Mulally: Cruiser is ‘real' and airlines will buy
ALAN PEAFORD
Alan Mulally, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive, has a simple message to the cynics and sceptics at the Paris airshow – Boeing's new faster aeroplane is real. The aircraft - dubbed Sonic Cruiser by Mulally, a name that seems likely to stick - was announced two months ago. Boeing say the aircraft will be 15-20% faster than current models, could fly further than 9,000nm (17,000km), will fly at altitudes higher than 40,000ft (12,000m) and be quieter than existing aircraft and improve on chapter 4 requirements.
Detractors say that the concept has been put up as a spoiler to steal some of the thunder from Airbus Industrie's successful launch of the A380, to deflect attention away from the lack of market interest in a 747X and is merely a "paper airplane".
Mulally chuckles at the idea. "We are not in the business of playing hoaxes on our customers. We have talked to our customers about this and we are continuing to do so. This aircraft is real. "The appointments of Walt Gillette and John Roundhill to the project team are an indication of how seriously we are taking this. You don't put two of your best people onto something that isn't real. "People said we couldn't do the 707, people said we couldn't do the 747, they said we couldn't do the 777. We have proven them wrong before and we will do so again.
"Boeing engineers have been working for 40 years on various aircraft design concepts that led to the Sonic Cruiser but Mulally says the breakthrough came with the development of the engines for the 777.Question"
Once we knew what those engines could do we knew it could be done technically. "The big question was ‘is there a market need?' We talked to the airlines and there was an emphatic ‘yes'."
British Airways is believed to be committed to the idea of the aircraft and could be a launch customer with around 40 aircraft. Close UK rival Virgin Atlantic has already said it wishes to be a launch customer and insiders at Boeing think the demand will snowball.
"What happens when first class and business class passengers have a choice of flying direct to where they want to go, quicker and more comfortably?" asks Mulally. "The aircraft will shave off about an hour's flying time for every 3,000 miles flown.
"This concept fits with where Boeing thinks the world is going."
It is this prime difference between where Boeing predicts passenger demand will head and how Airbus believes the airlines will meet that demand that is behind the tit-for-tat sniping over the A380 and the Sonic Cruiser.
Randy Baseler, Boeing's vice-president of marketing, says there is a fundamental difference between the company's interpretations of the demand. In a market outlook report to be released at Paris this week, Baseler will show how the two companies forecast similar projections for seats over the next 20 years but differ greatly on where the seats will be put. Boeing sees a requirement for more than 18,000 new airplanes in the 90-seat plus category. Airbus sees requirements for fewer than 15,000. Airbus sees a demand for some 1,500 aircraft with more than 500 seats - the A380 - while Boeing sees demand for only a third of that number and argues that its 747 can meet the demand.
In contrast, Boeing sees a need for 12,400 single aisle airplanes such as the A320 and the Boeing 737/757 while Airbus sees a demand for only 7,600 airplanes. It is this basic difference that led to Airbus launching the A380 and Boeing abandoning its plans for the stretched 747. "Our customers asked us to reprioritise the development of an airplane larger than the 747-400. Instead they wanted us to concentrate on a new, faster airplane. That makes sense to us," says Baseler.
Mulally and his team are emphatic about the new world. "There will be a much greater fragmentation of the market. We are convinced that premium passengers will be demanding more point-to-point routing.
Figures
"If you want to fly from Philadelphia to Tokyo, why would you want to spend time at a hub like Chicago?" asks Mulally.
Baseler has drawn up figures to demonstrate the case. Using the hub Baseler estimates airlines will take an average of 16h 58min to complete the journey. Today using a non-stop city-to-city route, the journey can be completed in 13h 20min. The Sonic Cruiser will complete the same mission in 11h 20min - some five and a half hours faster than the hub and spoke routing. The big issue facing Boeing is exactly what the configuration will be - the fact that this is undecided adds ammunition to the detractors' view that this is a hastily conceived idea. Mulally disagrees. "This aeroplane will be designed with our customers' involvement. We are welcoming airlines to participate in the discussions. We know what is possible; what we need to know is what they want.
"We know what travellers want - they want to go where they want to go, when they want to go, and how they want to fly - non-stop."
The innovative Boeing design will require significant discussions with airports because of the large canards which will affect gate access. The aircraft has a constant cross-section cabin with a large double delta wing with simple leading and trailing edges. The rear mounted engines will be derivatives of the successful 777 engines; Boeing is talking to all three manufacturers - GE, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney - about the possibilities.
The Sonic Cruiser will have a faster climb capability than conventional commercial aircraft and will fly at higher cruise altitudes. "The vital thing is that the operating cost is as good or better than current airplanes," says Mulally.
Source: Flight Daily News
