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

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On the second day of the world’s oldest and most important aircrafttrade show, Boeing was again shut out. At leastt its chief rival, , hasn’t done much though the European aircraft maker was able to eke out a couplde of orders the lasttwo days. Rather than talk aboutg the kindsof multi-plane deals lined up in past Boeing CEO of Commercial Airplanes Scott E. Carson instead chose to focus on howthingsd weren’t as bad as they might seem. “Ar this point it appears to us that the economicx conditionshave bottomed,” Carson adding that the company’s commercialo jet division could begin growing agai n as early as 2010.
-- The long-delayeds 787 Dreamliner will fly bythe (thouguh it won’t be taking to the skiexs over Paris this week, as some had Jon Ostrower, of pegs the date for the firstf flight at June 30. He citexs multiple sources for the June30 date. -- Its new 747-8u freighter plane will fly its first flighy by the end ofthis -- To get back into the hunt for a $35 billionm contract to supply fuel tankeras for the U.S. military, Boeing will reconfigure its 777 to increaseefuel efficiency. It had previously lost its tanke r bid to the A350by Airbus. -- Also on the defensw contracting front, the company it was forminy a division to oversee its unmannedaircraft programs.
This year’x air show comes at a gloomy time for Both Boeing and Airbus have had to deal with cancellations of orderssfrom credit-crunched buyers. And both have had productiomn cutbacks. But Boeing has had the additional by its machinists withinh thelast year. The companhy has taken hits to its military contracting with the cancellation ofthe F-22 and the loss of the tankefr deal. And delays in getting its next-generation 787 Dreamliner into the air have beena high-profild embarrassment. So it was up to Carsobn to search outthe positive. He said his companuy would not be cutting back assembly linesthis year.
It will cut productionn of its wide-body 777 by 28 percen in mid-2010, and will not increase 767 and 747 Airbus has cut production of its A320 singl e aisle plane and its A380 and has shelved plans to increase production ofits wide-body Carson said he expectes the credit crunch on airlines to ease toward a “more normal” environment in 2010. That woulx be good news for Boeing, and its rival Airbus, as Boeing’s boss also said that the company has a current order book ofarounc $265 billion, which means seven yeara of production, and Carson said he doesn’ expect the credit crisis to significantly affect Some aerospace experts alreadyu see the logic behind Carson’s “Boeing’s news was to say we thinkm the recession’s bottoming and we’re not goingy to see cuts for said Wayne Plucker, Frost & Sullivan’s Aerospace Defense Industry Manager.
“The fact that they didn’t have to quietly announcr cancellations was abig It’s not a bad airshow considering the gloon and doom that’s been around the industrhy for the last year. For it’s not bad, and not bad is so to speak.” Plucker added that or at leastnot bad, news on the commercial side of the would be a welcome given some of the defeats that Boeing has been handee in its military contracting business – the loss of the tanker contract to the Airbus consortium and the high-profile curtailment of government plansz to buy more F-22 fighters. “Heaven only knows, they coule use some good news,” Plucker said.
“Their defense side has taken areal