Alfonso Alatorre

New Windows Blue Video from the Verge

(via New Windows Blue Video from the Verge | Windows Blue)

 Boeing chose GE as the engine partner for developing the next-generation 777 plane.
 “This decision to work with GE going forward reflects the best match to the development program, schedule and airplane performance,” said Bob Feldmann, vice president and general manager for the 777X development project at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “We are studying airplane improvements that will extend today’s 777 efficiencies and reliability for the next two decades or longer, and the engines are a significant part of that effort. Our focus is on providing the most competitive offering to our customers in the large twin aisle market.”

 The Boeing 777 is the world’s most successful twin-engine, long-haul airplane. The latest generation of planes, the 777-300ER, the 777-200LR and also 777 freighters, use exclusively the GE90-115B engine, which reigns as the world’s most powerful jet engine. The engine generated 127,900 pounds of thrust at a GE test stand in Peebles, Ohio, in 2002. That’s more than the combined total horsepower of the Titanic (46,000 pounds) and the Redstone rocket (76,000 pounds) that took the first American, Alan Shepard, to space. The feat earned the engine a spot in the Guinness World Records book.

The engine is also a study in innovation and applied design. The sinuous, efficient curves of the engine’s carbon fiber composite fan blades that pull thousands of pounds of air per second inside the engine are so graceful that New York’s Museum of Modern Art picked one for its Architecture and Design Collection.

GE has delivered more than 1,000 GE90 engines to Boeing. GE engineers have started working on an engine study, called GE9X, for the next-generation GE90 engine, which is designed specifically for the 777X plane. “The GE9X engine study is focused on improvements in fuel burn, noise and emission over the current GE90-115B engine while maintaining comparable reliability and maintenance cost,” said Bill Millhaem, general manager of the GE90 program at GE Aviation.

The engine core will have parts manufactured from a revolutionary new material called ceramic matrix composite. The material can work at temperatures as high as 2,400 F, higher than any advanced alloy. These innovations will help GE improve fuel efficiency by 10 percent, compared to today’s GE90 engines, saving airlines millions.

(via What Packs More Power than the Titanic and a Space Rocket Combined? Boeing Picks Massive GE Jet Engines for Next-Gen 777 Plane | GE Reports)

 Ryanair is planning to increase its aircraft fleet by a third to 400 planes after placing an order with Boeing for 175 planes worth $15.6bn (£10.3bn).

The airline currently has 305 planes. The order will allow older ones to be retired.

The move is a boost for the US planemaker after rival Airbus received a record $24bn order from an Indonesian airline on Monday.

Ryanair hopes to increase its passenger numbers to 100 million a year.

Ryanair, which has has always favoured Boeing aircraft and remains one of the few all-Boeing carriers, said it had received a discount on the price, but did not reveal how deep a discount.

The order is for the current generation 737s, whose 737-800 model list price is $89.1m, but large orders typically involve a discount, which could cut the price paid to half that.

The deal softens the missed opportunity from Indonesia’s Lion Air, as that company had previously given Boeing its own record order.
Problems

Boeing’s reputation has taken a blow in recent months after its latest Dreamliner 787 planes were grounded after batteries on some planes emitted smoke.

Flights of these are expected to restart within weeks.

Boeing’s head of commercial airplanes Ray Conner said at a joint news conference with Ryanair on Tuesday that the problems with the 787s had not affected orders.

He added that they were working hard to get the issue sorted out.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said he was happy to back Boeing: “Hopefully it will help refocus people’s minds on the fact that Boeing continues to deliver great aircraft and is growing strongly, rather than a minor issue on the 787.”

Donal O’Neill, an analyst with Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin, said the order was good for both sides: “This order puts Ryanair back on track for growth at a time when many European airlines are shrinking.

“For Boeing it keeps a major customer on board and helps position it to hook Ryanair for an order of the [next-generation] 737-Max in a few year’s time.”

Boeing 737s compete mainly with Airbus’s A320s in the short-to-medium range, narrow body jet market.

Ryanair’s expansion is expected to have taken place by 2018 and the company said if demand kept growing it could build further on the order with another.

Ryanair’s shares were 4% higher in afternoon trading, while Boeing’s were 0.5% higher.

