EVERETT — The new 7E7 Dreamliner will provide economic advantages as revolutionary as the airplane itself, a new Boeing Co. marketing video claims.
Boeing will premiere the 22-minute video — which includes computer-generated scenes of a 7E7 in All Nippon Airways colors — to an audience of state and local business and government leaders today in Everett.
It’s part of a multimedia presentation that Boeing will make to suppliers, potential customers, foreign government officials and reporters across Europe and the Middle East this spring.
The intent is to "continue the educational process with key stakeholders all around the world," said Mary Hanson, a spokeswoman for the 7E7 program.
It’s just a coincidence that the program was ready to debut the same week that Boeing announced its first sale of 7E7s, the 50-jet deal with All Nippon Airways. But "the timing really couldn’t be better," Hanson said.
The presentation’s centerpiece is a 10- by 80-foot wall covered by nine flat-screen video monitors.
The video emphasizes many of the gee-whiz aspects of the 7E7 — more efficient engines, new composite materials and breakthrough design technology that will result in a plane that can fly farther and carry more cargo than any of Airbus’ similarly sized jets, while also being quieter on takeoff and landing.
The video extols the plane’s new interior, designed with bigger windows, larger luggage bins and wider aisles.
And it takes a hard look at the bottom line, stressing that the plane will be cheaper to operate than competing jets, and that its flexibility — including the ability to incorporate two different brands of engines — will allow Dreamliner owners to move the planes between different routes within an airline, or sell it between airlines.
"That’s what the financing community absolutely wants," said Mike Bair, Boeing’s senior vice president in charge of the 7E7 program. Since more airlines will be able to use the jet given its flexibility, that reduces the risk for a lender financing a deal, and that reduces the interest rates airlines must pay.
The video also talks up the advantages of Boeing’s international team of suppliers, who are designing more of the 7E7 than any other Boeing plane in history.
Boeing is "getting phenomenal response" from its 7E7 partners. "That’s one of the reasons we’re able to offer all the stuff you saw up there for as much as a (767)."
Boeing is offering the 7E7 for the same price as the 767-300ER — about $125 million — which it will replace in the fleets of All Nippon and other airlines .
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
JUSTIN BEST
/ The Herald
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