Are We There Yet, The Rivian Arrives

Or according to Fox news, the children in the back says I'm only good for 400 miles and we need to play crowd is turned loose.

The Rivian is an electric SUV/Truck

The Culture of Demand is about to replace the internal combustion engine, read about this new modern culture busting electric conveyance. It will be a boon for "convenience gasoline markets" such as Maverick stores across the Northwest region. Imagine after 400 miles you pull in to a charging stall as the family has time to unload, buy stuff, and eat. The power charging may cost $50 but the stuff the family indulges on could easily run to $100 with a gross profit dollars running at 50% of retail sales. A true convenience store dream. Gasoline pumping takes to little time and then the money moves down the road in under 10 minutes. But wait, what about a half hour charge? The store has time to fleech customers from pizza to jerky. The Slurpee is revived!

The charging network is a question? Will Tesla merge with Rivian on this topic. If so the culture may change to electric and half hour charging over the next two years, The merge will need to join with a convenience store chain to make the transition before others will join the electric rush. I am sure Big Oil is keeping its options open for super fueling stations on this one.

The culture will change as the interface catches up with the electric motor popularity.

NMA 797 Is A Program Role Reversal From The 787 Program.

Typically, an aircraft manufacturer announces a new airplane and then puts all the build elements together in some kind of haphazard way. Please refer to the 787 programs when a shell of a 787 was rolled out on 7-7-2007 to a skeptical public. It took Boeing five more years to deliver its first customer's 787 in the fall of 2012. Much criticism was mentioned when Boeing couldn't deliver what it seems to promise from the announcement of the program in 2004.

Let's jump to 2018 with so many rumors flying about for an impending announcement for a middle of the market 797 aircraft. The pundits are having a tough time getting its arms around when Boeing will announce its NMA aircraft. All have concluded a 797 should deliver during 2025. Boeing has a "meh" attitude for the concept as it continues to fall back on its "we are in a study phase" excuse. 

However, this site has long held Boeing wants to build the 797 airplanes first using proven design compared with all its years tinkering within the 787 programs as Airbus watched planned and implemented its A-350 during the longtime Boeing tinkered. This is a role reversal of how it handled its 787 programs back through 2004-2012.

The 797 should be known more of an electronic airplane of proven technology than a paper dream one like the 787. Computer-aided design has taken 787 lessons learned and infused onto a 797 CAD computer. Boeing's lame statement,  "we're in a study process" is also doublespeak for assembling an NMA from its supplier partners through the production facility environment before announcing a program launch. 

Did I mention launch customers? Try squeezing Delta, United and American airlines for launch customer answers for this 797 launch. Once Boeing decides to launch this concept, it will be announced after the 777X flies its last few test flights. The time gap will allow Boeing to build an NMA from 2021 to its first delivery during 2025. The announcement for this venture will come mid-2019 at an airshow near Paris. 

The Parisian slap in the Airbus face will be the order numbers generated during the announcement of the NMA 797. No one will be shocked by the announcement but the order scope could be immense and that may cause some recitation work being done in the Airbus Pavillion.

Note Worthy 777X Day

The first flying test 777X finished its initial body join today as the photo below shows.



I would assume wire connectivity is going on inside and then installing its equipment comes next. To anyone watching the process you can imagine all parts and equipment for this first flying example are stored in warehouse bins. It is also noteworthy, a new assembly process for the 777X was implemented during this occasion and will continue until a run to the paint shop occurs. One of the interesting steps is: as equipment is added, it will be tested when power is applied. Then it will be tested again once the above ship is fully loaded and engine simulation of power is applied. It will be completely tested again once the engines are a fixed to the wings and fired up for its first low engine power run. So forth and so forth goes the testing before its first test flight during 2019.

