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Screen Shot 2011-10-06 at 3.33.43 PM.pngThis day has been a long time coming. 

FlightBlogger, along with Runway Girl and The DEW Line, now have a new (and fully operational) comment system.

Over the years I have received several hundred thousand comments on this blog and sadly only a small fraction have been from real people, making actual comments about the content here. 

People have suggested all kinds of solutions from email filters to cleaning the spam filter daily, but each solution left too much room for good comments to get lost among the crush. Further, the spam filter built in to Movable Type would often keep comments from ever making it to a place where they could even be seen, just lost to oblivion. With the wave of valid and spam comments coming in, those that weren't deemed spam the filter (which couldn't really tell spam from non-spam) would be delivered to my inbox at a rate of dozens per day (sometimes per hour). It was an unsustainable situation.

Well, today we have - what I hope - is a final solution to the problem. We have installed Disqus as the new platform for our comments and enable people to use different logins to post comments. You can use your Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, OpenID and/or Google accounts to log-in to the new system. 

Most importantly, you can still comment anonymously on posts using a Guest or Disqus login, which will require you to supply a username, password and email address. Most importantly, the email address does not need to be verified, so you can be creative with that field. 

Disqus enhances your ability to comment by allowing you to subscribe to a comment thread, upload and attach photos locally or from flickr and videos from Youtube. The full social media integration across Facebook and Twitter also allows you to easily share the posts here across networks.

A very, very special thanks to Adam Tinworth and Stuart Clarke for making Disqus a reality.

Happy commenting!

Boeing 747-8F N6009F RC523

SEATTLE -- I've been pretty well trapped underground writing for our Paris Air Show issue which comes out in two weeks, but I've finally finished 6,100 words worth of features looking at Boeing's coming production ramp up, 787 and 747-8 flight test. As you've rightly noticed, they're has been a lack of content here on the blog as my attention has been turned toward print, but I'm back in the saddle again having woken up from my typing-induced haze in the Pacific Northwest for two jam-packed days of briefings here with Boeing. There won't be any direct news from the briefings immediately as the contents are under embargo for Paris later in the month.

That being said, there are several notable important news notes that have unfolded over the past few days.

Boeing begins 747-8F F&R testing
Boeing kicked off 747-8F system functionality and reliability (F&R) testing today with RC523 covering 16 US states over 10 hours Wednesday, say program sources. Boeing said last week it expected the F&R testing to get underway in June once the Federal Aviation Administration has signed off on the Honeywell flight management system software. The state of functionality of that software is currently unknown, as it is unclear what the final resolution was and if the aircraft will have full functionality at the time of first delivery.

Swedish CSeries Order
CSeries broke its order dryspell today when Sweeden's Braathens Leasing ordered 5 CS100s and 5 CS300s for Malmo Aviation. While ten aircraft is hardly an order that has the potential to change the competitive landscape, it is forward commercial momentum heading toward the Paris Air Show, which should see more orders for the type materialize. This is the first order for the new jet since February 2010, when Republic Airways purchased up to 80 CS300s.

G650 returns to the sky
The Gulfstream resumed its G650 flight test campaign on May 28, with S/N 6001 (N650GA) moving ahead with plans to certify the aircraft by the close of this year. The US business jet airframer confirmed the aircraft is now being operated with a temporary increase in the aircraft's minimum speed and a new limit to the maximum angle of attack on take-off, after the company cautioned the G650's minimum speed might increase as a result of the April 2 accident in Roswell, New Mexico.

Leap-X nets Virgin America, ILFC
A report from Bloomberg News indicates that CFM is readying to announce its first Leap-X customers for the A320neo. The 30 Virgin America A320neos that gave the program its first firm order in January will be powered by the new Leap-X engine. Additionally, ILFC will power the balance of its 100 aircraft A320neo order with the Leap-X, adding another 40 airframe to CFM's column.

Air India's half-billion dollar 787 compensation
The Economic Times reports that Air India has been offered $500 million to compensate Air India for the late delivery of 27 787 Dreamliners. A quick look at the numbers translates the  massive compensation deal means that $18.5 million in revenue is shaved from the 27 aircraft. Or another way to look at it, Boeing has to remove an additional $1 million in cost from the first 500 787s to cancel out the effect of the deal. Keep in mind, more than 300 early 787 airframes - of which Air India's are included - were sold for an average of $76 million to begin with.
On Wednesday morning, Boeing CEO Jim McNerney and CFO James Bell will host the company's first quarterly earnings call for 2011. For those of you unfamiliar with the format, the second half of the call is devoted to questions from industry analysts and the media. I'm looking forward to asking a question during the call, but I'm quite curious about the questions you all have for the aerospace giant and two of its top executive officers?

