Chock it up to incredibly unfortunate timing.
Boeing placed its 747-8 mini mockup on display at this week's World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference and exhibition in Palm Springs, California only to announce later in the week that the aircraft programme would be delayed again and that the airframer would take a pre-tax charge of "approximately $1 billion" against its third quarter.
Poking a bit of good-natured fun at Boeing this week, one WAEA attendee approached staffers at the Boeing booth and said something very close to the following: "I hear you're raffling the 747-8 mini mockup and that it costs a dollar to participate."
Boeing, which wasn't raffling the mockup, allegedly gave a quizzical look and asked what the nice gentleman was talking about, to which he replied something like: "Isn't there a raffle for the mockup to help pay for the $1 billion write-down?"
Who says the in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) industry - or IFE&C if you prefer - isn't a bunch of cheeky monkeys?
Meanwhile, check out the common area envisioned by Boeing for the 747-8. Comfy couches and a big-screen monitor. Oh-so-fun!
on October 9, 2009 1:31 AM | Reply
Awesome... there's some good ole fashioned American ingenuity right there... nobody can screw up a sure thing like Boeing can.
on October 13, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply
Looks everything like becoming Boeing's own Spruce Goose, it will fly but no one wants to buy. In a diminishing sector that equals one expensive freighter aeroplane, that currently has had no orders for three years and undergone unanimous rejection from airlines additionaly at this juncture no freighter operator is in a rush to buy or fly.
on October 20, 2009 3:46 AM | Reply
Where is the Barbie in those pictures? Isn't this her new airplane? Sorry but I am being facecious here...like Boeing.