Elizabeth D.

Apple Is Still Giving Its Competitors Headaches

"Elizabeth Android is an o/s not a phone so that comparison ends. Apple is feeling the pinch in the hardware market with its pricing - this will affect its margins no doubt now will it have enough extra sales to counteract the lower margins on each laptop?"

Not really. You knew what I meant: The G1. Don't cop out because of semantics.

Boeing: Five Causes for Concern

Unfortunately, you are a poor poster boy for this philosophy.

Boeing: Five Causes for Concern

That's absolutely none of your business and completely irrelevant to the argument.

If I have to sacrifice logic for "35 years of real world experience," I'll stick with the logic.

Boeing: Five Causes for Concern

"The military can afford to have much more thorough inspections of their laminates than the airlines can. Even so F-117s broke up in flight from delaminations. If an airline choses not to replace pitot tubes to save a buck do you think they're going to properly inspect the skin of an entire fuselage? I don't. They certainly didn't inspect the rudders. They didn't properly afix doublers after tail strikes either and on and on and on.... "

You really need a basic course in statistics. Compare the number of accidents caused by composite technology with the number of successful flights per day (heck, even narrow that down to the number of successful composite flights per day), and report back with the probability of getting in an accident.

"I'm thinking either you're a Boeing corporate shill or perhaps a SPEEA member. Either way, you'll have a job for life once these expanded and new wars get up to speed."

That's a pretty presumptuous thing to say, especially since my public profile pretty much says something entirely different.

Apple Is Still Giving Its Competitors Headaches

Economyst, I wonder whether that's a fair comparison. If you want to compare apples with apples, perhaps we should compare the price of an iPhone 3G/GS sans contract with the Android and Pre sans contract. I'm sure the iPhone will still be competitive price-wise.

Boeing: Five Causes for Concern

The A345 SIN-EWR/LAX flights are all business.

Singapore regrets their A345's bigtime. They'd replace them with 772LRs, but (a) they're too expensive, and (b) the A345 second-hand market is terrible.

Airlines that could afford replacing the A345s did so in a heartbeat. Emirates, anyone? They use the 772LR on LAX, SFO, IAH, and plan to use it for many more destinations.

"Wait until the 787 starts delaminating like those rudders did. Oops."

What a terrible response. Composite technology is nothing new. It might be new to civil aviation, but it's been used to great success in the military, a field that probably demands higher performance and durability from its equipment than civil aviation.

Boeing: Five Causes for Concern

By far one of the worst posts I've ever read here. The 787 isn't meant to "measure up" against either the A380 or the A350 XWB. The former aircraft is a superjumbo designed for a hub and spoke airline network; the latter is essentially a 777 competitor.

By contrast, the 787 is designed to be inexpensive, efficient, and a long-haul aircraft, encouraging the connection of distant markets that have lower demand (i.e., the market for Dubai to, say, Dallas isn't as strong as Dubai to NYC or SFO, but that's when you consider the operating equipment they use (777-300ER, 777-200LR, A380); Dubai-Dallas makes complete sense with a 787).

Moreover, the A350 has a lot less going for it than the 787. The 787 incorporates years of composite research; with intermediate gauntlet testing complete, Boeing is ridiculously close to first flight.

The A350 is a "reaction" plane. Airbus saw that it was losing orders to Boeing (haven't they racked up 800 orders for the 787?), and had to react. The problem is that they are incorporating a composite technology that is completely different from Boeing's and not nearly as efficient. Moreover, the A350 is having a hard time finding it's market focus, with several variations of aircraft being presented to airlines. I'm not even sure if the A350 has had a design freeze.

The A380 isn't in good shape, either. It's overweight, and the economic crisis has all but eliminated the demand and market for a superjumbo. Airbus is still a good 600 orders from breaking even on the project, and they have yet to get a solid order for the aircraft in at least a year. The A340 is a non-starter because The 773ER and 772LR are vastly superior aircraft (even against the A340-600 HGW). The A330 is no longer viable because of the 787. All Airbus has is their narrowbody fleet, which either ties Boeing's 737s in terms of performance, or is worse (depends on the plane).

Considering the fact that Airbus is Boeing's only real competitor in civil aviation, and considering the position Airbus is in, Boeing is in a really strong position. The 787 is smaller, cheaper, more efficient, and best for today's harsh economic realities.

Also, I wouldn't be so quick to judge the United situation. It's really cool that they're asking for bids, and getting publicity, but there's a genuine question as to how they'll fund this very expensive fleet renewal.