Boeing has gotten an order for fifty 7E7s from All Nippon Airlines. This means the “Dreamliner” will go into production.
At one level for us cattle-class people, it is just another flying bus. On the other hand a new, better, safer, more efficient airplane is neat and I like neat things.
Whoo Whoo!
I don’t think it’s going to be a train, Paul.
In any case, I enjoy aircraft, too. But when in the hell will we finally get suborbital aircraft? I want commercial flights that let passengers clearly see the curvature of the Earth!
Forget suborbital aircraft. That is just a bridge technology until we get to transporter beams.
Besides will you suborbital aircraft have movies? Free liquor? I think not.
What happened to the 787 and 797 (not to mention the 7A7 - 7D7)? Where did the “E” come from?
That’s why we need to revive the airship, Paul. A slow boat to anywhere, with luxury accomodations and helium-filled gasbags. Solar panels on the top and sides, too, and satellite uplinks (and radio downlinks) that can support wide-pipe DSL.
The ultimate in luxury transportation, woefully underused by the staid and ossified commercial mass transit industry.
E = Extra-f&cking-large!
Hansome aircraft/
Hijack–
Nashville International had an Anatov vist 2 weeks back. For the world’s largest transport plane, it sure does have a slow landing speed.
Bring it on! I want to fly that thing!
(It won’t make up for the disappointment of the Sonic Cruiser cancellation, though).
So is it going to continue to be called the 7E7?
Do I sense a new Air Force One after the 747 is retired?
Probably not.
The 7E7 is a much smaller plane than the 747. My understanding is that it’s designed more as a replacement for the 757 and 767.
If Boeing were to retire the 747 series, they would probably have to replace it with something comparable. I’d think that whatever that replacement is, it would be used as the basis for a new Air Force One. Or, if it happened that there was no direct successor to the 747, I’d guess that the 777 would be a decent replacement. The Airbus A380 could be used as well, if not for the fact that the US government is heavily biased against Airbus in favor of Boeing.
Or whatever comes along as the Boeing “flagship” plane by replacement time – the 747-type presidential transports started serving besides the 707s around 91-92, after the 707s had served around 30 years. This was a little over 20 years after the first 747s flew and some 12 years after they stopped making new 707s. It’s quite within reason that barring some major technological leap, the Prez would still be flying a 747-based model over decade after Boeing shuts down that assembly line.
The deal with the 747 was that you needed something made-in-USA with a certain range, endurance, and capacity for installing various systems. Same criteria almost surely will apply for the next one.
… as airliners, that is. They still turned out AWACS and J-STAR custom models through the 80s.
Well, Airbus’ A380 looks beautiful. "Airbus is betting its newfound status as the world’s leading jet maker on the “superjumbo” (double decker jet) that has a 262-foot wingspan, a tail as tall as a seven-story building and which cost $13 billion to develop".
Look, the first Airbuses will carry 555 passenger. Virgin says they will have a casino and beauty shop aboard. Fine.
We all know we soon be rid of those niceties and will crammed in their like 900 sardines. 900 people trying to hit customs and the baggage claim at the same time? That sounds like no fun at all to this frequent flyer.
My gosh your ticket could be for seat II-I-50 (that is Seat I, row Fifty, Second Deck). Moo! Moo!
Technically quite cool, but does anyone think it will have any amenities for us in the back of the plane?
No fun.
I heartily agree. Bigger planes are a really, really bad idea until ‘they’ figure out how to make everything else run smoothly and efficently. If you have ever been through an airport that has had 2 747’s and 2 767’s land? Imagine adding 25-50% more people - scary to think about.
Anybody got a link to some good 7E7 pics?
I hope these new planes come factory-equipped with all the available anti-terrorism bells-'n-whistles. I’m afraid that regular-sized jets are too vulnerable as it is to terrorists with lasers or shoulder-mounted AA missiles; how much more tempting would a big fat shiny new model with 500-800 passengers be to these monsters? 
Thanks Clothahump.
(I suppose I could have figured to go to Boeing.com by myself. I guess it’s true that dope makes you lazy! )