Showing posts with label Boeing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boeing. Show all posts

Saturday, March 22, 2025

Boeing contracted to produce NGAD fighter jet F-47

“To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.” — George Washington
The Pentagon has given Boeing the contract to build the Air Force’s new fighter jet, labeled the Next Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD, President Donald Trump announced on Friday. This long-awaited deal means Boeing will create a super advanced sixth-generation plane to replace the older F-22 Raptor. Trump said it will be called the F-47.

This new jet will have “state-of-the-art stealth technologies [making it] virtually unseeable,” and it’ll fly with robot drones, called collaborative combat aircraft, as its wingmen. “It’s something the likes of which nobody has ever seen before,” Trump said during an announcement in the Oval Office with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, and Lt. Gen. Dale White. 

“In terms of all the attributes of a fighter jet, there’s never been anything even close to it, from speed to maneuverability to what it can have [as] payload. And this has been in the works for a long period of time.”

“America’s enemies will never see it coming,” he added.

Gen. Allvin said the F-47 will be “the most advanced, lethal and adaptable fighter ever developed. We are not just building another fighter. We are shaping the future of warfare and putting our enemies on notice.”

Boeing beat out Lockheed Martin for the NGAD contract after Northrop Grumman said in 2023 it wouldn’t try to lead the project. “We recognize the importance of designing, building a sixth-generation fighter capability for the United States Air Force,” said Steve Parker, a top Boeing official. He added that Boeing made a huge investment to get ready for this job and will build the best NGAD plane possible.
Lockheed Martin was bummed about losing but said it gave a solid pitch. “We will await further discussions with the U.S. Air Force on any next steps,” the company said.

Fortunately, Boeing's F-47 will have a canopy and no doors that can fall off in flight.

The F-47 will be the main part of NGAD’s “family of systems,” which includes robot drones plus high-tech sensors, weapons, and gear to connect with satellites and other aircraft. The Air Force says NGAD is key to beating tough enemies like China.

Other companies, General Atomics and Anduril, are working on their own drone wingmen, called RFQ-42A and RFQ-44A, to fly with the F-35 or F-47. The Air Force wants these drones to be affordable, run by smart software, and able to do things like spy missions, attacks, or confuse the enemy. They’ll also have special engines that adjust for the best power and fuel use, made by either General Electric Aerospace or Pratt & Whitney.

Experts say Boeing winning this deal is good for America’s defense industry. It keeps all three big U.S. plane makers—Boeing, Lockheed (which makes the F-35), and Northrop (which builds the B-21 Raider)—busy with cutting-edge projects. “For the country, that’s a really important thing, to have that innovation, that competition and frankly, the volume production,” said Doug Birkey from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

But Boeing’s had some tough years. 

Its 737 Max planes crashed, killing nearly 350 people, and last year it made a deal to avoid a big trial. Another 737 Max had a door blow out mid-flight in 2024, and workers went on strike over pay issues. Plus, some military projects like the T-7A trainer and KC-46 tanker have had delays and cost overruns. In 2024, Boeing fired its defense boss, Ted Colbert, after losing tons of money.

Birkey said this win is big for Boeing, but “It’s up to Boeing to make this opportunity a win. Only time will tell on that.”

The contract Boeing got on Friday pays them to build and test the F-47, with extra rewards if they do well. They’ll make a few test planes and could build more later if the Air Force likes the results. Gen. Allvin said test versions of NGAD have already flown hundreds of hours over the past five years, proving the tech works.

“The F-47 has unprecedented maturity,” Allvin said. “While the F-22 is currently the finest air superiority fighter in the world, and its modernization will make it even better, the F-47 is a generational leap forward.” He also said that it’s better than China’s supposed sixth-generation jet, the J-36, saying, “Despite what our adversaries claim, the F-47 is truly the world’s first crewed sixth-generation fighter.”

The F-47 will cost less than the F-22, which was $143 million a pop, and the Air Force plans to buy more of them. Trump wouldn’t say the exact price, but the Air Force expects to spend $20 billion on NGAD by 2029. 

Last year, the program nearly got canceled when costs soared too high, but after a review, they decided to keep it going.

Trump hinted that allies might get a simpler version of the F-47 someday, saying, “Because someday, maybe they’re not our allies, right?”

