A few years ago, it was even odds on the wildly different bets Boeing and Airbus were making with their next generation planes. Airbus would go with the ungainly and unimaginably huge A380 while Boeing wagered on the more modest 787 Dreamliner. Even though the A380 has flown successfully and the first 787 has not made it out of the hanger door yet, it's safe to say the former has a wide lead in this big stakes race and has all but won round one. I say round one because a race like this take decades to unfold.
Last week, Boeing announced orders had passed the 500 mark to 514 with to Japan Airlines Corp. signing up for five 787-8s. Several other planes were ordered by unidentified customers, Boeing said in the April 3 announcement. At its quarterly update reviewing the 787's progress on March 19, orders stood at just below 500, according to Mike Bair, Boeing vice president and general manager. The blog post I did on the quarterly review - the first for new plane in Boeing's history - has set records for Design at Large Engineering with 3,000 page views last time I checked a week ago. The entire Design News staff is working with Boeing to review the myriad innovations and systems that make up the 787, which is slated to roll out on 7/8/07 (get it?) and fly for the first time in August.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
The rare earth element market has become steadily more rational, and new sources coming online will continue to reduce costs. Still, it is unlikely that prices will drop to their former lows.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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