Boeing’s Albaugh expects 777 orders, rate decision soon

The Boeing Co. should have some big news on its 777 jet as soon as next month.

That’s when Boeing will make its decision whether to increase production rates on the Everett-built twin aisle aircraft, said Jim Albaugh, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, in a speech this morning.

Boeing made the decision last year to slash rates on the 777, starting in June, to deal with the slowdown in the market. But Albaugh said he expects some new orders on the 777 soon, which would sway Boeing to bump 777 production back up again in 2011.

Likewise, Boeing also will announce a production rate decision on its single aisle 737 this summer and a decision on whether to re-engine that jet by year’s end, Albaugh said.

Here are a few highlights from Albaugh’s presentation:

On Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner: Boeing is building two 787s per month and plans to increase that to 2.5 planes monthly in August. The company’s goal is 10 monthly by 2013.

Boeing has used up some of the 1.5 months of contingency it built into the 787 flight test program. But flight testing is going well with the 787 going Mach .97 during flutter tests, Albaugh said.

The next 787 (airplane three) will join flight testing next Sunday

On the Air Force tanker contest: “I’ve been working this for 9 years. It’s the longest running soap opera since ‘Days of our Lives.’ And I don’t think we’ve seen the last episode.”

On the 747-8: Boeing could have sold more 747s last year but believed they wouldn’t be getting a good price for their new jumbo jets.

On competition: “I want to re-establish the market leadership … in 2011 we’ll deliver more airplanes than the competitor.”

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