There are two more coming down the 777X assembly hall for 2019 flight testing. A good way to imagine the process is if something is installed it be tested before any next step of the assembled aircraft. The "new build process" includes a slimming of the work process through the modular assembly and CAD techniques pioneered during the 787 and Max programs. The area shown at the lower bottom of this photo suggests space is ready for a row of engineering "cubes" which will be added before Christmas and will become operational for the next several frames coming behind this one. Expect to see tables, monitors and engineers at the workstations as mechanics will spend time "inside this aircraft" reading schematics and assembling its equipment with appropriate newly formed tools. The test articles will take more time to assemble as systems and equipment are installed for the first time. The process should include preliminary lab time where Boeing employees practice how the plane will assemble on the floor.

The 777X is almost ready for game time as the practice session has become a reality on the assembly floor. Every day forward from this point is a direct contribution to first flight as all other steps in its creation has been successfully accomplished. The GE9X engine has processed its separate testing regimen. The indicators published to date exceeds engine expectation progress for the GE9X engines. 787 technology is an already proven item which needs little time to conform to the 777X layout and its size. A "technology commonality" has already been proven during the Max program and should translate well to the 777X program. All-in-all, the above photo demonstrates Boeing is well within its developmental progress as it's no longer a "paper airplane", but the real deal coming down the ramp in the next 90 days for possibly its first flight by end of March 2019.  

The Right Hammer,787-10

Building a home may take a half dozen different hammers. One for finish nails (molding), or one for framing not to mention drywalling and roofing activity. The hammer types keeping mounting per specialty or function. A big framing hammer comes in as a 16oz concussion on a nail head. Or also known as one pound the world around. There are 2d to 40d nails and varying classes of nail types within that range counting roofing, drywall, and finishing requiring different hammer types as well. This brings us to airplanes.

The two mega manufacturers have tried to cover nail use or passengers with different hammers types or airplane models. The 16d nail could be called the 787-9 for framing a business together. So what is a 787-10, it's a 20d nail or even a 16d nail for most routes airlines travel. A 16oz hammer could do in either but becomes more tedious if used on a 20d nail as would an 8oz hammer on a 16d nail pounding all day. Enough of nails and hammer matching and back to airplanes.

The 787-10 could be the hammer used all day accepting 300+ passengers (nails) while going 6,000 plus miles or in the center of the aviation market. Air New Zealand is weighing an order for its fleet renewal and for fleet expansion. The 787-10 is on the watch list for a decision by the end of this year. If it goes with Airbus A-350 it will be a complete fleet renewal with Airbus. If it goes with Boeing it will expand its Boeing types into different models down the road such as 787-10's or 777X's.

Hill AFB Does a Mass F-35 Launch

What this means?:

1. Hill AFB Utah has 35 of its intended 78 F-35 already active on its flight line.
2. Going to war against the US is a very bad idea.
3. Hill AFB can launch a wartime quantity in eleven minutes.
4. Hill AFB F-35's sent 12 to the Orient for a year and then 12 came back.
5. There are about $3.5 billion aircraft in one photo.
6. More F-35 aircraft in one Utah AFB based photo than any other nation has at this time.
7. The USAF is ready for the next war since there another 200+ F-35's flying in the US.
8. It takes a very large village like 1,700 personnel to fly the 388th Air Wing's F-35s.
9. The Marines have more F-35B than Hill's AFB's 35 units.
10. Velociraptor is Marine Jargon for the 24-0 kill ratio.

Hill AFB Utah 35 Velociraptors F-35A Mass Exercise 11-18-2018

What Downed The 737 Max 8?

There are several theories floated by the press that the automated leveling electronics failed to fly the 737 Max at the appropriate elevation. Soon after take-off, this Lion Air Max 737 airplane crashed presumed to kill all on board with 189 passengers and crew. The various accident review boards quickly encircled electronic parts that could cause a catastrophic flight level change for which the pilots could not overcome. The airplane flew into the sea, killing everyone. The plane's body has not been located indicating a nose dive with a 600 mile an hour entry into a cement-like ocean.

