Interesting topics

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner

2007-07-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Will Provide New Solutions for Airlines, Passengers

Responding to the overwhelming preference of airlines around the world, Boeing Commercial Airplanes' new airplane is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a super-efficient airplane. An international team of top aerospace companies is developing the airplane, led by Boeing at its Everett facility near Seattle, Wash.

Unparalleled Performance

The 787-8 Dreamliner will carry 210 - 250 passengers on routes of 7,650 to 8,200 nautical miles (14,200 to 15,200 kilometers), while the 787-9 Dreamliner will carry 250 - 290 passengers on routes of 8,000 to 8,500 nautical miles (14,800 to 15,750 kilometers). A third 787 family member, the 787-3 Dreamliner, will accommodate 290 - 330 passengers and be optimized for routes of 2,500 to 3,050 nautical miles (4,600 to 5,650 kilometers).

In addition to bringing big-jet ranges to mid-size airplanes, the 787 will provide airlines with unmatched fuel efficiency, resulting in exceptional environmental performance. The airplane will use 20 percent less fuel for comparable missions than today's similarly sized airplane. It will also travel at speeds similar to today's fastest wide bodies, Mach 0.85. Airlines will enjoy more cargo revenue capacity.

Passengers will also see improvements with the new airplane, from an interior environment with higher humidity to increased comfort and convenience.

Advanced Technology

The key to this exceptional performance is a suite of new technologies being developed by Boeing and its international technology development team.

Boeing has announced that as much as 50 percent of the primary structure -- including the fuselage and wing -- on the 787 will be made of composite materials.

An open architecture will be at the heart of the 787's systems, which will be more simplified than today's airplanes and offer increased functionality. For example, the team is looking at incorporating health-monitoring systems that will allow the airplane to self-monitor and report maintenance requirements to ground-based computer systems.

Boeing has selected General Electric and Rolls-Royce to develop engines for the new airplane. It is expected that advances in engine technology will contribute as much as 8 percent of the increased efficiency of the new airplane, representing a nearly two-generation jump in technology for the middle of the market.

Another improvement in efficiency will come in the way the airplane is designed and built. New technologies and processes are in development to help Boeing and its supplier partners achieve unprecedented levels of performance at every phase of the program. For example, by manufacturing a one-piece fuselage section, we are eliminating 1,500 aluminum sheets and 40,000 - 50,000 fasteners.

Continuing Progress

The Boeing board of directors granted authority to offer the airplane for sale in late 2003. Program launch occurred in April 2004 with a record order from All-Nippon Airways. Since that time, 45 customers have placed orders for 584 airplanes from six continents of the world, making this the most successful launch of a new commercial airplane in Boeing's history.

The program has signed on 43 of the world's most capable top-tier supplier partners and together finalized the airplane's configuration in September 2005. These partners have started detailed design and, with Boeing, are connected virtually at 135 sites around the world to work toward major assembly in 2006. Eleven partners from around the world started facility construction for a total of 3 million additional square feet to create their major structures and bring the next new airplane to market.

The 787 program will open its final assembly plant in Everett in 2007. First flight is expected in 2007 with certification, delivery and entry into service occurring in 2008.

Source: www.boeing.com

The Power of Oil

2007-07-10T02:00:00.000-07:00

Scramble for diminishing resource shapes global relationships



	Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (Photo: Reuters)

LONDON: A geopolitical game has been underway ever since oil became a strategic commodity just before World War I. Once dominated primarily by Western nations, the game now includes many non-Western ones, with the countries dependent on oil imports increasingly reluctant to antagonize those endowed with oil.

A case in point, Western capitals have abandoned threats of placing Iran in the dock at the UN Security Council – at least for the time being. On January 10, to the chagrin of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran resumed research in enriching uranium that it had voluntarily stopped earlier

Last September, the European Union Troika (EU3) succeeded in convincing the IAEA Board of Governors to declare that Iran was in non-compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) it had signed. But the EU3 did not take the next logical step of referring Tehran to the UN Security Council.

Backed by the United States, the EU3 opted for a consensual resolution at the subsequent IAEA board meeting in November, urging that Iran and the EU3 restart talks that had precipitately been terminated by EU3 less than four months before. The fresh negotiations, to be resumed without any preconditions by either side, will start formally later this month.

What explains the softening of Western capitals toward the Islamic Republic? Western leaders realize that UN sanctions, including an oil embargo, are the only effective way to punish Iran for non-compliance with the nuclear NPT. But that step would inevitably lead to increases in petroleum prices and damage Western economies.

A secondary factor is the change in the rotating membership of the 35-strong IAEA Board and India’s position on the issue: Three pro-Western countries that voted with the EU3 and the US in September were then replaced by Belarus, Cuba and Syria, all of them anti-Western. Also, India, which had voted for the EU3 resolution in September to raise the “yes” tally to 22, was expected to abstain on any fresh anti-Iranian resolution, thus reducing the pro-Western total to a bare majority of 18 for a vote on referring Tehran to the UN Security Council, hardly a propitious move.

The anticipated change in New Delhi’s stance stems from the proposed $22 billion worth supply of Iranian natural gas to India for the next quarter century. Between now and 2025, the imports of hydrocarbon energy required by a fast industrializing India will rise from 70 percent to 85 percent.

This is only the latest instance of how the scramble for petroleum by developing countries worldwide is reshaping the global geopolitics in favor of the oil-rich nations.

Along with India, fast industrializing China has joined the geopolitical race: Last year China’s state-owned oil companies signed a 25-year natural gas deal worth $20 billion with Tehran and acquired rights to exploit a vast Iranian oilfield on buy-back terms.

