Aerospace Company: Boeing 777 - Research Paper Example

Aerospace Company: Boeing 777 Effective way in the documentation and in the teaching best practices in designing have been shown and proved by multi media case studies. This case study is about the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company, and its changes with regard to how it is build and designs. Using this methodology, 777 is the very first jet that Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company has created. Changes in many areas include that of the technical, administrative and even organizational to come up with the 777. Boeing 777 is considered not just a product but its creation breaks through as a new process in the industry. Aside from many technical innovations that have done, 777 recognize its uniqueness in the design and the effort. Boeing 777 is pre-assembled and the first 100% digitally designed. It was built in the concept of “Working Together” and this philosophy made it possible for the company to make 240 designs. The whole team comprises the design team, manufacturing, and the supplier personnel. Building which includes the designing of a new commercial jet liner takes a lot of time and patience. The process take around five years or more than and sometimes even decades. It is very important that this kind of project be documented especially if the specific project is the first of its kind. Background Model 777 is the first jetliner for more than a decade among the Boeing airplane to be designed using three-dimensional graphics digitally in the computer. An investment of 10$ billion in the development of the 777 is spend by the company. In October 1990, the 777 program was launched through the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. frank Shorts. From the beginning order of the United Airlines, in June 1995, United Airlines flew its first ever 777 profit service. The demand of the market determines 777 as the newest member of the twin-aisle family of Boeing. Features in the design of the airplane was offered like approaches to the development of the airlines and innovations which sets the quality standard of the value in the airlines delivery. The 777-300 authorize production by the Boeing Board of Directors is on June 26, 1995. It was July 1998 when the first delivery materialized to Cathay Pacific Airways in June 1998. Issues: Understand and learn from the designs and facts along the processes in the making Boeing 777. To have the knowledge and deeper understanding about the importance and profits of mutual designing in the group effort of many big companies in the process of the aircraft manufacturing. To have a deeper knowledge and appreciation on how modern technologies have been used in the making of Boeing 777. To get an understanding of the beneficial and amazing features of Boeing 777. Innovations The 777 has made improvement in its Interior flexibility, flight plan, distinguish design, airfoil technology and considered as the most spacious and the widest among its class. Its larger shipment and range capacity resulted to lesser operating expenses to airlines. The Boeing 777 is smaller comparing to the 747 nut it is much bigger comparing to either twin jet or even trijet in its class. The 777 aircraft is a double engine, economically advantageous to the medium and in the long-range markets. Some amazing features the 777 is offering in the 1990s are highly develop complex emppenage, advance and considered as the most powerful engines produced and used in a commercial airplane, an aerodynamically competent airfoil wing, joint digital data bus originally built for use of the 777, and the fly-by-wire (Global Secutity.org 2009). 777-200LR Pakistan International Airlines built the first 777_200LR (Long Range). When the 777-200LR, the C-marke2 model, entered the service in 2006 is the longest-range commercial airliner in the world. The aircraft is called by Boeing the world liner in consideration to its capability to connect any of the two major airports in the whole world. It has a reputations as the world’s longest nonstop flight as a commercial airliner. Having a range of 9,380 nautical miles it has the ability of a long route like Los Angeles to Singapore or Dallas to Tokyo (Wallace, J. 2001). 777-300ER The 777-300ER (Extended Range) is considered the B-market. It has an extended wing tips and main landing gear, nose gear, and extra fuel tanks. 300-ER also features strong fuselage, engine attachments, and an emppenage. Its engine GE90-115 turbofans are considered as the most powerful jet engines in the world having the maximum thrust of 115,300lbf. Along with an increased fuel capacity it is capable of having a maximum range of 7,930 nautical miles. 