It’s the second major Boeing plane-buying announcement made in just a few days; All Nippon Airways said it’s buying 40 Boeing jets worth $13 billion at list prices.
LMI Machinery Inc. 970 Industrial Drive, Tukwila, WA 98188 www.newusedmachines.com edward@newusedmachines.com
Boeing turns over advanced rocket fuel tank to NASA for space testing The company proved that Tuesday when the NASA Superguppy aircraft took off from Boeing Field carrying a Tukwila-made carbon composite fuel tank of a new type that could sometime fly to Mars. The 18-foot-diameter tank is 30 percent lighter than a comparable metal tank, a huge gain when each pound saved means more payload can be lifted into space. And in another advance, the tank was built from a new generation of carbon composites that doesn’t require expensive and lengthy curing in an autoclave, according to information from NASA. The tank is to store liquid hydrogen for use as fuel during deep space exploration.This means the tank must be strong enough to withstand the G forces of launch, and also able contain the very cold liquid hydrogen without leaking. The near-spherical tank, fabricated by robots at the Boeing Developmental Center, will be carried by the Superguppy to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., for testing. It is to arrive Thursday.
Japanese airline JTA orders 12 737s worth $1.1B
Alabama researchers will fill the tank with liquid hydrogen, partly to see if any micro-leaks develop because of the extreme cold.
Boeing Co. said Japanese airline Japan Transocean Air has ordered 12 737-800 airplanes worth $1.1 billion at list prices.
“Advances in composite materials and manufacturing offer some of the greatest potential for improvements in cost, schedule and overall performance for a wide range of NASA missions,” said John Vickers, the program manager for the Composite Cryotank and Technologies Demonstration project at the NASA Marshall Center, in a release.
JTA is a member of the Japan Airlines based in Okinawa and currently operates a fleet of 737-400 airplanes on domestic routes linking Okinawa with major Japanese cities. The airline will have the flexibility to switch some of the planes to Boeing’s upcoming Max model, Boeing said in a statement. Boeing builds the 737, and will build the upcoming Max model, in Renton. A2Z METALWORKER NW •
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The composites tanks may be used for the upper stage of NASA’s Space Launch System, which is to be the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.
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