The Chart:

Thursday, March 31, 2016

No news is no news.

Trying to cover the 747-8 right now is sort of like trying to cover decaying uranium. Things are slow and there's not much to talk about.

Boeing said last month that the slow down in manufacturing is temporary, and that in 2019 they'll increase the rate once again. But this outlook depends on their slightly biased/myopic predictions about cargo demand, which I have some skepticism over. Meanwhile they're laying off a large group of people in the short term.

Boeing has been shipping 747-8 engines from various sad frames in the desert to install on KPAE airframes due for delivery over the next months, namely Korean Airlines frames. They still have five scheduled to deliver this year. Could this be a sign of engine production issues? Or GE lethargy? This, by the way, doesn't bode well for the short term future of said desert airframes.

I flew a Cessna 210 a few weeks ago, which, compared to the C172s and PA-28s I'm used to, sort of felt like a 747-8. I pretended to have four throttle controls the whole time...