sailingfun

It’s not almost a 787. In a two class it will seat 225. If business class probably a bit less. Perhaps 210 to 215. By building it to a 5000 mile range it can be much lighter than the 787. They are stating a goal of 20 to 25% better fuel burn than the 787.
The market is demanding the aircraft. There is very strong support for a direct 767 replacement. So much so that some airlines have discussed with Boeing reopening the 767 line.

BobZ

Just in....spy fotos of the 797 fuselage mock up.

snowdawg

Actually Boeing and FAA are having a meeting this month to discuss unmanned cockpit.

80ktsClamp

Look to the right... there's another yoke and such.

galaxy flyer

Oh yeah, there is. No more captains drawing a line down the pedestal saying, “this in mine, that’s your’s”. Boeing does it for you.

GF

Mesabah

It won't happen, the bigger threat is dual single pilot, meaning two pilots aboard, but only one of them has to be at the controls, while the other is in the back on rest. FAR117 allows this, where you only have to overnight one pilot, and the other can deadhead back to the hub/outstation. 20+ hour duty days, here we come.

forgot to bid

That to me is what they'll actually pull off first and treat it like the rfo is the modern day fe. :/

gloopy

I think he's largely posturing and I agree with that strategy. Remember the press release with the recent Airbus order? There was a little line in there about how great BA is and how DL is still taking a few dozen -900's (that were ordered years ago). IMO this is something similar.

An airline saying they want to be the launch customer for something that doesn't even exist yet (not even on paper LOL!) is far from a predictive order book. Yet technically its not wrong to say that, because, in theory, if a plane (in theory) was theoretically what you wanted when you wanted it and you could get it at a price you wanted (in theory) then theoretically you'd order it, wouldn't you?

DL is still a huge BA customer that has been aggressively trending AB lately (and now BBD). I think this is largely a way to say "hey we're still here, but you'd better start treating us right".

The more interesting part of the article IMO was the 7max with WestJet. I agree that is a phenomenal plane if the price is good, and I bet it is right now because its not selling as well because it technically doesn't have as low a CASM. But SW is still doing quite well with half a thousand of them, and that's just the CEO version. I'd love to see DL get a couple dozen more -700's if for no other reason than it would help fill market gaps within a common fleet type as well as ease pressure on marketing to shoehorn such a tiny fleet (10) into the vast network while still sending them to the places they must go to. They're not CASM killers by any means and if the MAX7 adds 12 seats I think it makes a lot of sense to get them...

...unless that would bolster BA's junk lawsuit against the CS.

gloopy

I remember a tech ops (or something like that) blurb years ago about how they replaced the door springs on the 767 and saved like 2000 pounds. I'm pretty sure that's the right number, which is phenomenal considering how simple and easy it was to discover and implement.

With all the hype about "clean sheet" that the avgeeks like to drool about, its usually not necessary to dump that much R&D to build a globally sourced "just in time" carbon fiber paper mache 3D printed supply chain MBA white paper dissertation jet, only to have it arrive to the party late, overweight, overpriced and full of gremlins.

As you go down in range, all that fancy stuff pays less and less dividends anyway assuming you have the best wing and engines in the first place, which is where the vast majority of the savings comes from anyway.

So it makes you wonder how minuscule the savings/efficiency would be of a vaporware MOM jet compared to a solid effort 75/76 redo with whatever wing and engines the MOM would have anyway. Keep the older tube(s) with a nose to tail work through mining all the internal efficiencies you can (like the door spring type of improvement) and it seems you could save a lot of money, R&D, time and construction complications and the end product would be available sooner for less money, and the end operating costs would only be slightly higher (but at a much lower purchase price).

BobZ

The 76X variant, with the 777 flight deck/type could possibly fill the role to the 777 that the 757 did to the 767.