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The Concorde has long been retired, but future skies may be filled with aircraft that can go even faster, criss-crossing the world in a matter of hours. Hypersonic engines that are being developed for military and government applications, like defense, drones and missiles, could one day propel future planes much faster than conventional engines for less money. Host Danny Lewis looks at the technical and business obstacles, and finds out what it would take to make hypersonic air travel a reality.
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Are the Skies Going Hypersonic?
Jet-engine durability issues and the lack of spare parts are saddling the aviation industry.
Few industries do well when their products are forever being returned for early repairs. Jet-engine makers are currently an exception—and this is raising eyebrows.
Shares in RTX Corporation hit a record high last week after the aerospace conglomerate significantly beat second-quarter earnings forecasts. Excluding one-time effects, operating profit in its Pratt & Whitney engine-making division rose 23%. GE Aerospace also reported a surge in demand for spare parts for commercial engines, and its stock closed at a 16-year high last Tuesday. In Europe, jet-engine manufacturers Rolls-Royce and Safran are expected to post robust results when they report this week.
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Orders placed by Korean Air and Japan Airlines mark a much-needed show of confidence in the embattled plane maker
Boeing increase; green up pointing triangle received orders for up to 70 airplanes at the Farnborough International Airshow, marking a much-needed show of confidence in the embattled plane maker.
The deals from Korean Air and Japan Airlines come as Boeing grapples with production slowdowns and regulatory scrutiny in the wake of January’s near catastrophe on an Alaska Airlines flight. The production cut is causing the company to burn through billions of dollars in cash each quarter.
Currently, about 200 fully or mostly finished airplanes are parked in airfields, outside plants or other locations, awaiting parts such as interiors or engines.
This week, plane makers are gathering at Farnborough, one of the world’s largest aviation trade fairs, where they tend to highlight their latest products and technological advances, while also trumpeting deals for new passenger, cargo and military aircraft.
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May 1. Brazilian plane maker Embraer explores creating a new passenger aircraft that WSJ aviation reporter Ben Katz says would compete head-on with offerings from Airbus and Boeing. Plus, police remove pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University in New York and intervene amid violent clashes at UCLA. And, we dive into some of the themes playing out this earnings season, including the AI craze and the return of business travel. Luke Vargas hosts.
Plane maker can’t deliver enough 787 Dreamliners after sanctions disrupted production of heat exchangers
Boeing has more parts trouble, but this time it doesn’t stem from manufacturing snafus or the 737 jet. The blame goes to Russia sanctions still rippling through the jet maker’s supply chain.
In the opening days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a maker of a temperature-regulating part for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner ceased its Russian operations and shifted production west. At the time, Boeing was building so few of the jets that the supplier, RTX RTX 0.05%increase; green up pointing triangle, was able to keep up with demand.
But now the jet maker is trying to increase production of the wide-bodies, and RTX’s new factory lines in the U.S. and U.K. aren’t making enough.
“When the invasion happened, it got moved, and the capacity of that supplier has not kept pace with us,” Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said this past month.
In a demonstration of how relatively simple glitches can reverberate through a global supply chain, Boeing’s inability to secure enough heat exchangers, a critical but relatively basic part akin to a radiator, in part led it to warn investors that it won’t deliver as many of the Dreamliner jets as anticipated this year.
The slowdown will sap the company’s already strained cash flow, with fallout extending to airlines and the flying public.
American Airlines last week blamed Dreamliner delays in announcing moves to trim some international and long-haul routes this year and next. The airline, while not ending service to any destinations, will cut back on fall and winter flights on certain routes to Europe, South America and Hawaii and is ending some summer seasonal routes earlier than planned.
Heat exchangers pull in cool air from the outside to prevent overheating. Each plane has several, which are used on a number of systems. The heat exchangers affected by the shortage help regulate the temperature of electronics on the plane, and for its environmental control system, which runs air conditioning and cabin pressurization. Jet engines also rely on heat exchangers, but those components aren’t affected by the delays.
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Boeing delivered 24 commercial airplanes in April, the lowest number so far this year, as the company works through quality issues in the wake of the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout involving a 737 MAX jet.
MAX deliveries also hit a low for the year at 16.
The company has said it aims to ramp up production toward the end of the year. Boeing has delivered 83 MAX jets so far this year, down from 130 during the same period last year.
The company's backlog as of April 30 stood at 5,646, including 4,340 737s.
Boeing's shares were recently up about 1.5%.
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Plane maker can’t deliver enough 787 Dreamliners after sanctions disrupted production of heat exchangers
Boeing has more parts trouble, but this time it doesn’t stem from manufacturing snafus or the 737 jet. The blame goes to Russia sanctions still rippling through the jet maker’s supply chain.
In the opening days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a maker of a temperature-regulating part for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner ceased its Russian operations and shifted production west. At the time, Boeing was building so few of the jets that the supplier, RTX RTX 0.05%increase; green up pointing triangle, was able to keep up with demand.
But now the jet maker is trying to increase production of the wide-bodies, and RTX’s new factory lines in the U.S. and U.K. aren’t making enough.
“When the invasion happened, it got moved, and the capacity of that supplier has not kept pace with us,” Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said this past month.
In a demonstration of how relatively simple glitches can reverberate through a global supply chain, Boeing’s inability to secure enough heat exchangers, a critical but relatively basic part akin to a radiator, in part led it to warn investors that it won’t deliver as many of the Dreamliner jets as anticipated this year.
The slowdown will sap the company’s already strained cash flow, with fallout extending to airlines and the flying public.
American Airlines last week blamed Dreamliner delays in announcing moves to trim some international and long-haul routes this year and next. The airline, while not ending service to any destinations, will cut back on fall and winter flights on certain routes to Europe, South America and Hawaii and is ending some summer seasonal routes earlier than planned.
Heat exchangers pull in cool air from the outside to prevent overheating. Each plane has several, which are used on a number of systems. The heat exchangers affected by the shortage help regulate the temperature of electronics on the plane, and for its environmental control system, which runs air conditioning and cabin pressurization. Jet engines also rely on heat exchangers, but those components aren’t affected by the delays.
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Federal air-safety regulators have opened a new investigation into Boeing after the jet maker recently disclosed that its employees may have skipped some inspections on 787 Dreamliners and falsified records, the latest quality issue at the manufacturer. The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane maker notified the agency in April that it may not have completed required inspections on certain Dreamliners.
The inspections were related to so-called bonding and grounding aimed at reducing electrical hazards near the aircraft’s fuel tanks, people familiar with the matter said. Commercial jetliners have various safeguards to protect fuel tanks from lightning strikes or other issues. The FAA said it was investigating “whether Boeing completed the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records.” The agency has been scrutinizing Boeing’s production since the Jan. 5 midair blowout of a door plug on a 737 MAX jet flown by Alaska Airlines.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether any 787 Dreamliners currently flying passengers around the world would need to be pulled out of service for inspections. The agency said Boeing was reinspecting all 787s in production and must formulate a plan to address the in-service Dreamliner fleet.
About 450 Dreamliners could be affected, according to people familiar with the investigation. Boeing said in a securities filing it had delivered 1,110 of the aircraft as of last year.
Boeing shares closed 0.8% lower Monday, falling after The Wall Street Journal reported on the new FAA investigation. Broader U.S. stock indexes settled around 1% higher.
Boeing’s 787 program chief, Scott Stocker, in an April 29 internal message, said the company found no immediate problem for Dreamliners currently flying.
“Fortunately, our engineering team has assessed that this misconduct did not create an immediate safety of flight issue,” Stocker said in the message, which a Boeing spokeswoman provided to the Journal.
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