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Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Boeing whistleblower gets "Epsteined" as 787 suffers another mishap

"Sorry, I just woke up-I was dreaming that my Pez dispenser spoke to me"

John Barnett, the former Boeing Quality Manager, was found dead in a parking lot in Charleston, SC on Saturday. The cause of death was immediately determined to be a "self-inflicted gunshot wound," police claim. So the troubled aircraft manufacturer has yet another gossip-worthy situation going.

Barnett, 62, gave "stark warnings" about the problems he was seeing in on two Boeing passenger jet models. In one case, he discovered substandard parts were being used and in another, Dawn dishwashing soap was being used as a lubricant. We all know from tv commercials that Dawn is great on birds caught in oil spills, but it isn't the best thing to use as a lubricant--specific lubricants are the best thing to use for the lubricating jobs intended for them.

Barnett had also claimed Boeing executives were hiding the company's safety issues rather than addressing them, possibly because it cost money to fix the problems.

"My concerns are with the 737 and 787 because those programs have really embraced the theory that quality is overhead and non-value-added," Barnett told TMZ after the infamous Jan. 5 incident when a door plug blew off an Alaska Air 737 MAX 9 that depressurized the cabin and exposed passengers to open air and great views shortly after takeoff.


Not long after the Alaska Airline event, Chilean airline LATAM flight from Australia to New Zealand experienced a "technical event" on Monday in mid-flight that "caused a strong movement," resulting in about 50 people being injured causing mucho cursing in Spanish. The passenger jet was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, one of the two models (the other is the troubled 737 MAX) described in Barnett's whistleblower complaint.

The Federal Aviation Administration said two weeks ago that it "will mandate a fix for a new 737 MAX design problem discovered by Boeing that, although it’s a remote possibility, could theoretically disable the jet’s engine anti-ice system." 

According to the same report, "Airlines have reported a separate issue with a similar system on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner that has caused what the FAA calls 'relatively minor' damage to the engine inlets on some two dozen of these wide-body jets in service."

Boeing has been given three years to address the problem on the MAX and 30 months to get the 787 fixed.

So did John Barnett off himself or was it a professional Epstein-esque job? Maybe we'll never know, but somehow, somewhere, someone is going to blame Trump.

Saturday, January 13, 2024

A Boeing 737 turns back mid-flight due to cockpit window crack




Japan's All Nipon Airway 737-800 carrying 59 passengers and six crew had to turn back mid-flight after a crack developed in the cockpit window, where Safelite Repair had no access.

The passenger jet returned to Sapporo-New Chitose Airport once the crack was discovered--it was originally heading to Toyama Airport

The crack was found in the most outward of four cockpit windows, but it wasn't clear whether it was the pilot side or first officer side of the plane, although that really makes no difference.

This latest incident comes at a time when airlines emphasizing Diversity Equity and Inclusion [DEI] among staff face closer scrutiny over safety concerns amid an uptick in crashes and malfunctions. Everyone is scratching their collective heads over the matter. What could it be?

“The crack was not something that affected the flight’s control or pressurization,” an airline spokesperson said, unless it developed into a wider crack and the window eventually blew out completely sucking out the pilot and first officer into the clouds. 

Aviation expert John Strickland said the crack may have been caused by the plane hitting a bird or also could have been a stress fracture. Had it happened at the airport one might blame it on protestors, for whatever the protest of the day happened to be.

“These things do sometimes happen, something may have struck the window, for example a bird, a large hailstone, it’s not unheard of,” he told the BBC. “You might occasionally get a stress fracture too, from wear and tear.”

The incident comes less than two weeks after a plane crashed into a Coast Guard plane on the runway in Tokyo, Japan and burst into flames. Fortunately, the 379 passengers and crew on board escaped with their lives while five of the six people in the Coast Guard plane were killed.

And then there's us. In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Boeing after a piece of plane belonging to Alaska Airlines was blown out mid flight causing emergency depressurization. It had to make an emergency landing in Oregon, with the more than 170 passengers. That happened on a Boeing 737 Max 9. In that event, a child's shirt was sucked out into the clouds without the child in attendance.

