Getting a new commercial jetliner off the ground is hard and the fact that the 787’s first flight has been delayed 3-4 months isn’t a big deal. One should expect delays and they still are fraction of the damaging two year Airbus A380 delays.
With two maiden flight delays under its belt, it remains to be seen if Boeing can pull off scheduled May deliveries which it is still promising to do. Granted, the fastener and flight control software delays seem like problems Boeing should have anticipated, known about sooner or disclosed sooner. Any other surprises and they are likely as not, commercial deliveries will certainly move the needle to tardy.
But the meer fact that Boeing is holding events just about the787 is different from what it has done in the past. Never before has Boeing held progress reports dedicated solely to the development of a new aircraft. The Boeing folks are working their tails off led by 787 chief project engineer Tom Cogan, who is our 2007 Engineer of the Year. I can’t help but think about the quote from one of Tom’s colleagues for the Engineer of the Year story: "He takes bad news well."
A couple of things did irritate me, tho. The webcast again did not work. It didn’t work for the 787 roll-out July 8 nor did it work for the original progress report call in which none of the problems outlined were revealed. I did get into the phone conference today, but was not allowed to asked questions as a result. In fact, I’m not sure any journalists were which was odd given the conference went just slightly more than half of the two hours allotted. It was all grumpy analysts. Despite the bad news, Boeing shares were up 29 cents in the two hours following the conference.
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 