(via BBC News - Ryanair to expand by 30% with bumper Boeing order)

 Boeing officials have detailed for the first time their proposed fixes for the lithium-ion batteries aboard its 787 planes, and the changes include better insulation between the eight cells in the battery, gentler charging to minimize stress and a new titanium venting system.

But to prevent any new fire and smoke episodes like the ones that have grounded its fleet, Boeing proposed the crudest tool in its considerable technological arsenal: the battery itself will be sealed inside a steel box that would serve as the last safety rampart if everything else fails.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved these changes on Tuesday, and Boeing has since begun a series of 20 certification tests that it expects to wrap up in one to two weeks. Most of the tests will be conducted inside Boeing labs, with only a single test flight planned since the plane’s two batteries are not used while in normal flight.

The 50 787s delivered to airlines so far have all been grounded since mid-January after two planes developed battery problems; one battery ignited while a plane was parked in Boston and another forced an emergency landing in Japan when it began to smoke. With significant commercial and financial stakes in the balance, Boeing is keen to rapidly resume passenger flights, though government officials have been more cautious about the timing.

But the new safety features, made public late Thursday, were an admission that despite its substantial resources, Boeing might never determine what went wrong with the batteries. Still, the changes are intended to reassure regulators and the public that the planes are safe and should be allowed to fly again soon.

“This enclosure keeps us from ever having a fire in the beginning,” Mike Sinnett, the 787’s chief engineer, said during a news conference in Japan along with Ray Conner, the president and chief executive of Boeing’s commercial airplane division. “It eliminates the possibility for fire.”

Mr. Sinnett said that Boeing engineers had identified 80 different ways that the batteries could fail and modified the batteries as a result. But if, for whatever reason, a cell did overheat and combust, the steel casing would contain the smoke and fire, the venting tube would open, and the smoke would be pushed outside the plane instead of venting inside the cabin.

More to read: 

(via Boeing Discloses Its Fixes for 787 Battery - NYTimes.com)

Watch Samsung Galaxy S4 launch event: live @ 5pm Eastern time 

(via http://www.youtube.com/user/SAMSUNGmobile?feature=share&v=IDXILsX7_QI)

The US Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday approved Boeing’s plan to certify a redesigned battery system on the 787 Dreamliner and will permit two limited flights to test it. 

The FAA’s move puts Boeing one step closer to returning the troubled 787 to the air after the plane was grounded in mid-January by transport authorities worldwide following two incidents involving burning batteries.

Ray LaHood, the US transportation secretary, said in a statement: “We won’t allow the plane to return to service unless we’re satisfied that the new design ensures the safety of the aircraft and its passengers.”

Boeing’s new battery - which it presented to the FAA in late February - is designed to minimize the chances of a short circuit, insulates the cells within the battery better and adds a new containment and venting system to prevent damage even if the battery catches fire.

The FAA said the new design must pass a series of tests before it is approved and that the agency will be “closely involved” in the certification process.

Jim McNerney, the chief executive of Boeing, said said in a statement: “Today’s approval from the FAA is a critical and welcome milestone toward getting the fleet flying again and continuing to deliver on the promise of the 787.”

Regulators grounded the 50 Dreamliners in use by airlines on 16 January after lithium-ion batteries burned aboard two planes, banning airlines from flying the 787 and stopping Boeing from delivering them. Although its factories continue to make the 787, Boeing is losing an estimated $50m a week while the planes are grounded.

(via FAA clears Boeing 787 flights to test redesigned battery system | Business | guardian.co.uk)

Video: AeroMexico Starts flights from Toluca — Inicio de los vuelos de Aeroméxico en Toluca (by AeromexicoTV)

Video: Great Windows 8 phone Nokia Lumia 920 - first hands-on video (by nokia)

NEW YORK - Air China, the nation’s biggest carrier by market value, agreed to buy two Boeing 747-8 aircraft in the planemaker’s first sale of the models this year.

The airline also will purchase one wide-body 777-300 plane, 20 single-aisle 737-800 jets and eight 777 freighters, according to a statement. The planes have a combined catalogue value of $4.8 billion and Boeing granted “significant price concessions” through credit agreements, the airline said in the statement.

