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Boeing is just completing the design work on the 787-9 model which seats 290 passengers and can go 8,500 nautical miles.

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Boeing offers a 35% wage increase for settlement of machinists strike in October 2024.

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Boeing makes the decision to make the next version of the Dreamliner, the 787-10, exclusively at its plant in the North Charleston area of S. Carolina. This is a non-union facility. Larry Loftis, Boeing's vice president and general manager of the 787 program, says the decision was made because it is not practical to ship by air the midbody section of the new plane which is 114 feet long, 10 feet longer than the 787-9. It would not fit into the modified 747 aircraft used to ship jet parts from one manufacturing facility to another. Currently this midbodysection is assembled in S. Carolina from pieces shipped by air from Italian and Japanese plants. Then flown to Everett, Washington or a S. Carolina assembly line for the final steps in the manufacturing process. Reliability and quality issues for the Dreamliner, and cost, are also better addressed by reducing shipment from one manufacturing facility to another. The decision to build this non-union plant in 2009 created strains with the labor unions. The 787-10 is 224 feet long, carries 320 passengers, one third more than the 787-8 and 15% more than the 787-9. It has a list price of 289 million. Boeing has 132 orders from airlines and lessors for this new version....

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Cockpit seat issues on a LATAM Chilean 787 flight. 

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McInerney takes personal responsibility and puts top priority on the Dreamliner. He says we will be defined by the 787, though not at this moment. This means he is personally walking through Boeing's and Boeing supplier's plants to see things first hand, and have the daily progress reports coming directly to him. This means closer supervision and taking steps to get things right. One step was to get some managers from its Defense unit into the 787 program management to correct things, buying Dallas based Vought Aircraft out of a joint venture with Italy's Alenia Aeronautica in South Carolina where sections ofthe 787 are being joined. He also stepped in taking control of key parts of the 787 program, and insisted on Boeing mangers closely monitoring and getting involved with first hand knowledge on supplier's sites and getting action where needed, and stationing Boeing people at each supplier's plant. His earlier style was a bit hands off in comparison. The 15 month delay in the 787 launch and the rather ill timed gala in Seattle for a plane that was hollow inside, and with managers having no idea that supplier's were already behind in their part of the program or not doing anything about it, may have suggested to investors that Boeing's McInerney and his key people were really not at grips with what was going on in their own company. From its July high of $107 Boeing stock has dropped 27% to $78 and recovered only slightly to $83 still 23% below the highs. Experts feel that McInerney will either lose big or win big. He wasn't there when the 787 program was started. Now he has to show he can get things right. His initial moves look like the right ones, taking personal responsibility, making decisions to fix things, and not hesitant to take corrective action in the midst of difficulties such as getting into suppliers factories first hand to see things on the inside. And gettiing his best people from other parts of the company into a team and putting them on the 787, and so on. See the link to the Airbus experience with their jumbo jet A380 which ran into similiar problems in the WSJ. There the French teams who were the better able to solve the problems were brought into the German plants to help get things right, even though there were cultural issues to be overcome. McInerney has process based experience at GE where quality and manufacturing were important, and he has delivered good results with an 84% increase in income to $4.07 billion, on an 8% increase in revenue to $66.4 billion in 2007. This comes just 2 to 3 years since joining Boeing in July 2005. Boeing may have to pay $4 billion in concessions and penalty payments for late deliveries, and Boeing is going to set aside this cost by booking the first 25 delieveries at zero-profit margin....

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Production delays, outsourcing issues and other problems are now hurting Boeing with cancellation of orders as airlines with lower profits in today's economic uncertainty are unable to take advantage of the new fuel efficient 787's in timely manner. Quantas first placed its order for upto 115 Dreamliners in 2005, and it hoped to reduce fuel costs with the 20% more fuel efficient Dreamliners than its 767 planes, which it hoped to retire. 28 Dreamliners were to be delivered by the end of 2011. This never happened as Boeing ran into production problems and only 17 were delivered to all airlines by September 2011. With the global economic uncertainty and slowdown Quantas is predicting a 90% drop in pretax profits for the fiscal year ending in June 2012 to A$50 million. With the situation changed Quantas decided to change the order by cancelling the orders for the larger 787-9 Dreamliner and keep the order for the 15 smaller 787-8 jets to save $8.5 billion. This follows a change made by China Eastern Airlines to cancel orders for 24 787s and buy smaller single aisle 737s for domestic flights. As a result Boeing's total orders stand at 824 in mid 2012, with only 7 new orders since 2007. Boeing says it needs to sell at least 1100 Dreamliners for the 787 program to be profitable. Its own forecast is for sales of an additional 2700 small twin aisle jets like the 787 between 2012 and 2031, with Boeing getting half of the market. The larger longer range 787-9 model will start delivery in 2014 and another version for more capacity on shorter routes the 787-10 is being discussed. Both programs Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and the competing Airbus A-350 program have suffered a series of production problems, outsourcing issues and delays in recent years. ...

