Report: Boeing Expects to Announce Launch Customer in First Half of 2004

We put in several calls to the Boeing folks, in the Northwest and in Chicago, to confirm a Reuters report that said Boeing's CFO, Mike Sears, was talking about naming the launch customer for the 7E7 'Dreamliner' by some time next Summer.

It would be the first all-new Boeing since the triple-seven, and it would be designed with operating costs at the top of the wish list.

More than twice as capacious as the perfect-for-the-market but undersold 717, the 'Dreamliner' [a name popular only outside the US -- we still suspect Airbus employees loaded the ballot box --ed.] would be the lowest-cost, quickest-turnaround machine in its class, or anywhere near it.

It's being designed for ease and economy of maintenance; and it's being designed for ease of manufacture, as well -- Boeing does not outsource as much labor as Airbus.

The 7E7 program has a new financial goal, too. Sears said, "The second dimension is we're going to enjoin major partners in the development process funding." Airlines mignt provide funding? Vendors? Suppliers of avionics? Just who, or what, or how much -- that somehow didn't get covered by Reuters.

Mary Hanson, in Washington state, told ANN, "We're still optimistic that our Board will approve our offering the airplane to customers by the end of this year."

Boeing's Vice President of Media Relations in Chicago, John Dern, reiterated to us what Ms Hanson had said, and added, "We're all feeling optimistic -- we have the right airplane at the right time."

FMI: www.boeing.com