Suspicious names behind a “survey” Coalition backbenchers’s attitudes to the ETS, rumours from Mallesons, who didn’t get invited to the Anglican Church’s big cathedral bash, and more.
Boeing 
The tragedy of Boeing’s demise
In many respects, Boeing is a metaphor for failed corporations, and the wider failings of modern US business managements to engage with the realities of design and production.
Can Boeing really build jets anymore?
Barely a week after Boeing was bragging to the media about its amazing new plane, the 747-8, it has announced it won’t even be flying this year, and will take a US$1 billion hit because of problems with the project. What a joke, says Ben Sandilands.
The shape of jets to come, maybe
Airbus have released some teasers overnight about the future of aviation. Are these the shapes of jets to come or just a whimsy on the part of Airbus?
Bad news for 787: Mitsubishi says no to composite wing
In a very loud wake up call to Boeing, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which makes the carbon fibre wings for the troubled 787 Dreamliner project, has dumped the use of this composite material in its own regional jet project, says Ben Sandilands.
Former senior RAAF officers slam Australia’s defence plan
Three retired senior RAAF officers have published a review of the culture of learned failure in the administration of defence in Australia and the US, claiming Australia’s defence force will become largely irrelevant within decades.
Dreamliner in 2010? Boeing’s eyebrow-raising schedule
Boeing announced today that the first of the belated Dreamliner 787s will be delivered next year. But that makes for a pretty crunched test flight period, says an unconvinced Ben Sandilands.
787 becomes a moving target, again
After several delays, the No2 Dreamliner in the 787 flight test fleet has been doing taxying tests at Everett.
V Australia’s 777 buy-up will bite Qantas
Qantas made an incredibly inept decision by choosing to buy a large fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and not buying Boeing 777s. With the latter optimised for long-haul flights, V Australia’s new 777 fleet will allow it to offer a very attractive alternative to Qantas and Jetstar.
Boeing 787 no dream for Qantas
Qantas are yet to say anything in response to the serious issues involving the Boeing 787 Dreamliner program, although they have 50 Dreamliners on firm order.
US media wakes up to Dreamliner nightmare
Boeing’s Dreamliner dream run with the US media is well and truly over, with a report in today’s USA Today that should prove the mega-circulation media turning point for the company’s PR, writes Ben Sandilands.
787 Dreamliner: flawed inside and outside
New revelations about the “plastic fantastic” Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s wing problems show that they fail at lower stress levels than almost any other airliner in history, says Ben Sandilands.
CIA’s ‘ghost flights’ could go public
Secret details of the CIA program that sent terrorist suspects to countries and prisons where they could be tortured may soon become public, with the British aviation company that allegedly operated the off-the-grid “ghost flights” agreeing to give evidence.
Boeing’s toxic corporate culture
With every lie and evasion that Boeing utters about its 787 Dreamliner, the story becomes less about an airliner than the wider issue of corporate cultural failure, says Ben Sandilands
Boeing’s hopes for its Dreamliner are turning into nightmares
The Dreamliner 787 is now in limbo: a family of jets for which there is no first flight date, no flight testing and certification schedule, and no performance parameters for the airlines that ordered them.
The 787 calamity: lies and evasions continue
The lie that Boeing used to makes fools of customers like Qantas was that the technology to build a high composite ‘plastic fantastic’ Dreamliner jet posed no difficulties. So is the Airbus any better? asks Ben Sandilands.
Boeing’s flightless wonder turns and brakes…
One day before the second anniversary of the ‘faux’ roll-out of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the prototype has moved under its own power at Paine field, Everett, near Seattle.
Dreamliner — is it an impossible dream?
The most alarming question to arise from the Dreamliner fiasco is whether high composite airliners are doomed to fail, writes Ben Sandliands.
Qantas flies away from Dreamliner deal. What next?
Having canceled 15 Dreamliners, Qantas is working out how to fill any gaps left by a 787 situation that is now looking worse by the day.
Dreamliner: great until the wings peeled off
The enormity of the problems with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner are only just starting to sink in.
Bad times at Boeing — Dreamliner delayed again
At the end of last September Boeing solemnly promised first delivery of a 787 to All Nippon by this August, says Ben Sandilands. It’s not going to happen.
Airbus v Boeing face-off thanks to AirAsia X and Jetstar
AirAsia X has Airbus A350-900s on order; Jetstar is supposed to get the first of Qantas’ Boeing 787-8s. So two fuel-slashing “plastic fantastic” aircraft will compete in one market. Interesting.
The five traits of good companies
What Crocs, Boeing and Apple have in common.
40 years ago today: remembering the Airbus’s modest debut
When the Airbus A300 debuted in 1969, 40 years ago today, people were more interested in flying to the moon. Ben Sandilands was there when it first took flight in 1973.
Wedgetail plucked: defence planning project fail?
A crucial two week war games trial of one of the troubled Wedgetail airborne early warning and command aircraft in the Northern Territory has been “inconclusive”.