This may not even be the real cause but it is a start and may lead to the real reason the brand new 737 failed to fly as designed. Boeing will try to replicate its faults in the lab. It will use its Max systems set up for all planes currently flying to see if it can duplicate an errant condition with all parts used in flying at a level course. Pilots usually take-off and land for about several minutes at each end of the flight. They are also responsible for making good judgment calls for unhooking automated flying systems as extraordinary flying conditions exists. The pilot must fly the plane under those rules and judgments about the aircraft.

Not knowing the answer, to what went wrong on this flight, makes the case a clear mystery even for the professional observer. The pilots could not control the aircraft with the state the equipment was in during its last minutes. The black box information will show the pilot was trying to save the airplane. The second box when found should complete what happened from the human and mechanical side of the accident. The real topic is a brave new world type of conjecture.

The airplane automation is good or in some cases a great addition to flying but atrophying pilot abilities back to the 20th century. The plane flies itself and pilots are needed to watch as flying caretakers. When something breaks, the human is locked out of the solution because so many interdependent systems are overwhelmed, it too loses additional functionality on the aircraft for which the pilot cannot intercede with its automated systems fast enough. Diagnosing the problem of a million parts going bad takes too long and can lead to miscorrecting the problem and cause a further catastrophe. Has aviation reached a new vulnerability?

The pilot is just a monitor and not the craftsman at the controls. If a computer chip has a weakness in its circuitry, eventually one day it will mishap during mid-flight where systems may not let those monitors "in" to do the job needed. I will be interested in the final summary report on this crash as it will explain how far technology has taken aviation away from humans while placing us in the hands of electronic controls and computers. 

What downed the 737 Max? It wasn't the pilot!

Aviation's Venn Diagram Is A Boeing Dream

Long ago there were Venn diagrams, maybe as far back as a sophomore in the 1968 high school geometry class. Anyways, the diagram might have a circle for the A-380 and its seat and range graphic. It may have a 787 near the center of the diagram for its ultimate plotting. 

Below is a very accurate detail of how the Venn diagram works for an aviation aficionado. Boeing has "its hand in the air" with its 787 analysis and Airbus has put everyone on the floor with its A-380 big dream. Obviously, Airbus doesn't read its own Venn diagrams and is paying for it at this time as the A-380 and other of its wide-bodied aircraft look for "I'm not asking twice" zonal thinking.

Boeing 787 Program Venn Diagram

Boeing will continue to expand its lead order over Airbus with its "hands in the air" approach. "Are you with me?" What is missing from Airbus is its asking price for the A-350 and A-380 models. Boeing has undercut the price market with its offering. The reason the 777X has stalled is that the 777X is in the "DJ's" realm on the chart.  The price is not right and the distance too thin for a reconfiguration of the marketplace. The final Venn diagram tells Boeing, 

"if you don't listen to me there will be severe consequences!" 

Boeing will sell more 777X after it enters the market because it reaches and it settles into the blank spaces of "put your hands in the air", near the center, and on either side of the 787 pole position in this diagram.

An Every Member Canvass

An old school term for going around a membership and seeing whose in. In Boeing's case, the club includes those who are currently flying firmed up or delivered 787s from prior orders. The importance of this "Club" has spurred Boeing to make a 14 month 787 production goal with its suppliers and customers. It has or will have the orders to support this commitment. The case in point is United has now firmed up another nine 787-9 on Boeing's books. By the end of this year, more orders will be added. How many is pure conjecture but any indication of this order goal is that another 50 orders remain to be gleaned from the marketplace during 2018?

I haven't forgotten the 40 hanging orders for the 787-10 "committed" by Emirates during this year but has not yet firmed. That number could be part of Boeing's sales canvass of how many 787's its current customers are signaling as an eventual "Firm" order. 

