Today Porsche and Boeing entered into a partnership for the future of urban air mobility and "the extension of urban traffic into airspace." Sort of like Back to the Future 2, or The Fifth Element, or Blade Runner - or any number of other sci-fi stories - this partnership is about the "Premium Urban Air Mobility Market."
The folks at Virgin Galactic announced this morning that they'd entered into a "strategic partnership" with Boeing. This is the "latest investment by Boeing HorizonX Ventures organization" and was announced to the tune of $20 million. They've suggested that this is a partnership that'll allow them to "work together to broaden commercial space access and transform global travel technologies."
In August 2018, Boeing was awarded an $805 million contract from the U.S. Navy for the development of an 'unmanned aerial refueler.' The resulting MQ-25 autonomous refueler drone has successfully completed its first test flight, according to Boeing, which plans to produce four of these aircraft for the U.S. Navy. The test included an autonomous takeoff and flight.
When one computer can't solve a problem, why not try to throw more computers at it? That is probably not the reasoning behind Boeing's rumored fix for its problematic 737 Max aircraft but it will probably one of the things that will come to people's minds. The plane's return was yet again delayed because of an apparent software flaw that could still pose problems for the plane's automated system. Now according to anonymous sources, Boeing's new software will be making two computers to make sure just one won't take the plane down.
Following similar recent announcements by United and American, Southwest Airlines has announced that its Boeing 737 Max flights have been cancelled until early November. This deviates from the estimate Southwest gave in late June, pushing the fleet's targeted return to November instead of October. The cancellations represent around 180 daily flights.
United Airlines has announced that it cancelled thousands of additional flights involving the Boeing 737 Max, covering around 2,100 flights that were scheduled for September and another 2,900 for October. The airliner has a fleet that includes 14 of these Boeing jets, which were grounded following two deadly crashes involving the 737 Max model.
Its own press releases have been unsurprisingly positive but Boeing might still be a long time before its beleaguered 737 Max can take flight again. It may be close to getting approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) but it is facing yet another hurdle in Europe. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has a list of changes it wants Boeing to make and one of them is reportedly about its autopilot system.
Today Boeing revealed that they would provide $100 million in funds to victims of the pair of crashes of Boeing 737 aircraft in the last year. Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 resulted in the loss of a total of 346 lives. Divided 346 ways, $100 million comes to $289,017 per person.
The Federal Aviation Administration has identified another alleged risk with Boeing's grounded 737 MAX aircraft, a new report claims. This alleged additional risk will need to be fixed before the company can conduct a certification test flight, the sources claim, ensuring there aren't any future tragedies associated with the jets. Assuming the leak is correct, the test flight won't happen until July 8 at the earliest.
Boeing reports the successful completion of CST-100 Starliner propulsion tests, revealing that it proved the vehicle's ability to maneuver in space during its work on Friday. The testing took place at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, where Boeing teams successfully fired the vehicle's thrusters more than two dozen times.
"Don't fix what ain't broke" is not an excuse not to try to innovate but neither is innovation an excuse to break things. That's true for foldable phones and even truer for airplane control systems. Unfortunately, Boeing learned its lessons at the expense of lives but it is persistently clawing at those problems. Now it seems to suggest that it is close to earning its wings back once the 737 MAX clears the last hurdles that the FAA has set up for its re-certification.
Boeing has shared new video clips of parachute tests related to its Starliner spacecraft, providing the public with a behind-the-scenes look at these various sessions. According to the company, the parachute test is part of the overall process to qualify the Starliner's full landing system. The company plans to conduct its first crewed launch later this year.