Sound off.
Greetings from Miami where I'm covering the MRO Americas show along with my colleague Mary Kirby and we've been churning through scads of news from the world of aftermarket aircraft support. Unfortunately some connectivity issues (I'm on Mary's computer at the moment) and some issues with incomplete page loading of FlightBlogger are causing some decidedly frustrating technical difficulties on the front end. We're working to diagnose the problem, so it should be fixed as soon as possible, but in the meantime, thanks for your understanding and patience. There's certainly no shortage of things going on across the industry, so consider this an open thread.

ZA005 First Flight
The first GEnx-powered 787 is set to make its first flight on Wednesday with Capts. Mike Bryan and Mike Carriker at the controls. Boeing hasn't set specific a definitive first flight date for ZA005 (N787FT), but sources say it is rapidly approaching. This is obviously dependent on the weather in Everett come mid-week, but if mother nature smiles on the Pacific Northwest, the fifth 787 should be making its maiden flight. Taxi tests are expected to be conducted on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday's first flight.
Editor's note: The interview with Mike Carriker was filmed at the National Air and Space Museum following the premier of Legends of Flight.
Spirit (Airlines) on Strike
Often referred to as America's Ryanair, ultra low cost carrier Spirit Airlines is facing a pilot strike, grounding its Airbus A319, A320 and A321 fleet through Wednesday at the earliest.  This situation has stranded passengers all over the country and in some cases those with the least amount of resources to begin with. Crankyflier has a great overview of the situation, including the comparative pay breakdown for pilots at other airlines.

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RC001 Coming Together
Structural sections of Section 41 for the first 747-8I are coming together inside Building 40-21 in Everett. The aircraft, dubbed RC001, will be coming together over the remainder of the year, with first flight targeted for first quarter 2011. As I think aloud here, I do wonder whether or not the 747-8F stringer issues will have any carryover impact on the 747-8I? 

Meanwhile, outside on the flight line both the first 777-300ER for British Airways and first 747-8F for Korean Air Cargo are both fully painted.

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference
BoA/ML is hosting a myriad of airlines this week at its Global Transportation Conference. The event should give further clarity on where the industry stands. Heading into the heart of the  summer season, we'll begin to get a picture of how the middle part of 2010 is shaping up for airlines. Additionally, we may get some clarity on future ordering, as well as new perspectives on A320, 737 re-engining and CSeries.

Hitting the Road
Going to be a busy few weeks coming up for me with prep for features for July's 2010 Farnborough Air Show. Seems like I'll be everywhere but DC. More details to follow as the next few weeks roll on.

Flightglobal Achievement Awards
Voting on the Flightglobal Achievement Awards has entered its final week and we want to make sure your voice is heard! The winners for Leader, Aviator and Innovator of the year, as well as Flightglobal's Lifetime Achievement Award will be announced on July 20 at the Farnborough Air Show. Take a look at who made the 2010 shortlist and cast your vote!

Airline Interiors 2010
The Flightglobal team - with Mary Kirby at the helm - is covering the 2010 Airline Interiors show in Hamburg Germany this week. Make sure to keep an eye on our landing page and follow the  #HAM10 hashtag on Twitter for the latest news from the show.

(The photo above is from charter operator Acropolis' new Airbus A319 ACJ. The aircraft appeared in Geneva at EBACE. See the complete EBACE photoset)

Lufthansa's first A380
The first A380 for the German flag carrier (D-AIMA), is two days away from being handed over to Lufthansa in a ceremony in Hamburg. Airbus will broadcast the ceremony live on Wednesday starting at 11 AM GMT+2 (5 AM ET). Here's a brief on the carrier's superjumbo strategy.

Boeing Investor Day
Boeing is hosting its annual investor conference on Wednesday providing updates to Wall Street on the state of the American airframer's business and its defense and commercial programs. Speakers include CEO Jim McNerney, CFO James Bell, BDSS president and CEO Dennis Muilenburg, BCA president and CEO Jim Albaugh and vice president of commercial airplane programs Pat Shanahan. I'll be covering it live through the day here and/or on twitter.

