Tidbits from the Boeing Investors Conference

Here are some main points from today's Boeing Investor's Conference

• 787 sold out beyond 2012
• 737 Sold out through 2012
• 787 facility in Charleston will be self sufficient
• Use 787 earnings toward 737 successor/re-engine and 777 improvements/777NG
• Expect 787 margins to grow over time
• 787 production model is the future just need to get it right
• Commercial aircraft orders for Boeing to be better this year vs last year
• 787 has not flown as many hours as they had hoped to have at this point but efficiency of flights are high
• 747-8 TIA to be in hand in a few days
• Talking to customers about either re-engining the 737 or building a whole new airplane
• Improved on 787 final assembly costs; take out about half the cost of final assembly for airplanes 7 to 21
• 747-8I has 70% of detailed engineering completed
• Boeing adds a fourth 747-8F to the flight test program
• 737 plans to be announced this fall
• 787-9 final configuration this fall; start final assembly of first 787-9 in 1st quarter 2012
• Reducing weight on the 787-9; hope to have it fly 8,150 nautical miles
• Plan to incorporate -9 weight savings into the 787-8 to improve that airplane
• Boeing completed 1,450 test conditions on the 787 flight test; retired a significant amount of risk
• No major changes required on the 787
• Boeing has a day to day plan to finish test flight and achieve certification
• Boeing needs less than 90 hours/month per aircraft of flight time to certify the 787
• ZA100 power on planned for summer
• 787 is aerodynamically stable no need to change the outside lines
• Boeing has already flown or tested extreme conditions on the 787
• 5th 787 to fly in the next few weeks (ZA005)
• Boeing now transitioning from testing phase to demonstration phase
• Seeing improvements in production and in the supply chain
• Boeing will see almost a 70% increase in completion between airplane 23 and airplane 16
• 50 pilots have flown the 787
• Shear tie issue not a huge concern; did not drive the decision to halt deliveries to Everett
• GEnx-1B powered 787 to be certified in 1st quarter of 2011
• Submittal of FAA required docs and testing to be done before November for certification purposes.

If anyone had listened to the conference and wishes to add anything significant, please contact me.