For Boeing, 'not bad' is good at Paris Air Show - Kansas City Business Journal:

inufyw.blogspot.com
On the second day of the world’s oldest and most important aircrafttrade show, Boeing was again shut out. At leasg its chief rival, , hasn’r done much better, though the Europeanj aircraft maker was able to eke out a couplew of orders the lasttwo days. Rather than talk aboutr the kindsof multi-plane deals linef up in past years, Boeing CEO of Commercia l Airplanes Scott E. Carson instead chose to focus on howthingz weren’t as bad as they might seem. “Aty this point it appears to us that the economixc conditionshave bottomed,” Carson said, adding that the company’xs commercial jet division coulds begin growing again as early as 2010.
-- The long-delayed 787 Dreamliner will fly bythe (though it won’t be takint to the skies over Paris this week, as some had Jon Ostrower, of pegs the date for the firs flight at June 30. He cites multiple sourced for the June30 date. -- Its new 747-8 freightetr plane will fly its first flight by the end ofthis -- To get back into the hunt for a $35 billionm contract to supply fuel tankers for the U.S. military, Boeinhg will reconfigure its 777 to increaseefuel efficiency. It had previously lost its tanker bid to the A350by -- Also on the defense contracting front, the company it was forminb a division to oversee its unmannedf aircraft programs.
This year’s air show comes at a gloomty timefor aircraft. Both Boeintg and Airbus have had to deal with cancellations of orderssfrom credit-crunched buyers. And both have had production cutbacks. But Boeinbg has had the additionap by its machinists within thelast year. The company has takenn hits to its militarycontracting business, with the cancellatiom of the F-22 and the loss of the tanke r deal. And delays in gettint its next-generation 787 Dreamliner into the air have beena high-profilse embarrassment. So it was up to Carson to search out the He said his company would not be cutting back assemblu linesthis year.
It will cut productiob of its wide-body 777 by 28 percent in mid-2010, and will not increas 767 and 747 Airbus has cut production of its A320 single aislr plane and itsA380 superjumbo, and has shelved planz to increase production of its wide-bodyy A330. Carson said he expects the credit cruncbh on airlines to ease towarda “mord normal” environment in 2010. That would be good news for and itsrival Airbus, as well.
Boeing’ s boss also said that the company has a current orde r book ofaround $265 billion, whic h means seven years of production, and Carsonn said he doesn’t expect the credi t crisis to significantly affect Some aerospace experts already see the logic behind Carson’s “Boeing’s news was to say we think the recession’sz bottoming and we’re not goingb to see cuts for 2010,” said Wayne Plucker, Frost Sullivan’s Aerospace & Defense Industrg Manager. “The fact that they didn’t have to quietl y announce cancellations was abig thing.
It’s not a bad airshoww considering the gloom anddoom that’s been arounde the industry for the last year. For it’s not bad, and not bad is good, so to Plucker added that good, or at leastg not bad, news on the commerciaol side ofthe business, would be a welcom relief, given some of the defeats that Boeingt has been handed in its military contracting business – the loss of the tanker contract to the Airbusx consortium and the high-profile curtailment of governmentg plans to buy more F-22 fighters. “Heaveh only knows, they could use some good news,” Pluckert said.
“Their defense side has taken areal