Saudia's first A330
Saudi Arabian Airlines took delivery of its first of eight A330-300 (HZ-AQA). The aircraft, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines, is the airline's first long-range Airbus delivery in almost 30 years.

Midwest E190 Goes Frontier
I know I'm late on this one, but the first E190 from Midwest has been painted in Frontier colors. The tail of N174HQ is adorned with the Wisconsin Badger (consequently my Mother's Alma Mater). The aircraft entered service with Frontier earlier this month as the Milwaukee-based carrier makes its transition as Republic begins consolidating its myriad of brands.
BERLIN -- I write this morning from a Starbucks asking myself how this is any different from being in DC. It's not really, aside from the fact that there's a delightful "to stay" option to enjoy your caffeine fix out of a mug instead of a paper cup, but I digress. 

With EBACE now wrapped up, I wanted to take a minute to go over all the non-business aviation related developments this week:

Wall Street thinks Boeing is leaning toward a clean sheet design on 737, leapfrogging a re-engined 737. Boeing booked an unidentified order for 20 777s, upping its 2010 total to 34 net orders for the big twin this year, compared to 30 during all of 2009. Research teams have narrowed their search for the Air France 447 black box to a 2sq-mi area of the Atlantic. With an order slump for its superjumbo, Airbus is staring down a $25 billion write off on its most ambitious program. 

Charleston Post and Courier's Katy Stech wins the lede of the week pulling with this story about the lack of men's rooms slowing down 787 production. Boeing also announced that it is setting up an interior fabrication facility in Charleston for some parts of the 787. Embraer is considering pulling out of China, a potentially politically risky move in a climate that is known for industrial engagement in exchange for future orders. Qatar has thawed its negotiations with Bombardier and is looking at 20-30 CSeries and hopes to finalize the order by July. The airline expects delivery of six 787s next year instead of two, the first should be number 57 off the line, while ANA is quietly making plans for a further delayed delivery of their first. 

Now of to explore Berlin.
CO/UA?
Will they...Won't they? Will it be United and US Airways (NO) or United and Continental (maybe, maybe not)? This is exhausting. Someone poke me when they make up their minds.

That being said, if these two do finally make a love connection, the state of United's narrowbody fleet renewal becomes an even bigger open question. Continental was one of the launch customers for Boeing's 737 Sky Interior and the carrier is an all-Boeing mainline operator. The outstanding Continental 737 orders may answer the question straight away, pushing fleet a fleet renewal decision far into the future.

The Painting of Florida One
In classic PTQ (put together quickly) fashion, Boeing and Southwest have adapted their high-speed trip down the 737 line for the carrier's newest logo jet, Florida One (N945WN). Pay no mind to the fact that the aircraft going down the moving line in Renton is a 737-800, the important part starts when it hits the paint hangar. When you're done watching the 737 PTQ video, head on over to SWA photographer Paul Thompson's photostream for some great up-close shots with Florida One.


Airbus On Strike
The European airframer's workforce began a 12-hour strike today, shutting down production of the A330/A340 line. The staggered strike, organized for higher pay and increased hiring, is expected to be extended to the A320 and A380 lines later this week. 

United's 777s goes 3-3-3
As a very frequent flier of United's 777 fleet, I was quite excited to hear of the transition from 2-5-2 to 3-3-3 with Panasonic IFE in economy. The aircraft (N794UA) is now in the wild and was rumored to be flying between San Francisco and Dulles late last week. The @unitedairlines posted a few photos of the new economy interior (one // two).

Eurotrip!
If I wasn't fully convinced that spring travel season is in full swing after last week's Phoenix to Florida run, there will be no doubt come this Friday. I'll kick off two weeks on the road as I head first to Amsterdam for the opening of Bombardier's new service center, followed by EBACE in Geneva. I'll have a bit of a breather ("Europe is like the size of the Eastwood Mall. We can walk to Berlin from there.") for a few days followed by the Airbus Innovation Days - formerly known as the technical press briefing - in Broughton near Manchester in the UK.
MRO Americas
For the first half of this week, I'll be in sunny Phoenix, Arizona for the MRO Americas. MRO, for those of you not familiar with the aerospace industrial alphabet soup stands for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul. This blog has focused primarily on the development and manufacturing of new aircraft, but what happens after they're handed over to customers? These multi-million dollar assets need a lot of loving care, and the business of providing that care is a massive part of the industry. The Flightglobal team will be producing two issues of Interactive Flight Daily News, which will be posted here. 

