Farnbourough order rumor and other musings

On the eve of Farnborough I've been hearing rumblings of some 787 orders. These are unconfirmed rumors. Some are obvious but others are not. I heard that Ethiad, Asiana (amongst the obvious airlines), and Turkish Airlines (the unexpected order) maybe ordering the 787. While Boeing has over 60 unidentified orders including 2 large blocks of 23 and 35, it seems that a couple of these airlines may not be the ones who placed those orders. It seems for certain that the 787 will break 900 firm orders by the end of the show and I'm willing to say that a further order from ILFC, one of Boeing's most important and influential customers, will be given that honor. I will hope to confirm these potential orders soon.

While the 787 final assembly production has been stopped momentarily because of the issues with LN 4, the final assembly of the first three flight worthy aircraft continue. The engines for LN 1 will have been re-installed by the end of this weekend...a major step forward as Boeing was not expecting to re-install them until August....so they're several weeks ahead of that schedule. Jon Ostrower reported it here.

Look here at Matt Cawby's site for more pics. Here's a picture of the fatigue test frame in 40-24. This is another engine picture. And final picture also here. It is my understanding that LN 1 should be moving in about a week to 10 days from now but I'm not sure if this is on hold because of the issues with LN 4. Speaking of which we hope to have more clarity on that airplane by Tuesday.