In a perspective view, Boeing could book 170 787's during 2018. That would be a pinnacle year when no new Boeing 787 model types were introduced and only current models were ordered. This also would be "a great disappointment" for Airbus as Boeing's customers are reloading the order gun with Boeing's bullet-nosed 787's. Whatever is not booked this year could flow into next year thus making the decision to increase 787 production to 14 a month a logical decision. Boeing then needed to ramp up production through its supplier base giving it a long enough lead time for its supplier base.

Only 644 units of the 787 remain to be delivered at this time and a healthy order year makes the 14 a month goal possible. Boeing has made its customer canvass with those already held 787's in its respective fleets. So Boeing has a ballpark number of how many 787's it will need over the next five years for satisfying its customer's needs. A 14 a month pace times 60 months or five years would require 840 unit backlog of 787's where now it only has 644 units yet to be built. 

Boeing needs another 196 787's ordered over the next five years and that "canvass" plus committed orders suggest it has met that objective easily. Taking this assumption further, it also spills into the deferred costs reduction of its $24 Billion to go from about $30 Billion initially. The unit analysis of 1398 total 787's booked will grow to 1594 if Boeing receives another 196 orders during the next 60 months. That is achievable and Boeing already knows what it can do over the next five years driving the deferred cost to zero long before the fifth year arrives.

Jon Ostrower Reports

A recent edition of "The Air Current" by Jon Ostrower reveals a 797 snippet. The 797 is waiting on its own technology.

·      Black Diamond is its code word:

·      Northrup is Building the B-21

·      Boeing remains angry over the awarding

·      The 797 will be an OPUS of Boeing technology

The F-35 Is The Test bed For The 22nd Century

The often maligned F-35 for its glitches is finally getting some fantastic press when it can now connect to tons and tons, by weight, in a weapons bay on an LHA or LHD navy ship. A system link allows communication from the F-35 to the fleet's ships. The intended ship becomes an F-35 by extension without revealing where the actual F-35 is located as it fires its own missiles at any enemy platform found by the F-35. The next 70 years of the F-35 usefulness is providing a test bed for new naval weapons systems weighing more than the F-35 itself.

Why is that important? A new terminology can be used for modern warfare. In this case, it is transferability. The F-35 becomes a sub-satellite or a sub orbiting eye above the battle space deployed specifically in a spot to render firepower onto an enemy over two-thirds of the planet containing water. Furthermore, the F-35A  covers the remaining land mass issuing information to tanks, missiles, and bunkers. By the year 2100, a supersonic drone will do more than what the F-35 can do today! But the F-35 will have tested all the drones new systems. 

There is a war window for adversaries, which is today! The time element is beating any incursion from abroad. Simply, "others" won't be able to keep up with the F-35 capability as its plug and play era of advanced electronic and offensive capability for the F-35 is ahead of everything else. Once it is loaded into the F-35 in that aforementioned plug and play environment it can advance beyond what "others" have available. 

In the year 2100 its hard to imagine what the state of war will become but it should include autonomous warfare for the destruction of everything that threatens. The F-35 becomes that testbed for autonomous warfare as new systems and weapons are plugged in and deployed according to changes within the battlespace. There is a future for laser warfare but something may replace it by the year 2100. It may be a particle beam shot at a system. Or an EMP shot coming from a drone's power system. The F-35 engine has immense power today but in seventy years, two power systems may exist on a super drone. One for motive power and one for weapon capability. But all in a smaller package than today's examples.

Therefore the bridge to the future will include another incremental step in the next thirty years. It will include a batch of capability items from space, air or ground. In the more traditional mindset, the modern airforce will have the evasive flying capability or greater stealth. An F-60 or so, name, may come to the forefront. It should be semi-autonomous where a human may be present in airspace directing the slave drones to its point of attack. A stepping stone for those who will not let the human out of a tangible battle chain. The "guy" in the basement is fighting, but a "guy" in the sky will be supervising the fight.

The F-35 will pave the way for all of what can be imagined for weapons systems and flying capability, joining with everything offensive or defensive.