Boeing, Boeing Gone?

摘要

Boeing's best hope for survival as an aviation giant sits in a small warehouse in a Seattle industrial park. It's a mock-up of the interior of a new jet, the 7E7 Dreamliner. Representatives from major airlines are steadily marching through it, trying to decide whether they want to buy it. From a passenger's perspective, the 7E7 design is appealing: Artfully tapered arches frame a backlit ceiling. Bigger than normal windows reach above eye level. Electronically dimmable glass replaces clumsy plastic shades. Overhead bins big enough to swallow four full-size roll-ons blend smoothly into the ceiling. But airline reps are interested in more than passenger amenities. They want to know whether Boeing―a company that seems to be running out of feet to shoot itself in and that is rapidly losing its supremacy to Europe's Airbus―can deliver the 7E7's promised savings and operational benefits. More pressingly, they want to know whether Boeing can actually follow through and build the Dreamliner. The company's credibility took a hit in 2002 when it scrapped plans for the Sonic Cruiser, a radical, tail-first jet that was supposed to fly as much as 100 mph faster than today's airplanes. Alan Mulally, Boeing's unquenchably enthusiastic commercial airplanes boss, had presented the Sonic Cruiser as a sure thing, the biggest innovation in air travel since the jet engine. Then, nothing.