Prior to the launching of this aircraft, Boeing had specialized with 767 and 747-400 models of air-crafts for its clientele. The decline in the market for Boeing 767 and 747-400 that were being produced by the company in the late 1990s forced it to opt for a new aircraft design that was expected to revive its market.
However, this was not forth coming as the September 11th attack in the United States made the cost of fuel to escalate drastically. This led to the escalation of the cost required to run an airline company. The other issue of contention to many stakeholders in the larger air travel industry was ensuring that they remained profitable. This necessitated the designing of an aircraft that was expected to be cost effective.
The desired aircraft was expected to reduce the operation costs in the airline industry. Consequently, this was expected to stimulate profitability of the passenger and cargo carrying airline companies since they were most affected by the vulgarities of the economic tide that was being experienced.
To satisfy this need in the market, the Boeing Company designed the Boeing 787 which is a long plane with a passenger capacity that ranges from 210 to 330. The plane is equipped with twin jet engines that are designed to be fuel efficient, while at the same time, cruise at very high speeds of up to 0.3 Machs, which is equivalent to that of larger aircrafts.
Besides this, the plane is designed from composite materials. Among its most dominant features are the four paneled wind shields, a smooth nose with sloping contours and chevron engines. The first Boeing 787 was unveiled in 2007 and recorded the highest sales turnover for a gigantic airplane in history with a 677 orders from world’s major airline companies, (Norris and Wagner 2009).
Introduction
The above information on the Boeing 787 is crucial as it has given the quest to explore the power behind the success of the aircraft in the market. This will be important in the examination of the impact that this aircraft has made on the airline industry. It is evident that the sophisticated technology that was incorporated in the production of this aircraft played a leading role in making it the bestselling wide body aircraft ever built in the history of airline industry.
This paper aims at identifying how the technological breakthrough employed in designing the aircraft affected the overall sales of this plane. The study will seek to identify the specific components in its design that played the leading role in catalyzing the sales of this plane. In this process, the paper identifies special features that made the plane to be very successful in the market.
Fuel Efficiency of the Jet
The years between 2003 and 2007 when the Boeing 787 was designed, launched and its commercial production given a nod of approval were characterized by strong and steady economic growth in the United States. This economic growth was later followed by one of the worst economic crunch as from the year 2007.
The economical recession translated into the escalation of oil and fuel prices in the country. For instance, in between that period, the cost of jet fuel had increased by a 15% margin. Consequently, the operating costs of the airliners had increased proportionately, thus affecting the profitability of these organizations. The increase in the cost of fuel viciously resulted in the cost of consumer and leisure products in the country to increase tremendously. This increase resulted in the decline in the number of people willing to travel by air.
The aforementioned decline in air travel adversely affected the airliners profitability, which led to the need to reduce the cost of operations in the industry. One of the demands that the airliners pressed for was the production of fuel efficient planes that were expected to reduce their cost of running thus allowing the airline companies to maintain their profitability.
The new demand from the airliners prompted Boeing plane manufacturers to come up with new models that were expected to meet the airliners expectations. It is from this demand that the company started designing the Boeing 787. After its completion and absolute testing, the Boeing 787 proved to be 20% fuel efficient compared to other air-crafts of the same size.
The reduction in the consumption of fuel consumed by this plane influenced its demand upon its completion. This was so because Boeing 787 reduced the cost of running the aircraft and consequently, the operating costs for the airliners (Boeing 2010).
Another reason that motivated the airliners to demand for fuel effective and efficient aircrafts was caused by the world’s economy that was fast facing a recession. Due to this recession, many airliners were looking for new airplanes that would ensure that they remained profitable despite the hard economic realities.
The demand by these companies prompted Boeing manufacturers to take charge of the situation by producing planes that would salvage the situation while at the same time, guard its market share from its major rival, the Air Bus, as the models that Boeing was selling were fast declining in demand.
Boeing 787 designers came up with the best environment-friendly plane ever built by putting the world’s environmental worries to check through efficient manufacturing technology that guaranteed fewer pollutants. This was triggered by airliners who were demanding for aircrafts that would effectively reduce their contribution to the environmental degradation. Therefore, the Boeing manufacturers had to drastically realign their jets towards improving their environmental friendliness with regard to the carbon emissions as well as noise.
The manufacturers also incorporated some of the best technological advances in designing Boeing 787 to make it one of the most environmental friendly aircraft ever made. Boeing 787 fuel consumption had reduced by 20% as compared to other aircrafts of the same size.
The reduction in the amount of fuel consumed by the jet translated into an equivalent reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide that was emitted by the aircraft during flight. Boeing 787 was designed to surpass the modern day technological advancement with regard to the environmental degradation as having met the stringent requirements that were mandated of aircrafts, (Norris & Wagner 2009).
The Boeing 787 manufacturers designed the aircraft to reduce the amount of noise that it produced during takeoff and landing. Reducing the amount of noise was one of the measures that the designers desired to incorporate in this plane as it would enhance the planes’ credibility to buyers due to its unrivalled environmental friendliness and performance.
In order to reduce the volume of sound produced by Boeing 787 during takeoff and landing, the designers incorporated various technological advancements that were suggested by the company’s research and development wing (Norris & Wagner 2009).
