boeing

Boeing will open its 787 Dreamliner simulator to journalists Thursday and provide an update on when the delay-plagued airplane will finally enter service. This CNET reporter will be lucky enough to take a virtual ride and visit the company's Customer Experience Center in Renton, Wash., where airline buyers can view cabin mockups, design aircraft interiors, and receive maintenance and flight training.

For the 787, which Boeing first announced six years ago, the demonstration, and the recent Federal Aviation Administration approval to begin pilot training, are more milestones in the aircraft's long development. The first major airliner to be built of carbon fiber composite materials, the Dreamliner took off and landed on its first flight last December.

Delivery to the launch customer, All Nippon Airways, was set for the end this year, but that date could move to early 2011 as Boeing completes the flight and design testing necessary for FAA certification. Only then can it begin flying airline passengers.

Cheaper and farther The 787's composite materials, along with a sharper nose and curved, upswept wings, promise greater fuel efficiency, quieter engines, and longer range. Indeed, the most powerful 787 model will be able to fly 8,500 nautical miles, which is enough to fly between Chicago and Sydney nonstop. … Read more

Getting more accurate forecasts about space weather may not help you decide whether to water your garden, but it could soon clue you in better to when events in the solar system may be putting a damper on your electronic activities.

Johns Hopkins University, Boeing, and Iridium Communications announced on Wednesday that they have launched a new space-based service that they say will help scientists monitor magnetic storms around Earth.

Dubbed the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE), the system utilizes commercial satellites orbiting Earth to take magnetic-field measurements in real time. The result is output that gets … Read more

Boeing on Monday unveiled a potential new eye in the sky, this one powered by hydrogen fuel.

The Phantom Eye, an unmanned aerial vehicle from the company's Phantom Works division, is expected to make its first flight early next year. Boeing is pitching the demonstrator UAV as a "first of its kind" aircraft that "could open up a whole new market in collecting data and communications."

A decade into the 21st century, surveillance drones are nothing new considering the now long-running successes of aircraft such as the Predator and the Global Hawk. What sets the … Read more

Boeing has won a $1.7 billion contract from the Federal Aviation Administration to create the Next-Generation Air Transportation System.

One of the goals of the system, also known as NextGen, will be to update the current air traffic control system from its traditional radar-based tracking to one that uses a GPS-based technology called ADS-B, the company said Thursday. Such a move is designed to deliver greater accuracy and safety in managing the growing traffic in the skies. To help develop the new system, Boeing said it will rely on air traffic management models and simulations.

In addition, Boeing will … Read more

Our verdict on Facebook's privacy retool: well ... we're tough graders. Also today, will Steve Ballmer show up at the WWDC keynote? Palm loses its mobile UI design guy to Android, which is good news for Android, but continuing bad news for Palm and WebOS. Also, introducing Darth Vader's Dog.

When the new kid on the block meets the grizzled old veteran, it can be a beautiful sight to see.

On May 8, in a promotional moment worthy of its setting, Boeing's newest airplane, the 787 Dreamliner, briefly met up in the skies over Washington State's Mount Rainier with the company's first-ever commercial production aircraft, the Model 40.

As seen in the image above, the rendezvous was a serious moment of old meets new. But for Boeing, the chance to put the two planes together in the sky was all about taking a quick moment from months … Read more

Boeing will put its Phantom Ray flying wing into the air before the end of the year.

The aerospace giant says that the unmanned aerial vehicle, unveiled at Boeing's St. Louis facility on Monday, is on track to make its first flight in December. The Phantom Ray will be a testbed for unspecified "advanced technologies," and in a press release Monday, Boeing rattled off an array of potential missions for the aircraft, from the now standard UAV tasks of recon and surveillance to aerial refueling, electronic attack, and the menacingly vague "strike." (A separate Boeing feature … Read more

The U.S. Air Force is preparing to launch a reusable robot spacecraft that will bring military capabilities into orbit, the result of a long development program that has seen few achievements so far.

Designed by NASA and Boeing, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle resembles a midget Space Shuttle or a Predator drone on steroids. Its purpose is classified, but the launch slated for April 19 is intended to demonstrate its ability to perform tasks in low Earth orbit before autonomously landing on a runway in California, according to an Associated Press report.

Weighing 11,000 pounds, the X-37B is … Read more

The pack mule of the 21st century could well be a robot. Don't be surprised to see it in flight.

Boeing on Monday said that its autonomous, unmanned A160T Hummingbird made quick work of a resupply test last week at the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. During the demonstration, the cargo copter carried out seven test flights.

Two of those flights were round trips spanning 150 nautical miles, with the Hummingbird toting 1,250-pound sling loads in a simulated mission between forward operating bases. The aircraft completed the mission in less than the required 6 … Read more