777-300ER was the 2004 latest model and receives the US and European regulators a certification to carry and to fly passengers from any point of the world according to the available routes. Advantages of the designs are the long range routes like Paris to Tokyo or New York to Tokyo. (Dinell, D. 2004). Latest update to 777-300ER shows the incorporation of Boeing and the Cathay Pacific Airways. The Hong Kong-based carrier ordered 10 units of Boeing 777-300ER having a value of $2.8 billion. This decision of Cathay Pacific was first announced way back in 1995 and now that the plan has materialized, it is expected that the Cathay Pacific would have a greater deliverables to the customers. To have an over all view of the thigh between Cathay Pacific and the Boeing Company, Cathay Pacific are operating 12 Boeing 777-300ER, five 777-200, forty five 747-400 and ten 747-8 (Boeing 2011).. Decisions about the 777 There are assumptions are spreading if there will be an upcoming update or either new model is coming out of the runway. There is a third assumption and that is if all the decisions will be deferred to give way to the advance evaluation of the airline needs. A350-1000 from the family of Airbus A350XWB is flying soon and is designed to contend the 777-300ER. Considering that the 777-300ER is still young and is just grazing its revenue from the family of 787 and 747-8 there are still positive possibility of launching a new competent and wide body air craft. On the other hand, the 737 is considerably a bit different. Considering the idea of limiting the maintenance work and fuel, Boeing will not be capable of launching a conventional “tube with wings” if ever the Airbus in the future will respond a narrow body replacement that would affect open rotor engines. The size of the narrow body both in the value and the unit size is the biggest as to be considered aircraft at that time. Comparing the Airbus and the Boeing, they both have an economic positive response, A320 and 737 have a strong demand and are still expecting that the demand will still get stronger in the near future. Doing a tough decision is not an easy task for them and deferring the decision becomes an option. In deferring the decision, pressure on the part of the company lessens about the things to be done and not. This could also lessen 737/A320 current passengers from confusions of what to choose to fly with. Boeing has decided for the further study of the possibility of an all new design as a step ahead from its European rivals. Regarding the decision of the re-engine/update, nothing has come up in a decision yet and even by the end of 2010 there is possibility that the decision may be put to halt (Gherson Lerman Group (2010) Characteristics and Variants of 777 There are two characteristics in defining the Boeing 777 models, fuselage length and range. Fuselage length or the size is concern with the number of passenger and the quantity of the cargo it can carry. The 777-200 is considered as the base size until later on extended into 777-300 in 1998. The range defines in 3 categories or segments, A-market: up to 4,200 nautical miles (7,800 km), B-market: 6,600 nautical miles (12,200 km), and C-market: 7,800 nautical miles (14,400 km) (FLIGHTLEVEL 350.com) Deliveries of 777 The 777 currently is available in five models: 777-200 (can take 305 passengers 5,210 miles), 777-200ER (extended range), 777-200LR (longer-range), 777-300 (can carry 368 passengers 5,955 miles and launched in February 2000) and the 777-300ER (can fly 8,818 or 7,175 miles).By February 2000, B777-200 and B777-300 give the advantages in 777-200LR before. Some of the deliveries of the 777 by the company are as follows: ILFC, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Air France, and United Airlines. A total of 858 aircraft (all variants) were in airline service as of July 2010, with Emirates (86), Singapore Airlines (75), Air France (57), United Airlines (52), American Airlines (47), British Airways (46), All Nippon Airways (46), Japan Airlines (46), Cathay Pacific (34), Korean Air (26), Air India (23), Saudi Arabian Airlines (23), Thai Airways International (23), Continental Airlines (20), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (19), Air Canada (18) (World Airliner Census. 2010) Accidents of 777 There are seven incidents the 777 got into as of January 2011. These includes one hull-loss accident dated January 17, 2008 operated by the British Airways (there is no recorded fatalities within the passengers or crew), an accident at the Denver International Airport on September 5, 2001 (ground workers suffered in fatal burns), blistering on the wings of the aircraft under the operations of the British Airways, with an approximately 1000 feet when the Rolls-Royce Tren2 895 engine 777-200ER flying from Beijing to London crash-landed on the Heathrow Airport runway 27L that slid the runway (47 injured and no fatalities). Two minor losses of thrust with Trent 895 engines happen in 2008. National Transportation Safety Board (N2SB) concluded in their investigation that BA38 lost the power because of the ice in the fuel clogging and a redesign is requested by the N2SB o the heat exchanger (Aviation Safety Network.). Production There are considered 4 aspects in the management which include the design, development, and testing of 777: 1) From the individual functions to a team work orientation, 2) from strong individual knowledge to the group sharing knowledge, 3) From not being accessible to the customer to being accessible to the customer, and 4) and from focusing into the internal competition to external competition (Snyder, C. 1998) The process in the production includes satisfaction in the exceptional level of the Boeing jetliner in global subcontracting. Mitsubishi, Kawasaki (fuselage panels), Fuji Heavy Industries (center wing section), Hawker de Havilland (elevators), and Australia Aerospace technology (rudder). 