To e or not to e?

To E or not to E? That is the question being contemplated by Boeing and one that is likely to crop up more than once during this show.

Will the proposed 7E7 become Boeing's next commercial jet? Or will it merely flutter its paper wings in the limelight just long enough to steal some attention from rival Airbus during Le Bourget 2003, rather like the Sonic Cruiser's Paris performance two years ago.

Boeing knows the sceptics are going to be hard to convince.

The company describes 2003 as "the make or break year" in terms of making up its mind whether to make this concept a reality. If it can make the numbers add up, the company will go to its board by the end of the year for authority to offer the aircraft, after which it will talk to airlines.

Boeing is already laying down some groundwork, however.

Composites

It has decided the aircraft would be constructed almost entirely from composites, the wing being a titanium/graphite (TiGri) combination, while graphite combined with a toughened epoxy resin will be the main composite.

By the end of this week, the company should also have picked a final assembly site for the aircraft.

Boeing is promising a 20 June decision after inviting US states and cities to compete to be the home of the 7E7.

While the location of its current main airliner factories in the Seattle area ought to be the "top" contenders, Boeing has made clear it will take into account a number of considerations, many of them financial, in its final assembly site choice and is looking for "support of local, county and state governments". So "E" may not necessarily stand for Everett.

Boeing has also issued a broad set of parameters for the proposed aircraft.

The 7E7 will carry 200-250 passengers on routes between 13,334km (7,200nm) and 14,816km. Boeing Commercial Airplanes marketing vice president Randy Baseler calls it a "middle-of-the-market" aircraft that is chiefly aimed at replacing 757/767 types.

The key to the aircraft, and presumably the point of the "E", however, is efficiency. Boeing has set a target of making the 7E7 20% more fuel efficient than the Airbus A330. Some 8% of those savings will come from engine performance, while around 10% will come from aerodynamic/materials/systems optimization.

Talking

Boeing is still talking to all three major engine manufacturers, General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce, but says it does not expect that still to be the case by the end of the year.

There are no indications yet whether it will dual-source or single-source the aircraft's powerplant.

It will be "very close" to an all-electric aircraft, using no bleed air to power its systems in order to benefit from weight-savings of an electric supply.

So 2003 will see Boeing move forward with the technology parameters of the 7E7, naming suppliers and working out such issues as how far it should go, how big the wing should be, how large the fuselage cross-section?

As Boeing puts it, the 7E7 "firm concept" will be in place by year end after which efforts would move to developing the firm configuration with the aim of a first flight in 2007 and certification and initial deliveries in 2008.

But will it sell?

The middle market, by Boeing's own admission, is seeing little activity. Baseler says: "The middle market has been fairly dormant relative to the other segments." Baseler, however, is convinced that there will be a growing need for more point-to-point flights and for more frequencies on key city pairs. That is where the 7E7 is aimed.

"Airlines tell us they want the next new airplane to serve this middle market and bring economic advantage to it," he says.

Boeing also stresses it has been talking informally to "well over 40 customers" one a one-to-one basis about the 7E7, whereas there were only "about a dozen" candidates for the Sonic Cruiser.

Even with that potential customer base, Boeing knows that in the current market, firm commitments must be hard fought for, although the manufacturer has indicated that it would not need large volumes of initial orders to get the program launched.

"E", then, does not stand for easy, but it might just be the aircraft that Boeing launches in earnest.

Source: Flight Daily News