As a result, the FAA has temporarily grounded all Boeing 737 Max 9 planes and called for more stringent safety inspections. Boeing said it will fully comply with the FAA’s investigation and will cooperate “transparently.” Because it has no choice if it wants to stay in business.

“Safety is our top priority and we deeply regret the impact this event has had on our customers and their passengers,” Boeing spokeswoman Jessica Kowal said in a statement. “We agree with and fully support the FAA’s decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane.”

Truthfully, air travel is incredibly safe, which is why any accident or emergency is newsworthy because it is so rare compared to automobile travel.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Boeing CEO will save US a few bucks

The CEO of Boeing told President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday that he can save the taxpayers a few bucks to build a new Air Force One since the original quote was unacceptable. 

Early this month, Mr. Trump blasted Boeing for alleged cost overruns with the new fleet of Air Force One jets. He called on the government to cancel the contract and called the $4 billion price tag out of control.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, FL. He spoke to the media after the meeting and said, "We're going to get it done for less than that, and we're committed to working together to make sure that happens."

It seems like Trump isn't taking the "old school" political position that government stuff costs a lot. He's challenging it, and that's a good thing. While it doesn't make a dent in taxpayer expenditure for the year, it's a posture that sits well with conservatives who've long felt that the government has fleeced us long enough. 

Trump also met with Lockheed Martin Corp's Marillyn Hewson after he had gone public about the exorbitant cost of its F-35.

While this may seem like small potatoes, it's a start at looking deeply into the costs we've been paying for things that may not cost as much as they're charging.

Simple. Smart.


Tuesday, December 13, 2016

GOP vows to fight Iran-Boeing deal

This is a big deal--a very big deal. Boeing and one of the biggest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran, are planning a deal. The aircraft giant announced Sunday that it has agreed to sell 80 aircraft of Iran Air and are trying to sell the idea that it's good for American jobs.

Republican lawmakers criticized Boeing, based in Chicago, when the deal was in its infancy in June. Reps. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) and Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) sent a letter to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, warning that the deal could weaponize Iran.

"The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) systematically uses commercial aircraft to transport troops, weapons, military-related parts, rockets and missiles to hostile actors around the world," the letter stated. " . . . These terrorist groups and rogue regimes have American blood on their hands. Your potential customers do as well."

After the announcement by the aircraft manufacturer, the lawmakers showed no sign of budging, as a senior aide to Roskam told FoxNews.com that he intends to "aggressively fight" the deal in the next Congress, and expressing hope that the political winds would shift in their favor when Trump takes office.

"The incoming appointees at Treasury and State will no longer report to a White House willing to bend over backward and ignore national security concerns to keep Iran from walking away from the nuclear deal," the aide said.

Let's keep our collective fingers crossed that the Ayatollah doesn't throw any compliments at Trump--he's a sucker for a kind word.

Hensarling said the deal is "disappointing to say the least" and blamed Obama. [I blame Valerie Jarrett, an Iranian-born woman of shady background who holds Obama's puppet strings.] 

"The President wants us to sell planes not just to this dangerous regime, but to an airline that his own Treasury Department sanctioned in 2011. President Obama even wants U.S. banks to draw on American citizens' deposits to financy Iran, a regime that Treasury calls 'a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern,'" Hensarling said. "If a U.S. financial institution attempts to bankroll Iran in the waning days of the Obama administration, it will have to answer to Congress," he warned.

Boeing framed the deal as one that would support American jobs. "Today's agreement will support tens of thousands of U.S. jobs directly associated with production and delivery of the 777-300ERs and nearly 100,000 U.S. jobs in the U.S. aerospace value stream for the full course of deliveries," Boeing said, also noting that it supports 1.5 million American jobs.

Trump, earlier this month, tweeted that he wants to cancel an order with Boeing because the costs for a new Air Force One are "out of control."

The Boeing deal was made possible by the left who removed trade sanctions in January as part of the nuclear deal. Since that time, Iran has been hijacking our sailors, buzzing our naval vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, and basically flipping us off as they laugh at our lack of resolve in a president who is impotent in so many ways. 

A dual citizen, Robin Shahini, 46, was put into prison for 18 years in Iran after a 3-hour trial for the violation of the blasphemy law. 

Why is Boeing dealing with this disgusting nation?

The first planes are set to be delivered to Iran in 2018.



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