Another recent example of oil diplomacy was on public display at the summit of the 34-strong Organization of the American States at Mar del Plata in Argentina in November. There, US President George W. Bush, the world’s most powerful person who is known to speak Spanish, barely managed to engage other leaders in friendly conversations, leaving the field open to his adversary, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. By all accounts Chávez was a focal point both inside and outside the summit venue.

Part of Chávez’s popularity stemmed from the Petrocaribe Initiative that Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, signed last June with 13 Caribbean and Central American countries. It codified a scheme dating back to October 2000 which gave the signatories up to 15 years to pay for Venezuelan oil with a nominal 2 percent interest at $20 a barrel, one-third less than the prevalent price of $30. The updated scheme enabled the signatories to pay only $40 a barrel instead of the market rate that shot up to nearly $70 in October.

Venezuela -- producing petroleum since the 1920s and among the top four suppliers of crude oil to the United States -- belongs to the middle-income nations of the world.

But even newcomers to the game can wield geopolitical power they could not have imagined a decade earlier. This is the case with Sudan, one of the poorest countries on the planet.

Khartoum acquired a geopolitical leverage with the assistance of China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council. The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) won an oil exploitation contract in Sudan in 1995. Two years later when Washington put Sudan on the list of countries that support international terrorism, American oil companies had to withdraw from the country. The Chinese quickly filled the subsequent void.

In 2000, Sudan gave a contract to a consortium headed by CNPC in the Melul Basin region, which proved a prolific source of petroleum. Besides developing oil fields, the Chinese have erected refineries and laid pipelines. Sudan, an oil importer before the arrival of the Chinese, now earns $2 billion in oil exports annually, half of which goes to China. Khartoum is now the second largest African supplier of oil to China, after Angola.

When the UN Security Council debated the massacres in the troubled Sudanese western region of Darfur in September 2004, the United States wanted to impose economic sanctions against the Sudanese regime. Beijing threatened to veto such a resolution. As a result the Security Council passed a weakened resolution on Darfur.

As yet, the significance of these developments appears to have been lost on the policy-makers in Washington. Though seemingly disparate, they collectively represent a trend that will come to dominate global geopolitics in the coming decades.

The overarching fact is that political leaders all over the world are committed to raising living standards through economic growth, heavily dependent on energy in the form of oil and gas. That includes the United States.

Ever since 1932, when American oil companies acquired a stake in the oil resources of Saudi Arabia, Washington’s policies have been geared to securing Middle East oil at the expense of all else – including human rights and democratic regimes.

So the US administration cannot rush to criticize other rising world powers for following its example over the past seven decades. In any case, the US lacks the power to unilaterally punish the countries that are supping with the devil for their own economic welfare.

Ultimately it is the logic of economic competition that prevails in buying or selling oil and gas. So how can the US, the prime upholder of capitalist values, oppose such a state of affairs?

Source:

Dilip Hiro

YaleGlobal Online, 10 January 2006

Dilip Hiro is the author of “Secrets and Lies: Operation ‘Iraqi Freedom’ and After,” and most recently “The Iranian Labyrinth: Journeys through Theocratic Iran and its Furies,” both published by Nation Books.

Another one for the X files

2007-07-02T04:59:00.000-07:00

The Boeing Canard Rotor/Wing demonstrator officially becomes X-50A

It's intended to float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

And now the Carnard Rotor/Wing, or CRW, demonstrator - the revolutionary concept that combines the capabilities of a helicopter with those of a fixed-wing jet aircraft - joins a rich heritage of experimental champions that have fostered tremendous advances in aerospace.

The CRW, being developed by Boeing and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has been assigned an official designation of X-50A.

The aircraft combines the vertical takeoff/landing capabilities of a rotorcraft with the high-subsonic cruise speed and agility of a fixed-wing airplane. As its name implies, its versatility is achieved by having a specially designed rotor for vertical takeoffs and landings that can be stopped in flight to serve as a fixed wing for jet cruise. Under an agreement with DARPA, Boeing Phantom Works has built and will flight-test two pilotless demonstrators to assess and validate the advanced rotorcraft concept.

Follow-on CRW versions could evolve into larger, piloted vehicles capable of conducting specialized missions, including reconnaissance, armed escort, urban operations, tactical air support, communications/data relay and resupply. With such flexibility, operations could originate from small-deck ships or forward bases.

"We're proud to add the X-50A designation to the CRW and our long history of experimental vehicle development at Boeing," said George Muellner, president of Boeing Phantom Works, which originally conceived the CRW and produced two prototype demonstrators. "The X-50A is another example of the kind of innovative, affordable solution that we provide to meet the future needs of our customers."

Steve Bass, X-50 program manager, said the concept is moving closer to reality and that rigorous testing is already under way.

"At our Phantom Works facility in Mesa, Ariz., Ship No. 1 is currently undergoing testing in the hover pit, and Ship No. 2 is nearly completed," said Bass. "This momentum places us on track for a first flight of the X-50A later this year."

Also known as "Dragonfly," the unmanned X-50A CRW has a length of 17.7 feet and is 6.5 feet high. The rotor blades have a diameter of 12 feet. Powered by a conventional turbofan engine, the X- 50A will utilize diverter valves to direct thrust to the rotor blade tips (for helicopter mode), or aft to the jet nozzle (for fixed wing mode). Dual bleed thrust will be used during transition.

By directing thrust through the rotor tips, the CRW concept eliminates the need for a heavy and complex mechanical drive train, transmission and anti-torque system. The CRW will be much lighter and simpler than traditional rotorcraft and will therefore be much cheaper to operate and support.

Source: Boeing Frontiers