The 787 was officially launched at 3:30 PT yesterday at Boeing’s sprawling Everett, Wash. plant. I, for one, could not get the promised live webcast although I was 30-minutes late due to birthday dinner. Boeing says about 100 million viewed via TV feeds and the webcast. But I took the survey on how happy I was with the webcast - since I didn’t get it, I was not happy - and from the questions, they recited all the themes in our now famous Boeing 787 package.
While waiting for Godot, whoops, I mean the live webcast, I did sign up from the 787 World Design Team (click on "Launch 787 Dreamliner site" and then "who’s building." Boeing used Flash pages instead and sometimes URLs are not available.)" The World Design Team is a great idea although for now it doesn’t look like much more than a PR ploy. But let’s face it: the opportunities to hype a good-looking airplane that caters to greater passenger comfort are too good to pass up. If you like planes, there’s lots of new podcasts, videos an other content. Clearly, Boeing has spent lavishly on marketing and why not with 677 orders for the plane worth close to $100 billion at retail pricing (but no one pays retail, anymore!)
As a member of the World Design Team, I will be able to offer feedback and so will the general public whose approval of flying ranks right down there with the citizenry’s ratings of Congress (it’s real low in case you didn’t know). Boeing’s says it wants to hear about your flight experiences to better tailor the plane although let’s face it, the thing is already designed. Who’s want to ride in a plane designed on the fly? Pun intended. Anyhow, my fear is "the game changer" as Boeing likes to call the 787 will be the same old game when the airlines get a hold of it and cram it with butt-busting seats that are a mere 17-inches wide. I said as much in my June 4 column. Of course, Boeing’s video’s show on the interior no less than a business class seat - you know, the seats that cost $8,000 for flying across the Atlantic and that few passengers can afford.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
2 