Europe Vs. The Volcano
As this week unfolds, air travel in and around, to and from Europe will be very slowly getting on its feet again. The eruption of the Ejyafjallajökull volcano - dubbed E15 by the US military for its seemingly random arrangement of letters was inflicting $200m in lost revenue daily to the airlines of the world. Has the dust (ash) settled? Or will volcano delays become a way of life for the airline industry? The impact is not only on airlines. Aviation manufacturing supply chains that rely on the air shipment of structural sections will find movements impeded by this latest aerospace industrial crisis. Is this the end of a tumultuous event or the the first chapter of a new reality for aviation?

Boeing vs. Airbus, Finally.
EADS, and Airbus by extension, announced this morning that it plans to bid on the KC-X tanker contract solo. EADS was not able to find a US partner to make its bid, so the European airframer will fly solo in its quest to crack the US defense acquisition market. During the previous competitions (I've lost count), EADS' presence was downplayed, giving prominence to its US partner, Northrop Grumman to present a "American face" to its bid. EADS taking the reins on KC-X is certainly a bold move, but it clears away some of the natural spin. One can only hope this is the beginning of the final chapter of the KC-X tanker saga, one that pits Boeing vs. Airbus in the most direct way possible.

Boeing Earnings
On Wednesday, Boeing is set to announce its first quarter 2010 earnings. While I won't be covering it directly because of MRO, I'll be doing a post-mortem later this week on the 737 Re-Engining, 787 and 747-8 updates provided on the call.

Airline Earnings
Airlines will be announcing first quarter earnings this week and that should provide an interesting  barometer of the economic health of the planet. Naturally, this presumes that a massive virtually unpronounceable volcanic ash cloud doesn't complete curtail that recovery.

Something Extra
The second half of this week will take me somewhere a bit different. I can't yet disclose where I'm headed due to an embargo, though stay tuned on Thursday.
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First (ZA004) and Second (RC501) Flights
The first 747-8F and the fourth 787 (third to fly) are slated to fly this week - we think. First thought to be taking place on Monday, there's been some speculation about taking steps to look at ZA004's Trent 1000 engines after a in-flight uncommanded loss of power during a test flight on ZA001 last Friday. ZA004 completed mini-gauntlet testing on Saturday.

For now, ZA004 will remain in ground testing until at least Tuesday, say program sources, though Boeing says that they have not set an official date for the aircraft's first flight. However, the company has said that both ZA003 and ZA004 will fly by the end of February. Capts. Heather Ross and Craig Bomben will take ZA004 on its maiden sortie when it happens.

Meanwhile, RC501 remains on the flight line at Everett while the aircraft is being prepped for its ferry to Moses Lake, which was supposed to be Saturday, then Sunday, then Monday, but is currently holding - potentially for ZA004.

KC-X RFP
The next chapter in the seemingly never-ending KC-X tanker battle is likely to come as early as Tuesday, when the US Air Force is expected to issue a formal request for proposal (RFP) to Boeing and Northrop Grumman (+EADS/Airbus). Northrop has been displeased with the discussions about the potential RFP as it doesn't make appropriate provisions for potential cost overruns, as well as the additional capability of the aircraft beyond its tanker role. If you're just joining the party now, Boeing may offer either the KC-7A7 (based on the 777-200LR) or KC-767 (based on the 767-200ERF), while EADS/Airbus will likely offer the KC-30 (A330-200 MRTT). Let's just see how this one plays out. Make sure to follow @thedewline for updates.

Colgan Hearings
The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is holding hearings on Thursday to look at aviation safety one year after Colgan Flight 3407, which crashed on approach to Buffalo. The aviation operations, safety, and security subcommittee will the handling the hearing and it will be interesting to see how opinions have swayed - if at all - following the Frontline investigation of Colgan's operations. A list of who will be testifying has been made public yet.

The Ancillary Art
I wanted to make you aware of a project that's been published by Miyuru Sandaruwan. Mr. Sandaruwan, who is based in Sri Lanka and is a close follower of the airline industry, wrote an  eBook on "the art" of packaging fees designed to drive ancillary revenues. Most impressively, Mr. Sandaruwan, who is 19 years old, wrote the entire presentation on his mobile phone.  It's a great example of thoughtful analysis made possible by the fall of modern publishing barriers. Definitely worth taking a look.

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