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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2011
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From the
americas
The Boeing Dreamliner
The world’s first composite-plastic jet
arrives in Japan to a warm welcome
and very high expectations
“It’s been a long wait,” said Hidetaka Sakai, who watched
the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” touch down at Tokyo’s Haneda
airport. “We want to compete with global air companies
with this plane.” (Bloomberg News, 3
rd
July). The All Nippon
Airways Co spokesman had sounded the two main themes
of the company’s relationship with Chicago-based Boeing:
the three-year delay since the plane maker missed its original
May 2008 delivery target, and ANA’s conviction – evidenced
by the exuberant celebration on the tarmac – that “this
plane” was worth the wait. With 55 Dreamliners on order,
the Tokyo-based carrier hopes to take delivery of the first
one in August or September.
ANA is counting on the twin-engine 787 to justify adding
flights to China, Europe, and the US, even as the plane’s
lighter weight and its expected greater fuel efficiency help
to spare costs. The sense of urgency is understandable.
ANA, Asia’s largest listed airline by sales, suffered a 20%
drop in domestic travel in April, the month after air service
in Japan was disrupted by the earthquake and tsunami.
Demand for air travel has not yet rebounded.
From Tokyo, Bloomberg reporter Chris Cooper described
the busy week awaiting both sets of celebrants. Crews
from Boeing would begin tests for extended operations
and function and reliability as they worked toward flight
certification by US and Japanese authorities. Boeing
and ANA planned joint tests, with flights between Tokyo’s
Haneda and Osaka’s Itami and Kansai airports, as well as
Okayama and Hiroshima. According to Boeing’s website the
companies scripted the trials to the half-hour in meetings
that ran seven hours a day for five days.
As noted by Bloomberg News, the intensive week in Japan
would be one of the final validations for the 787’s planned
entry into service. For Boeing, getting its fastest-selling
plane in play in the third quarter would end a series of seven
postponements that led to late penalties and a stock slide,
through 30
th
June, almost twice that of the Standard & Poor’s
500 Index. The company could finally begin to see some
return on a model with an average list price of $202 million.
❖
The 787 is the first airliner with a fuselage and wings made
of composite-plastic materials instead of aluminium,
making it lighter and 20% more fuel-efficient than other
mid-sized airliners, according to Boeing. The company
marketed the 210- to 250-seat plane for long-haul routes
not busy enough to fill a larger aircraft. Boeing suppliers
around the world build whole sections and fly them to the
company’s operations in Everett, Washington, where the
planes are assembled.
❖
Boeing has taken orders for 835 Dreamliners. The
Australian carrier Qantas Airways is in the queue. And
Japan Airlines Co, with 35 of the 787s on order, has
said it will start Dreamliner service from Tokyo to Boston
next year. This would be the first direct link between that
American city and Asia.
Boeing’s European rival Airbus is expected to have its
competitor to the 787, the A350, ready to enter service with
Qatar Airways in 2013. Airbus has gathered nearly 600 orders
for the new jetliner, which also is made mainly of carbon-fibre
polymers.
Elsewhere in aviation . . .
❖
Expanding its reach into the growing Chinese travel
market, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said on 1
st
July
that it had started non-stop flights between Detroit and
Beijing. The Detroit-Beijing flight will run five days a week
on 269-seat Boeing 777 jets. Delta was already flying
non-stop from Detroit to Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Automotive
“Doctor Z” of Daimler and
Mercedes-Benz has developed
a marked partiality for China
“Dr Zetsche’s address resembled a United Nations Security
Council roll call at times, with China, India, Russia, Germany,
and, obligingly, the United States, receiving mentions.
But some garnered more attention than others.”
The reporter is Jonathan Schultz, who writes the “Wheels”
blog in the
New York Times
. The speaker was, of course,
Dieter Zetsche, CEO and chairman of the management
board at Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz. The event
was a gathering of journalists in Manhattan on the first day
of spring to hear “Doctor Z” expound the product strategy
for his luxury marque. (“In New York, Dieter Zetsche Delivers
a China-Centric Prospectus for Mercedes-Benz,” 21
st
June).
Dr Zetsche said that in China, where his German company
is opening dealerships at a rate of one a week, long-
wheelbase E-Class sedans are used widely as limousines
by the executive class. Acknowledging the existence of
non-Chinese markets, he commented that the more
substantial S-Class would be preferred by Westerners; then
it was quickly back to those who “garner more attention
than others.”
Dr Zetsche expects new-vehicle sales in China to exceed
those in the US and Germany, respectively, by 2015. To meet
those projections, Mercedes will build an engine factory in
China, the brand’s first passenger-car engine plant outside
of Germany.
Mr Schultz also took note of plans for marketing the F-Cell,
a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle based on the Mercedes B-Class,
in Germany and possibly Japan in 2014 – at the price of a
diesel hybrid. While Mercedes does not currently produce
a diesel-hybrid power train, volume-oriented European
manufacturers like Peugeot-Citroën are preparing them.
Mr Schultz wrote: “Given the don’t-ask price points and
vague production prospects of other fuel-cell vehicles, like
the Honda FCX Clarity, Dr Zetsche’s pledge was significant.”
Currently, Daimler does not intend the F-Cell for the North
American market. What little attention Dr Zetsche could
Statue of Liberty Image from BigStockPhoto.com
Photographer: Marty