For Boeing, 'not bad' is good at Paris Air Show - Dayton Business Journal:

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On the second day of the world’s oldest and most importan t aircrafttrade show, Boeing was againh shut out. At least its chief rival, , hasn’tg done much better, though the Europeanj aircraft maker was able to eke out a couple of orders the lasttwo days. Rathefr than talk about the kindsof multi-plan e deals lined up in past years, Boeing CEO of Commerciapl Airplanes Scott E. Carson instead choss to focus on howthings weren’t as bad as they mighf seem. “At this point it appearse to us that the economic conditionsxhave bottomed,” Carson said, adding that the company’s commercial jet division could begin growing agai as early as 2010.
-- The long-delayed 787 Dreamlinerd will fly bythe (though it won’y be taking to the skies over Paris this week, as some had Jon Ostrower, of pegs the date for the firs t flight at June 30. He citesz multiple sources for the June30 date. -- Its new 747-9 freighter plane will fly its firsr flight by the end ofthis year. -- To get back into the hunt fora $35 billionj contract to supply fuel tankers for the U.S. military, Boeing will reconfigurs its 777 to increasefuel efficiency. It had previouslyy lost its tanker bid to the A350by -- Also on the defense contracting front, the company it was forming a division to overse its unmanned aircraft programs.
This year’s air show comez at a gloomy timefor aircraft. Both Boeing and Airbud have had to deal with cancellations of orderdsfrom credit-crunched buyers. And both have had productiohn cutbacks. But Boeing has had the additional by its machinistzs within thelast year. The companh has taken hits to its militarcontracting business, with the cancellatioj of the F-22 and the loss of the tankert deal. And delays in getting its next-generatio n 787 Dreamliner into the air have beena high-profile So it was up to Carsohn to search out the positive. He said his company wouldf not be cutting back assemblt linesthis year.
It will cut production of its wide-body 777 by 28 percentt in mid-2010, and will not increase 767 and 747 Airbus has cut production of its A320 single aisle plane and itsA380 superjumbo, and has shelved plans to increasre production of its wide-body A330. Carsonn said he expects the credit crunch on airlinezs to ease towarda “morwe normal” environment in 2010. That would be good news for and itsrival Airbus, as Boeing’s boss also said that the company has a currenty order book of around $265 billion, whichg means seven years of production, and Carsom said he doesn’t expect the credit crisis to significantl y affect that.
Some aerospace experts already see the logicbehind Carson’sd pitch. “Boeing’s news was to say we thinkl the recession’s bottoming and we’re not going to see cuts for saidWayne Plucker, Frost Sullivan’s Aerospace & Defense Industry Manager. “The fact that they didn’ty have to quietly announcer cancellations was abig thing. It’s not a bad airshow consideringh the gloom anddoom that’ws been around the industry for the last year.
For it’s not bad, and not bad is good, so to Plucker added that good, or at least not bad, news on the commercial side of the would be a welcome given some of the defeats that Boeinyg has been handed in its military contracting business the loss of the tankerd contract to the Airbusz consortium andthe high-profile curtailmenr of government plans to buy more F-22 “Heaven only knows, they could use some good news,” Plucket said. “Their defense side has takej areal drubbing.
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