What United’s Boeing 737 MAX 9 will look like. Image from United.
Today in a joint press conference in Chicago, United Airlines has announced that they will order 100 Boeing 737 MAX 9 and 50 737-900ERs. The order is worth $14.7 billion.
’œThis order is a major step in building the world’s leading airline, and we look forward to offering our customers the modern features and reliability of new Boeing airplanes, while also making our fleet more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly,’ said Jeff Smisek, United’s President and CEO. ’œNew aircraft deliveries support our flexible fleet plan, permitting us to tailor future capacity up or down, based on changes in demand or other market conditions.’
This order is huge. Although United got rid of its last Boeing 737 before the recent merger with Continental, the new (post-merger) United has a large fleet of both Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s. The fact that they have operated both aircraft and have chosen the 737. United stated that they had intensive discussions with both Boeing and Airbus about which aircraft to go with and chose to go with the 737.
Since July 5th, Boeing has received 243 orders for the 737 MAX and NG (Next Generation), not counting the new order announced today. Over all, Boeing has more than 1200 orders and commitments from 18 customers for the MAX.
VIDEO: B-roll material of the United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9
GALLERY: United Airlines Boeing 737-900ER and 737 MAX 9
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The new Advance Technology Winglet that will go on the Boeing 737 MAX.
There are tons of eye candy here at the Farnborough Airshow and I will be sharing more of it soon. For now, I wanted to show off the new Advanced Technology Winglet for the Boeing 737 MAX in the flesh. The thing is huge and looks quite impressive in person.
The new winglet is 9′ 7″ tall and extends about 4′ out from the wing. This is done on purpose, since it increases the effective span of the wing. The new winglet increases the lift of the 737, without adding weight,making it more efficient.
With four additional feet on each side of the 737, this could cause some issues with manufacturing at the Boeing Renton plant, where the NG’s are currently made. Boeing tells me that this is not currently a concern, since they plan to build the MAX on an additional line and will have room for the additional size of the winglet.
As I stated previously, I am not a big fan of the boring name for the winglet, but I am a fan on how it looks. And really, an airline isn’t going to be choosing the new 737 MAX for the look or name of the winglet, but more for the 1.5% increase of fuel efficiency.
Words of Note: For those of you fans who read Jon Ostrower’s Flight Blogger site, the “Photo of Note” statement might look familiar. I have always loved his usage of that statement. Now that he doesn’t use it anymore after moving to the Wall Street Journal, I received permission to use the terminology — thanks Jon!
United Airline’s special livery for their Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Image from United.
United Airlines has shown off a special livery that will be seen on their Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The swooping gold-line livery is inspired by the Dreamliner livery that Boeing designed and is United’s way of celebrating the two company’s long history together. The special livery will be seen on the entire United 787 fleet.
It is a slick looking livery, but a bit disappointing. I have been hoping from the beginning that United would do something special for their first 787. Although, I had a feeling that if they would do something special, it wouldn’t be radical, since the globe is a new brand for United and they wouldn’t want to cause more confusion about their brand.
The interior cabin will use blues and grays, which are consistent with the airline’s newer aircraft today. The 787 will also debut a new in-flight entertainment system that according to United will offer, “more intuitive browsing and more filtering options.”
To start preparations for the first 787 delivery, United has already installed a full-flight simulator at their Houston hub and has started training pilots, flight attendants and mechanics.
After United takes delivery of their first 787 in September, they will conduct a variety of tests before the aircraft enters service later in the fall. United is hoping to take delivery of five 787 Dreamliners before the end of 2012.
A front view of the special 787 livery for United. Image from United.
The GEnx-1B engine, that is used on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Image from GE.
This story was written by Steve Csonka, Director Environmental Strategy & ecomagination, GE Aviation for AirlineReporter.com.