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Should 33,000 member Boeing machinists union approve a 25% wage increase over 4 years or ask for 40%?  It has been a long time since a CEO pleaded with union workers to not go on strike. Boeing has negotiated a 4 year 25% increase wage settlement, no non union plants in the South. “I ask you not to sacrifice the opportunity to secure our future together, because of the frustrations of the past. I also know there are employees considering another path—and it’s one where no one wins." We suggested Stephanie Pope coming from a family of machinists for CEO- her dad worked at the Boeing plant. Pope says Boeing has a $60 billion debt pile and the Alaska Airlines accident with a bolted door coming loose midair. Pope says- "In past negotiations, the thinking was we should hold something back. Let me be clear: We did not hold back with an eye on a second vote.” ...

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Boeing takes a$1 billion charge for Dreamliner delays.

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A carbon capture facility is being built in Texas with funding from the Biden administration that will inject 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the ground.

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George Washington shown in the early parts of the Seven Years War (1756-1763) that drove the French from Quebec and North America. In these early battles Washington fought in the Pennsylvania country near Pittsburgh under the British commanders against the Indians and the French. This taught George Washington many things about a war in America's vast forests, the risks and dangers, the best way to keep on fighting a long war in which the British would eventually fail to prevail. After defeat on 2 nights on frozen ice on a lake fleeing French and Indian forces Washington survives, and grasps the idea of divine providence in the struggle against colonial powers France and then Britain. This prepared Washington for a different strategy in the war against the British, learning from the defeats of the British by Indians in forest conditions with quick offense and quick retreats and no large engagements. The entire war was characterized by this quick offense, strategic retreats, and preserving the American army's strengths, as an approach to conduct the fight. Montgomery tried a direct march on Quebec and failed in the early days of the war of independence against British forces. This also reinforced Washington's strategic approach that the British would only lose in a long drawn out war under certain conditions, to avoid direct engagement with large armies or decisive battles till the right moment. Washington enlisted a young French officer Lafayette as a commander in his army knowing the importance of the French to neutralize the British naval power on the seas. When this stage was reached Washington could quickly move his army north to surprise the British by surrounding their forces under Lord Cornwallis resting at Yorktown, Virginia after being harassed in small engagements by American forces in the South. For that to happen Washington had the logistics feat to accomplish of moving cannon and forces up rivers and forests to the north, something practiced in the Pennsylvania region in the fight against the French and their Indian allies. The early part of the war the engagement with the French and Indians was formative for Washington and is the experience that is covered in the book "Young Washington," now made into a movie. The night spent on the frozen river in Pennsylvania country fleeing the Indians and French and surviving was always for Washington an act of divine protection. It may be also the reason why Washington saw his role not as his own but for a larger purpose, leading to handing over his appointment as commander in chief back to Congress in Annapolis in 1783 after the war had ended and peace treaty was signed. We refer to this as a defining moment in The First Letter from the Editor for Lyrarc.com, reflecting on divine protection and the responsibility that goes with it for the Nation that should never be forgotten. ...

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WSJ Editorial Board on the closure of Hormuz and US efforts to strike Iranian coastal missile sites to open it after Iran's IRGC rejected the terms of the Memorandum to open Hormuz. What purpose did the Memorandum serve? DJT let JD Vance come up with a negotiated settlement -accepting efforts of Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar  to mediate a way out to open Hormuz- to make some concessions such as ending Iran sanctions, and opening oil markets to Iranian oil exports, ending the naval blockade, putting nuclear weapons development for negotiations during the 90 day period after the ceasefire.  The IRGC military inside Iran accepted it under pressure from the elected president Pezeshkian and Turkey, Pakistan. Yet its approach has been to accept one day and the following day issue statements contradicting this the next day. Some of the clauses were kept deliberately vague on the insistence of IRGC or worded in a way that IRGC could point to their interpretation and reject efforts for a ceasefire  and opening Hormuz. In the light of this experience 2 conclusions were reached by the US- the IRGC makes decisions for Iran not the elected president Pezeshkian and IRGC does not want to open Hormuz except by charging tolls as away to finance its missile operations. In this kind of a situation how does the US respond effectively without getting into a land conflict that distracts US from its domestic goals of building a strong economy, cost of living action, and rebuilding US infrastructure? This Editorial says Schumer's effort to block defense bills does not serve the national interest. Schumer's point to exercise caution to focus on domestic goals of rebuilding the US economy serves the Nation well, yet continuously blocking the president to gain in the midterms is not a good strategy. Lyrarc points out that the best way is for the US to continue the naval blockade if Iran won't allow Hormuz to be opened to all ships without tolls. And step two would be to find enough alternative sources of oil to make up for the 20 million barrels from Hormuz. Some of this could come from reducing use of oil and gas which China has done by importing less oil from 12.5 million barrels a day to 8.5 million barrels a day, effectively doing without the 4 million barrels a day it got from Hormuz. By doing this the US can avoid the effort to open Hormuz through alternative sources of oil supplies,  avoid being drawn into a prolonged conflict it does not need. Achieving its objectives on nuclear and Hormuz in a different way exercizing patience and using wisdom alongside strength. That course means the US would work with the European Union, UK, China, India, oil companies and other oil producing regions to forgo Hormuz oil as Lyrarc has proposed as the most effective answer to threats about Hormuz, and continuing the naval blockade.  ...