An uncertain marketplace and concern about fuel prices have created real tension in our industry. It’s difficult for airplane customers to look beyond immediate business imperatives. But when they do, understandably, they ask us to focus on product improvements that will improve operating efficiency and alleviate their costs.

At Boeing, we’re constantly looking at a broad range of possible new airplane solutions and airplane product upgrades that will do just that. The goal is to identify opportunities for innovation and technology that will help our customers thrive – both in the near-term market and the market that will emerge from the current economic turmoil.

787 Dreamliner technology leads the way
With the 787 Dreamliner getting ready for first flight, we’re leveraging the highly successful technologies developed for that airplane by incorporating them in upgrades to our current product line and, ultimately, into new airplane designs.

Cabin advances – Dimmable windows and LED lighting are among technology breakthroughs incorporated into the new 787.

Leadership in the innovative application of technology is directly responsible for the phenomenal success of the 787 in the marketplace. Sustaining that leadership is the constant theme of our development activities, whether in applications for composites and other advanced materials, propulsion, aerodynamics or onboard systems. The 787 demonstrates the key is to integrate across many technologies in order to simultaneously bring innovation in efficiency, capability and passenger experience to the marketplace.

Of course we closely monitor engine developments for advances in fuel use, noise and emissions. Each of the engine manufacturers is blazing its own trail toward the efficiency and environmental performance that the next generation of airplanes will need.

Pratt & Whitney got off to an early start with its geared turbofan technology. They have already flown a prototype geared turbofan engine on their own flying testbed and on an Airbus A340-600. Their results show significant progress.

Jeff VerWey leads Integrated Product Strategy for Boeing Commercial Airplanes at its Renton, Washington world headquarters.

CFM International—a partnership between GE and Snecma—and Rolls-Royce are also making headway. CFM is pacing development of its LEAP-X engine to be ready around 2016. Rolls-Royce is developing an advanced turbofan engine architecture and seriously studying open rotor engines, which may offer even greater potential for fuel efficiency.

Integration is key
Future opportunities for improvement come from a wide diversity of technology advances. The challenge is to choose the right suite of technologies that will provide value and advantage in a constantly evolving market environment.

After fuel efficiency, maintenance costs are the area where we can make the most difference in helping our customers save money. New materials, robust systems, and airplane health management technologies are helping us break new ground in maintenance cost reduction and airplane availability.

We also look at ways to reduce other operating costs, such as crew-related costs, airport and navigation fees, and servicing the airplane between flights. For example, common flight deck displays and training can make it easier for flight crews to gain certification to fly multiple airplane models. New on-board systems help reduce the number of manuals pilots must carry and improve the communication between pilots and airline operations centers to enhance planning and improve schedule reliability.

Environmental considerations, extremely important in their own right, increasingly figure into operating cost calculations. Whenever we can reduce aircraft noise or emissions, we are also helping customers manage costs, as well as helping the environment.

Improving the passenger experience
Of course, passengers are expecting innovations to the cabin interior—seats, overhead bins, lighting, lavatories, galleys, in-flight entertainment—the whole passenger experience. Our ConceptCenter is the lab where many of those innovations are born and developed.

It’s a hands-on environment where we can work with customers to address airplane cabin issues that airlines and passengers will be dealing with in the near-, mid-, and long-term.

For example, about eight years ago, we began working on cabin architectures that would allow airlines to convert cabins from one configuration to another quickly and efficiently, so the seating mix could be optimized for actual demand in varying economic and market conditions. At the same time, we addressed the balance between standardized and customized airplane interior features. Today, these and other projects from those studies define the state of the art aboard the 787 Dreamliner.

Interior View – D-shaped windows, new overhead design and a floor display (foreground) for viewing the terrain below are features of a next-generation airplane cabin mockup at Boeing’s ConceptCenter in Everett, Washington.

Taking on some of the industry’s most difficult challenges—window size, cabin pressure, interior humidity—the ConceptCenter came back with airplane interior solutions unlike anything that had flown before. ConceptCenter research is the foundation for the creative solutions that find their way onto our airplanes—as passengers will appreciate when 787 Dreamliners begin pulling up to boarding gates.

Envisioning the next airplane products
About four years ago, we launched an intensive effort to determine what it would take to replace the 737 Next Generation. It was a pretty humbling experience.

It reminded us just how good the 737 is. Any thought that we could simply scale down 787 technologies and create a single-aisle airplane with 10- to 20-percent lower operating costs than the 737 was dashed pretty quickly. It will require the next generation of technology in a number of areas to make significant operating cost improvements a reality.

While the application of composite materials on the 787 is revolutionary for a commercial jet transport, future generations of lightweight materials will bring even greater improvements to aircraft design, durability and performance.

After 50 years of development you would think that the current state of the art in aerodynamics is pretty advanced, but further refinements in high speed efficiency are on the horizon.

Some believe blended wing-body airplanes, which seem to captivate the imagination of many industry observers, are the answer. We’ve taken a serious look at these over the years, but challenges of cabin pressurization and passenger ride quality, among others, have steered us in other directions. Although these concerns are not showstoppers, blended wing-body designs would have to deliver compelling advantages to justify their jetliner development.

Systems architecture took great strides when we went to more electric systems and eliminated pneumatics aboard the 787. Further potential for reducing weight and power consumption, and lowering maintenance costs could be coaxed from this area. We have just scratched the surface of airframe and engine health management and maintenance prognostics.

The challenge is to develop these and other technologies and then integrate them to bring value to the industry stakeholders that depend on the success of a strong, resilient air transportation industry.

Environmentally progressive aviation
Concern for the environment is becoming more important for passengers as well as airplane operators. Our work to develop alternative aircraft fuels is a good example of thinking outside the airplane to respond to customer needs.

It’s very exciting. In one year, with the help of industry partners, we have gone from demonstrating a proof-of-concept biofuel to multiple demonstration flight tests using biofuels produced from various sustainable plant feed stocks.

Biofuels produce very low CO2 emissions over their production and use cycle, and they perform as well as petroleum-based jet fuel. We’re helping develop fuel specifications to accelerate industry-wide acceptance of these fuels. Our next task is to help manufacturers understand the requirements for producing commercial quantities of aviation biofuel for widespread use.

In Summary
We’re confident that our airplane products are well-positioned for today’s market. We have a sizeable production backlog and our fleet is performing well in service.

Clearly, our current focus is on execution of our current airplane programs. Yet, the portfolio of potential technologies and products we are studying is the broadest it has ever been. The challenges are huge. But keeping customer needs, the evolving marketplace, and the industry’s long-term prospects foremost in our thinking has been a successful strategy for Boeing–and we’re certain that it will guide us to develop the industry-leading products that our customers have come to expect from us.