As you may have inferred from Dale Carlson’s comments in an earlier blog post, many of us at GE Aviation are excited about our roles. I have been passionate about aviation since my teenage years when I took up general aviation flying ’“ learning my ’œstick and rudder’ skills in a Cessna 172 while living in the panhandle of West Virginia. I’˜ve spent 27 years in the commercial aviation industry with airlines and with GE Aviation, and in my current role, I am focused on improving the sustainability of aviation so future generations can experience the same passion.
The value of the aviation enterprise is interwoven into the fabric of our worldwide society ’“ providing fast, safe, and dependable transportation of people and goods. In fact, it is estimated that aviation is currently responsible for more than $2.2 trillion in global economic impact, or 3.5% of total worldwide gross domestic product.
However, we recognize that with our successes come additional challenges ’“noise around airports, local air quality emissions, greenhouse gases, and inflation of customer operating costs with rising fuel costs. The good news is that we continue to make progress in tackling these challenges using advanced technology. At GE, we call these efforts ecomagination ’“ striving to deliver operating and environmental performance with technology. At GE Aviation, our sustainability efforts align with industry goals and focus on three pillars of improvement: operations, infrastructure, and technology.
For operational improvement, GE Aviation offers services that help customers make flight routes more efficient, schedule engine maintenance and ’œClearCore’ engine washing, and decide how much fuel to load on planes for peak operating performance. Every one of these procedures is critical for saving fuel and, in turn, costs and emissions.
On the infrastructure side, GE Aviation is looking beyond making efficient engines and is working with customers and regulatory authorities to make efficient flight paths. Stay tuned for more on this from GE Aviation’s Steve Fulton!
For the technology pillar, my colleague Dale explained in his guest post how GE Aviation researches and develops new, efficient technology. Whether it is the GEnx on the 787 and 747-8 (which just entered service), or CFM’s LEAP engine for the next generation single aisle transcontinental aircraft, GE’s technology enables our customers to burn less fuel, shrink the noise footprint around airports, and dramatically lower NOx emissions.
One innovation I’m excited to talk about is drop-in, renewable Jet fuel that, once commercialized, will enable the industry to achieve up to 80% reductions in net carbon emissions versus petroleum based fuel. The industry is also looking for alternative fuel sources that use a range of raw or waste materials that do not need to compete with food production or land use. So far, the industry has identified two pathways for the production of renewable Jet fuels, and is in the process of evaluating and validating at least five more.
Can you imagine a world where fuel comes from the waste stream and other biomass? I can. GE Aviation was one of the first companies, along with CFM, to test a biofuel-powered engine in flight. At last year’s Paris Air Show, GE Aviation showed an engine that was powered by 15 percent biofuel, and we will continue to discuss our biofuel-powered engines at this year’s Farnborough Air Show. Watch a video about our most recent renewable Jet fueled demonstration flights below, which, along with several other commercial flights, flew into Rio de Janeiro during the recent Rio+20 activities in June:
Renewable fuel development is occurring around the world, and we expect commercial production to commence over the next 2 years.
With all these innovations in operations, infrastructure and aircraft technology (including biofuels), I believe we have ample opportunity and reason to be passionate about the future of aviation. Stop by GE Aviation’s exhibit at the Farnborough Air Show this week to explore more of our sustainable tech: Booth #7, Hall 4.
California Pacific Airlines has a pretty slick livery on their E-170. Photo from the airlines Facebook.
If the livery of California Pacific Airlines doesn’t look familiar to you, that is probably because the airline is not operational yet.
California Pacific Airlines was founded in 2009 and they plan to start revenue flights by the end of 2012. Earlier this week, their first of four Embraer E-170se, was brought to their homebase at McClellan-Palomar Airport (CLD).
CLD is located in Carlsbad, CA, just north of San Diego. They plan to fly to Oakland, Sacramento, and San Jose, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta.
The airline will have their aircraft configured in a two class lay-out with a total of 72 seats on the inside and an impressive livery on the outside. Their original livery plan was not as nice as this one and with the shades of blue and the wave on the tail, I really like what they ended up with.
Additional Photos of California Pacific Airlines Livery:
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