November 2008 Archives

Boeing has "Created allowances with missing paint that helps sort through the immediate challenge of the UV exposure and what's it doing to the structure. We've provided allowable damage limits to operate with paint missing. When you do expose composite to UV, it damages the outer layer of the resin. It goes from clear and you can see carbon fibers, then to grayish opaque. It becomes obvious. You can see the damage, just look at it. The repair is fairly simple, you sand out the resin and in most cases it stands that outer layer becomes the protection for everything underneath. Just sand it off and repaint it.

GM Goes Grassroots. A son is torn.
On November 12, Tom Brewer received an "URGENT call to action..." along with all other General Motors employees in the United States from GM North American President Troy Clarke. The return email address was "grassroots@gm.com." The urgent task at hand: Call your members of Congress to request that the American auto industry receive a government "loan" of at least $25 billion.

Employees were then directed to a website through which to take action:

www.gmfactsandfiction.com

As a grassroots clean energy advocate and strategic communications professional, it's a type of request I know intimately. I've written and received countless emails just like it. Two this week. Tom, however, has not.

Tom has been an employee of General Motors since he graduated from Evansville University in 1974. At the time, for a Midwestern kid from "stonecutter" Bedford, Indiana, it was kind of like going to work for Google today.

As you can imagine, Tom's seen a lot happen in the energy and auto industries in the last 34 years, but before this year he never considered that his retirement, his health care, and indeed his professional future would be in such dramatic jeopardy. In fact, without ever changing careers, he once worked for the largest and arguably the most influential corporation in the world; now he's getting these emails. He never dreamed that he'd need to be calling his congressmen to save the company to which he's always been loyal, and upon which he and his family's livelihood has depended. I can speak with such certainty about Tom's past because I've known him for 27 of the 34 years he's been with General Motors, and we're very close.

Tom is my dad.

Deliveries of Airbus A380 aircraft may be delayed: EADS
PARIS (AFP) - Deliveries of some super-jumbo Airbus A380 airliners scheduled for next year may be delayed until 2010, the head of the European aerospace group EADS said on Friday.

"We had planned to deliver 12 A380s in 2008 and 21 in 2009. Some of the 21 for 2009 may be delivered in 2010," EADS head Louis Gallois said in telephone press conference.

Airbus chief Thomas Enders had bet a magnum of champagne on delivering the 33 aircraft by the 2008 and 2009 time frame.

New customers Air France, Lufthansa and China Southern are among the airlines expected to get their first A380s in 2009.

ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: A6-EDC [ ]
Message label: Q0 Block id: 4 Msg no: S27A
Flight id: EK7380 [] [Emirates]
----------------------------------------------------------[ 15/11/2008 09:17 ]-

• Nancy-Bird Walton - the first woman to fly a commercial aviation service in Australia. First woman to fly a commercial service in Australia.
• Hudson Fysh - one of the founders of Qantas and the airline's first Managing Director. A founder of Qantas and the first Managing Director.
• Paul McGinness - A Qantas founder.
• Fergus McMaster - A Qantas founder and the airlines first Chairman.
• Lawrence Hargrave - The inventor of the box kite and achieved a linking of four to fly sixteen feet in 1894.
• Charles Kingsford Smith - Achieved the first trans-Pacific flight that ran from the USA to Australia in 1928. He also formed Australian National Airways Limited.
• Charles Ulm - Charles Kingsford Smith's Co-pilot when he flew the trans-pacific flight and was also a founder of Australian National Airways Limited.
• Reginald Ansett - The founder of Ansett Airways in Australia.
• David Warren - The inventor of the Black Box Flight Recorder still used in modern airliners.
• Bert Hinkler - Achieved the first solo flight from Britain to Australia in 1928.
• John and Reginald Duigan - Both men were the first to design and build a flying powered aircraft in 1910.
• Phyllis Arnot - The first Australian woman to achieve a commercial pilots licence.
• Keith McPhearson Smith and Ross McPhearson Smith - both were winners of the 'air race' that ran between London and Australia held in 1919.
• Lester Brain - One of the pilots working on the first Qantas routes in 1925. He was responsible for transporting the first Catalina Flying Boat that was delivered to Qantas in 1941. Mr Brain was also given the position of General Manager of Trans-Australia Airlines in 1946.
• Lores Bonney - The first woman to complete a solo flight around Australia in 1932 and the first to fly solo from Australia to England in 1933.
• Norman Brearley - The founder of Western Australian Airways Limited. The airline were responsible for operating the first scheduled air service commencing on the 5th of December 1921.
• PG Taylor - Charles Kingford Smith and Charles Ulm's navigator and co-pilot on several occasions on flight between Australia and the USA as well as between England and Australia. Awarded the Empire Gallantry Medial in 1937 for acts of bravery.
• John Flynn - The Royal Flying Doctor Service founder.
• Gaby Kennard - The first Australian female to complete a solo flight across the globe.

• Scotty Allan - Co-pilot alongside Charles Ulm and P G Taylor on the 1933 record-breaking flight from England to Australia and later joined Qantas and flew DH86 aircraft on the Brisbane-Singapore route.

SPEEA and Boeing reach tentative agreement on new contracts

SEATTLE - Tentative agreement was reached today between the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, and Boeing on new four-year contracts covering 21,000 engineers and technical workers.

The two sides reached agreement early Friday. Union negotiators are recommending members approve the agreements. If approved by union members, the agreements will replace existing contracts that expire Dec. 1.

Two contracts are involved in the negotiations. The first covers 14,000 engineers in the SPEEA Professional Bargaining Unit. The second contract covers 7,000 technical workers in the union's Technical Bargaining Unit. While the majority of workers are in the Puget Sound region, the contracts cover employees in Oregon, Utah and California. Both contracts expire Dec. 1.

No details can be released until after union negotiators present the agreements to the SPEEA Professional and Technical bargaining unit councils at a special meeting set for 5 p.m., this evening (Friday, Nov. 14).

Main Table negotiations started Oct. 29.

Source: SPEEA.org

Boeing Adjusts 747-8 Program Production and Delivery Schedule

• Deliveries of 747-8 Freighter to begin third quarter of 2010; deliveries of 747-8 Intercontinental passenger model to begin second quarter of 2011.
• Company working with customers to minimize disruption. Intercontinental passenger model to begin second quarter of 2011.

EVERETT, Wash., Nov. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boeing (NYSE: BA) today announced an adjusted schedule for production and delivery of the 747-8 Freighter and Intercontinental airplanes.

The revised schedule is based on a production and flight-test plan developed in conjunction with the company's suppliers that provides additional time for addressing issues that have slowed the program's progress. Those issues include supply chain delays driven by design changes to the airplane, limited availability of engineering resources inside Boeing, and the recent Machinists' strike that halted production in the company's factories.

The remains of the Airbus A340-600 (msn 856) written off before delivery to Etihad, originally uploaded by DigitalAirliners.com.

You may remember this infamous aircraft from the brutal accident that severely injured the ground test crew of Etihad's A340-600 (MSN856) last fall. This appears to be all that is left of the aircraft at Toulouse. The aircraft was going to be A6-EHG, but was heavily damaged during and engine run up while it was still in test registration F-WWCJ.

At its North Charleston facility, in response to the Boeing IAM strike and Boeing 787 delays, Vought has implemented a temporary shutdown of the bond fabrication operation and expects to extend the temporary shutdown to the production assembly areas. The length of the temporary shutdown will be determined by the length of additional delays in the 787 production schedule from Boeing.