refueling tankers for the U.S. military. Bids are due by next Friday. Boeing and EADS have been ready for months to submit bids. The Antonov/U.S. Aerospace partnership is asking the Pentagon for Read more »

Hey kids…don’t pout. Don’t get down and gloomy about the announcement this week that the test fleet of Everett-made Boeing 787 Dreamliners has been grounded due to a manufacturing issue with Italian made parts in the tail section. While flight testing on the composite plastic jets discontinues and Boeing customers wait for delivery of their billion dollar 787 orders, you and the whole family can have fun at home assembling your very own 787 Dreamliner with 1,197 LEGOS pieces, made out of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic. Created at an über high-tech facility in Denmark, these LEGOS promise structurally sound engineering in the 787 tail, unlike those Italian made LEGOS.
For more information, visit: http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=10177

An important piece of legislation regarding the KC-X aerial refueling tanker competition will be decided upon in Washington D.C. that can have an effect on thousands of jobs in Everett. In advance of the USAF and DoD decision on what vendor (Boeing or EADS) to award the tanker contract to, a bi-partisan and bi-cameral group of legislators combined forces in D.C to protect American jobs. Rep. Todd Tiahrt (KS), Sen. Sam Brownback (KS), Rep. Jay Inslee (WA), Rep. Rick Larsen (WA), Rep. Henry Brown (SC) and others joined in a press conference to introduce the Fair Defense Competition Act on May 13. This legislation would require the Department of Defense to increase the cost of major defense acquisition bids by the amount of any government subsidies prohibited by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The WTO has ruled that European governments have illegally subsidized Airbus, the competitor in the KC-X aerial refueling tanker competition, creating an unfair Read more »

Come help clean up the Everett Marina on Saturday May 15 and keep the waterfront beautiful. The agenda for the day starts at 9 a.m. to check in at Popeye’s Marine & Kayak Center. At 9:30 the clean up begins at the Marina and Jetty Island. Transportation will be provided to and from Jetty Island…yes, you don’t have to swim. After you get ‘er done, meet back at Popeye’s Marine & Kayak Center for some BBQ and prizes. Read more »

Boeing today announced it began assembly of the first 747-8 Intercontinental at the factory in Everett. Late this week, mechanics took the first step in major assembly for the new airplane by loading its wing panels and spars in the assembly tools. The spar is the internal support structure that runs through the full length of the wing.

“This milestone symbolizes the dedication, focus and Read more »

South Carolina workers were celebrating back in October when The Boeing Company decided to open a 2nd 787 Dreamliner production line in Charleston rather than build the planes in Everett. No one has been doing a happy dance in Charleston lately. Katy Stech of The Charleston Post and Courier reported on Thursday that after employment numbers surged to over 3,000 at the Charleston, plant, male employees have complained that the long lines Read more »