Boeing, based in Chicago, hasn’t sold more than five 747-8 aircraft a year since Deutsche Lufthansa purchased 19 of the planes in 2006, and concern that persistently weak demand could prompt the company to curtail production has been mounting. The orders may help alleviate some of the pressure, according to Stephen Levenson of Stifel Financial.

When Kerry Drake’s first flight was delayed, he lost it. The San Francisco man broke down in tears, terrified that he’d miss his connecting flight and wouldn’t make it to Lubbock, Texas, to see his dying mother. He was consoled by the crew on that United flight, who ensured they would do everything they could to help. The plane’s captain radioed the airport, and the crew in Lubbock held the plane until Drake arrived. “I was still 20 yards away [from the gate] when I heard the gate agent say, ‘Mr. Drake, we’ve been expecting you,” he said. Drake — and his luggage — made it to the hospital in time to say goodbye: His mother died the next morning. 

(via United Airlines delayed flight for passenger trying to see dying mother)

Say goodbye to Hotmail and say hello to outlook.com, Microsoft’s attempt at reinventing email and their official bet to challenge Gmail.

As it is, Gmail is still the king of email even with the Scroogle campaign of Microsoft. But still, it looks like they could be given a run for their money with Outlook.com.


Read more: http://www.windows8update.com/2013/02/27/what-we-love-about-the-new-outlook-com/#ixzz2MCxAXWbL
- See more at: http://www.windows8update.com/2013/02/27/what-we-love-about-the-new-outlook-com/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#sthash.1tPOt5BV.dpuf

Video: Boeing’s Phantom Eye Flies Again (by Boeing)

Video: American Airlines New Boeing 777-300ER (77W) Business Classs AA963 DFW-GRU (by wp jrnl)

How many parts does Boeing plane models have take a look !!

Video: A Smart Approach to Landings (by Boeing)

Video: In sync with your arrival (by GEAviation)

NASAJPL2 @Ustream. Date with an Asteroid: Watch live with @NASA as DA14 safely passes Earth. Feb 15 11a PT 2P Eastern

Tiny ‘fibres’ may have caused Dreamliner battery failure

The US National Transportation Safety Board is investigating whether tiny fibre-like formations, known as dendrites, inside lithium-ion batteries could have played a role in battery failures on two Boeing 787 Dreamliners last month.

Dendrites – just one of several possible causes under investigation by the agency – accumulate as a battery is charged and discharged, and can cause short circuits, according to battery experts.

“As part of our continuing investigation, we are looking at whether dendrites may or may not have been a factor,” Kelly Nantel, director of public affairs for the NTSB, told Reuters in an email.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the NTSB was looking into dendrites, suggesting that investigators were looking at the tiny deposits as a major element in the probe.

Nantel said the NTSB has not ruled out any potential causes and that dendrites are “one of many things we are looking at” in determining what caused a battery aboard a parked Japan Airlines 787 to catch fire in Boston on Jan. 7.

“We are still considering several potential causes for the short circuiting” in the sixth of eight cells in the battery on the JAL plane, Nantel said.

NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said last week that a short circuit in the lithium-ion battery had caused the fire. 

(via Tiny ‘fibres’ may have caused Dreamliner battery failure | Aviation News)

wanariefimran:

How Safe Are Our Skies? Detroit Flight 253. (BBC)

On Christmas Day 2009, as Northwest Airlines Flight 253 began its descent towards Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a 23-year-old man left the airplane toilet, returned to his seat and pulled a blanket across his lap. He then attempted to detonate a device containing military-grade explosive PETN, a deadly bomb designed to take the plane out of the sky. With powerful eyewitness testimony and in-depth expert analysis, this timely documentary examines how alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab slipped under the US intelligence radar and evaded three sets of airport security.

From Abdulmutallab’s student days in London, via his time in the Al Qaeda hotspot of Yemen, to the final leg of his journey on a flight bound for the USA, the timeline of this story throws up important questions. What did security services know about him before he boarded the plane? What would have happened to the 290 passengers and crew on board if the bomb had detonated successfully? What lessons have be learned? And, in the aftermath of this attack, how safe is it to fly? (BBC)