20 percent of the entire development program is in the agreement between Boeing and Japan Aircraft Development Corporation represented by aerospace contractors. The Everett factory owned and use by Boeing Company is doubled to accommodate the production of its liners and costs around US$1.5 billion. In line with this, the development in the production of methodologies is done which includes turn machine. The turn machine enables the rotation of the fuselage subassemblies to 180 degrees. As estimated, over US$4 billon investment in the program is involved in the assembly of the first aircraft that began in January 4, 1993 (West, K. 1993). Financial Analysis In 1992, Boeing never stated the expenses conducted for the research and development but analysts identified $3 billion to be the cost for the research and development. 2 years after, analysts claimed that $5.5 billion was spent exceeding of approximately $2 billion over the planned cost. In 2nd Quarter Overview of 2010, weaknesses is seen in between years but in spite of this an improvement in the financial status is manifested. The 2nd quarter resulted to 8.4% that produce revenue of about $15.6 billion. The 23rd quarter of the same year expects to have a stronger financial status and is expecting to raise the revenue of up to $17.0 billion having a net income of at lest $0.08 billion (Management paradise.com. 2011). Final Analysis: Innovations always take advantage in the space in offering the customer the luxury and the satisfaction in flying from distant places. Engineers and people who work in Boeing make use of the multi media case studies and it serves as a very good vehicle in learning. Even the engineering student that design and work in the process of large and complex product also take the advantage of learning and sets the example in the process wherein an established system in a conservative company changes took place. This brief serves as a vehicle about the knowledge regarding the background and how decisions are made along the process of Boeing’s development. Innovations as well as demand are also specified and discussed. References Global Secutity.org (2009). Boeing 777. Retrieved from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/b777.htm West, K. (1993). "A New Jetliner Spreading its Wings at Boeing". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved from http://www.seattlepi.com/archives/1993/9301210058.asp. Lane, P. (December 1, 1991). "Aerospace Company May Be Rethinking Commitment To The Puget Sound Area". Seattle Times. Retrieved from http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19911201&slug=1320330..  World Airliner Census". Flight International, Seattle Post-Intelligencer. P.4–30, 2010. Wallace, J. (November 19, 2001). "Aerospace Notebook: Conner's best bet -- Let it ride on the 777s" .Retrieved from http://www.seattlepi.com/business/47045_conner19.shtml.  Dinell, D. (March 16, 2004). "Boeing's 777-300ER receives certification". Wichita Busine ss Journal. Retrieved from http://wichita.bizjournals.com/wichita/stories/2004/03/15/daily17.html?jst=b_ln_hl. "Boeing 777 - Technical Information". Boeing. Retrieved from http://www.boeing.com/commercial/777family/specs.html. Gherson Lerman Group (2010). Boeing 737 & 777 decisions could be deffered. online.wsj.com. Retrieved from http://www.glgroup.com/News/Boeing-737--777-Decisions-Could-Be-Deferred-49523.html "Orders and Deliveries search page". Boeing. Retrieved from http://active.boeing.com/commercial/orders/index.cfm?content=userdefinedselection.cfm&pageid=m15527. "British Airways Flight 2019 ground fire". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved from http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20010905-1. Management paradise.com (February 7, 2011). Financial Analysis of Boeing. Retrieved from http://www.managemwentparadise.com/forums/financial-management/215224-financial-analysis-boeing Boeing (March 9, 2011). Boeing, Cathay Pacific Announce Order for More 777-300ERs. Retrieved from http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1661 FLIGHTLEVEL 350.com. Retrieved from http://www.flightlevel350.com/Boeing-777_aircraft_facts.html Snyder, C. (1998). Use of Information Technologies in the Process of Building the Boeing 777. Journal Technology Management Volume IX, 31-32. Read More