The engines of the Boeing 787 were uniquely designed whereby the twin engines were acoustically designed with special inlets and chevrons and serrated engine ends that were expected to reduce the amount of noise from them (Boeing 2010). Those were just a few of the special designs that were used in designing the aircraft in which the main objective was to design an aircraft whose noise emission would not surpass the 80 decibels mark, which is equivalent to the noise produced by automobiles.
This meant that the noise made by Boeing 787 during takeoff and landing would always remain confined in the airport parameters and thus, reduce the amount of noise pollution into the environment. As far as noise production is concerned, it has been proven that Boeing 787 is in fact the most efficient plane in the world with a 60% less the amount of noise that is produced by aircrafts of the same size (Norris & Wagner 2009).
Another major factor that contributed to the successful adoption of the Boeing 787 was its role in reducing the airline company’s ethical responsibility in regard to air pollution. Despite the reduced fuel consumption which meant lesser carbon emissions, the technology adopted by this plane guaranteed its contribution to the pollutants was at its minimum.
Another advantage that this aircraft had brought to the airliners was reduced operating costs of the airliners because they were in a position of making connection flights in mid-sized cities, thus maintaining their profitability despite hard economic times. This was possible because Boeing 787 used less fuel which meant fewer carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emission into the air.
The reduction in the amount of emissions and the reduction in the levels of noise by the aircrafts meant that the airports were friendlier to the travelers and these motivated them to travel more. The connecting flights that Boeing 787 had made possible enabled more direct flights with minimum detours for passengers.
Previously, studies had shown that more than 30% of people in large airports were in such airports connecting to other destinations as there were no direct flights to their destination and therefore, catalyzing the levels of congestion in those air ports. The more the direct flights there were, the more people were willing to travel.
The Boeing 787 had proved that it would serve that purpose of connecting passengers and cargo directly to their destination with minimum environmental degradation and maximum turnovers compared to other aircrafts of similar size. This explains why the airplane received a historical demand upon its launch in 2007 (Boeing 2010).
Another technological breakthrough in Boeing 787 that explained its demand was the sophistication of the aircraft’s design in which its design incorporated advanced architectural system designs that had maximized the aircrafts efficiency and effectiveness to deliver airline services within international standards.
Among the most dominant features that had been incorporated in the engine design of Boeing 787 was its ability to diagnose all the aircrafts’ systems and make reports to ground super computers on areas that were in need of checks and maintenance.
This ability had made it easier for engineers to repair and maintain the aircrafts and consequently, increased efficiency in terms of reduced maintenance costs and time saved from undertaking manual scrutinizing of the aircrafts systems by engineers and thus profit gains for the airliners that owned the Boeing 787 continued to rise.
For instance, the use of carbon fibers to make more than 50% of the plane led to the elimination of the use of about 1500 aluminum sheets that required more than 50,000 rivets that were required to fasten them. This meant that the cost of maintaining the airplanes had reduced drastically thus, maximizing the profitability of the airliners (Norris & Wagner 2009). The cost friendly nature of the Boeing 787 is perhaps the reason why the market adopted the new aircraft with zeal.
The designers of Boeing 787 had in their minds the intention to create plane that would be as human friendly as possible and thus, it would serve the leading role in motivating people to fly. Therefore, the plane was designed with the customer in mind. The designers ensured that the interior design of the plane was not only appealing to the eyes, but it also provided similar environmental conditions as those experienced when not on board.
The use of the composite materials in making the aircraft had enabled it to allow high moisture levels in the plane, which translated to comfortable humidity levels for the passengers and thus increased the confidence of passengers to travel with Boeing 787 (Jamshidi 2009).
The designers also designed the aircraft in such a way that they increased the pressure of the cabin which further increased the comfort of the passengers while on voyage. They had enlarged the cabin windows of the plane to such a size that they gave the passengers the opportunity to view the globe from high altitude thus, enabling them to experience the magnificent sights of the globe from lofty heights.
Lastly, the designers took the plights of the disabled into account in designing the aircraft lavatories by making them more advanced to accommodate persons on a wheelchair better than what the earlier designers had managed (Jamshidi 2009). All the above features had played the leading role in ensuring the aircraft was an absolute goldmine for both manufacturers and the airliners.
Summary
The above case study has proved that the technological advancement that has been exhibited by the Boeing 787 was phenomenal in ensuring that the air industry did not crash out of business given the turbulent times that the world was going through by providing the much required efficiency in the industry.
It is evident that Boeing 787 provided the airline companies a sigh of relief by reducing the cost of operations by 15% and thus ensuring they remained profitable. This relief was occasioned by efficient use of new technology such that the new aircraft that was designed had incorporated major aspects that was missed by former planes.
Beside the incorporation, the new plane guaranteed reduced costs; especially in terms of fuel consumption and social costs due to the plane’s reduced emission of pollutants. This explains the high demand for the Boeing 787 after its launch in 2007. Finally, it is evident that the investment by Boeing Commercial Airlines to design an ultra modern aircraft by incorporating new technology was a success and it had caused ripples in the industry.
Reference Lists
Boeing. 2010, Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Web.
Jamshidi , M., 2009, System of systems engineering: innovations for the 21st century Volume 58 of Wiley series in systems engineering and management, Sage, New York.
Norris, G. & Wagner, M., 2009, Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Zenith Imprint, New York.