Boeing mechanics last Friday completed the installation of the new General Electric GEnx-2B engines on the first 747-8 Freighter in final assembly at the factory in Everett, Wash., the company announced today. “We are another step closer to bringing the 747-8 Freighter to market,” said Mo Yahyavi, vice president and general manager of the 747 program. “This...
moreIn the business aviation industry, signs of a recovery remain mixed at best. There is some good news, but for the most part the industry seems still to be wondering if there is a bottom.Lewis Campbell, chairman and CEO of Cessna parent company Textron, recently put a positive spin on the economic crisis, saying that the business strategy at Cessna remains...
moreFollowing several months of reported production slowdowns, staff layoffs and furloughs from the major OEMs, general aviation industry deliveries shrank by more than 45 percent during the first half of this year, compared with the first half of last year, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). The trade association reported that...
moreBoeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Scott Carson announced today that he will retire from the company at the end of the year. Boeing chairman, president and CEO Jim McNerney has named Jim Albaugh, 59, to Carson’s leadership role at Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), and Dennis Muilenburg, 45, to succeed Albaugh as president and CEO of Boeing...
more
Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC) is undergoing another restructuring so that all of its assets are incorporated into a single company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The plan would consolidate some $22 billion worth of aircraft production assets under the mantle of AVIChina as the group attempts to establish a corporate structure to match...
moreBoeing announced today that it expects the first flight of the 787 Dreamliner to occur by the end of this year and first delivery in the fourth quarter of 2010. The new schedule reflects the previously announced need to reinforce an area within the side-of-body section of the aircraft, along with the addition of several weeks of schedule margin to reduce...
more
Bombardier next month plans to start more than a year of testing with the first aluminum-lithium test barrel for the C Series narrowbody that was delivered from Chinese partner Shenyang Aircraft on Monday. Now located at Bombardier’s Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec manufacturing plant, the test barrel represents the main fuselage section of the airplane. Its...
moreCanadian airline WestJet has placed an order for 14 additional Boeing 737-700NGs, the manufacturer and airline each announced today. The Calgary-based, low-fare airline also announced plans to reschedule delivery of 16 of the single-aisle airplanes already on order, to “provide for a smoother aircraft delivery schedule and a more flexible fleet plan.”...
moreThe City of Roseville Employees’ Retirement System has filed a class-action complaint “on behalf of itself and all others similarly situated” alleging that investors in Textron shares were misled by statements about backlogs at Cessna Aircraft. Plaintiffs would have purchased Textron shares between July 17, 2007, and Jan. 29, 2009. The complaint alleges,...
moreCAE on Wednesday announced that its president and CEO, Robert Brown, will retire on September 30. CAE’s board of directors has appointed Marc Parent, CAE’s executive vice president and COO, as Brown’s successor. Brown has agreed to serve as an advisor until the end of December. “Bob Brown has brought financial discipline, healthy governance and strong...
moreProduction and maintenance workers at the former Vought plant in North Charleston, S.C., won approval today from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to vote to remove the International Association of Machinists (IAM) as their collective bargaining representative. Filed on July 30, the same day Boeing completed its acquisition of the plant for $580...
more
Airbus has finished fabricating the second all-composite test barrel for the A350XWB program, the company announced today. Measuring some 59 feet (18 meters) in length and about 20 feet (more than six meters) in diameter, the test barrel consists of three sections built to validate the complete process chain, from the manufacture of individual panels,...
moreBoeing announced today that it plans to change the name of its Alteon training organization to Boeing Training & Flight Services in a phased transition across the organization’s global network “in the months ahead.” The company says the new name reflects the organization’s expanded capabilities for providing flight, maintenance, cabin safety and flight...
moreA six-week strike at Bell Helicopter Textron’s transmission and rotor-blade component plants in Texas ended after union members ratified a revised four-year contract offer on July 22 and returned to work on July 27. Some 2,500 members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 218 went on strike on June 14 after rejecting an initial three-year offer from Bell that...
more