{"id":18331,"date":"2018-10-04T01:55:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T17:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/boeing-ceo-dennis-muilenburg-lays-out-his-vision-for-space-airplanes-and-aerospace-traffic-system\/"},"modified":"2018-10-04T01:55:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T17:55:29","slug":"boeing-ceo-dennis-muilenburg-lays-out-his-vision-for-space-airplanes-and-aerospace-traffic-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/boeing-ceo-dennis-muilenburg-lays-out-his-vision-for-space-airplanes-and-aerospace-traffic-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg lays out his vision for space airplanes and aerospace traffic system"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_452560\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-452560\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-452560\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/1333-Summit-Day-2-2018-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Alan Boyle and Dennis Muilenburg\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/1333-Summit-Day-2-2018-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/1333-Summit-Day-2-2018-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/1333-Summit-Day-2-2018-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/1333-Summit-Day-2-2018.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-452560\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">GeekWire\u2019s Alan Boyle listens to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg during a fireside chat at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle. (Photo by Dan DeLong for GeekWire)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A decade from now, Boeing will still be primarily known as an airplane company, the company\u2019s CEO says. But some of the things we\u2019ll call airplanes might be what we\u2019d call rocket ships today. And whatever you call them, Boeing will make them.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the vision laid out today at the GeekWire Summit by Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing\u2019s CEO, president and chairman. Rather than seeing a sharp division between the world of atmospheric flight and the world of rocket launches, Muilenburg sees a continuum that stretches from personal-sized air taxis to traditional aircraft to hypersonic transports to a whole family of Boeing-built commercial spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithin a decade, you\u2019re going to see low-Earth-orbit space travel become much more commonplace,\u201d he told me. \u201cNot only going to the International Space Station, as we will today, but also other destinations in space. Space tourism, space factories \u2026 that whole ecosystem is evolving, and we\u2019ll be deeply involved in the transportation system that will enable access.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boeing\u2019s first piece of that space transportation system is the CST-100 Starliner capsule, which is designed to start carrying astronauts to and from the space station next year. \u201cYou can think of that as our first vehicle in what in the longer term will be a portfolio of commercial space vehicles to go along with our commercial airplanes,\u201d Muilenburg said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"GeekWire Summit Live - Day 2 - 10:40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ROE_zV7Ntjc?start=3168&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That vision is being fleshed out in a $1 million study that Boeing is getting ready to send to NASA in December. Boeing is also working with NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and other aerospace industry representatives on new approaches to air traffic management, some of which take advantage of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"callout clearfix\"><strong>More from the GeekWire Summit:<\/strong> Boeing CEO says first operational flying cars are less than 5 years out<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cIn the future, you have commercial airplanes flying as you have today, and in dense urban environments, you might have these small mobility vehicles,\u201d Muilenburg said. \u201cYou might have hypersonic vehicles traveling at higher speed through the same airspace. And then to get space vehicles into orbit, you need launch corridors for these space vehicles. So, that all needs an integrated traffic system. That\u2019s part of what we\u2019re working on with NASA and the FAA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New technologies and business models are leading some transportation companies to rebrand themselves. For example, Ford prefers to see itself as a \u201cmobility company\u201d rather than an automobile company. But Muilenburg has a different perspective on how people will see Boeing\u2019s brand 10 years from now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ll still see us as an airplane company. Airplanes are in our blood,\u201d he said. \u201cI just think the definition of \u2018airplanes\u2019 will broaden over time. We\u2019ve been in the airplane business now for a century, and we\u2019ve just started our second century. Over this next century, airplanes will evolve to include these urban mobility solutions, hypersonic airplanes, space planes. So we\u2019ll still be an airplane company, but the definition of airplanes will be much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other tidbits from Muilenburg\u2019s talk:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Muilenburg acknowledged that the rapid ramp-up of production for the 737 MAX \u201chas been challenging for our supply chain,\u201d which caused unfinished planes to stack up this summer outside Boeing\u2019s Renton factory. He said Boeing\u2019s recovery plan has been clearing the backlog&nbsp;\u2014 and hinted that next week\u2019s report on September plane deliveries will show that \u201cwe\u2019re continuing to make progress there.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Boeing is still considering its options for what\u2019s likely to be its next new type of airplane, known variously as the New Mid-Market Aircraft, NMA, middle-of-the-market airplane or 797. \u201cWe do see a marketplace there for four to five thousand aircraft,\u201d Muilenburg said. A decision on whether to go ahead with production, and on where the plane will be built if the go-ahead is given, is likely to be announced next year. Will it be built in the Seattle area? Muilenburg wouldn\u2019t tip his hand, but gave a shout-out to Washington state\u2019s nearly 66,000 Boeing employees. \u201cWe\u2019ve been strong here for our entire history, and we\u2019ll continue to be strong here,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<li>After years of delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns, Boeing is closing in on its first deliveries of next-generation KC-46A tanker planes to the Air Force. In July, Muilenburg said the milestone delivery was expected to come this month, but today he said only that it\u2019d come before the end of the year. \u201cWe\u2019re within that window, and now really just in the final stages of planning,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<li>Muilenburg repeated his oft-stated view that the first person to step foot on Mars will get there on a rocket that Boeing has a hand in building. That\u2019s a reference to NASA\u2019s Space Launch System, which Boeing and other contractors are currently developing. The first test launch of an SLS is scheduled for 2020, and NASA has said trips to Mars won\u2019t start until the 2030s. Meanwhile, SpaceX says it intends to send crews to Mars on its yet-to-be-built BFR rocket in the 2020s. Muilenburg didn\u2019t directly address the dueling timelines, but subtly called SpaceX\u2019s schedule into question. \u201cToday there\u2019s just one rocket actually being built that has the capacity to go back to the moon and to Mars, and that\u2019s the Space Launch System,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GeekWire\u2019s Alan Boyle listens to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg during a fireside chat at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle. (Photo by Dan DeLong for GeekWire) A decade from now, Boeing will still be primarily known as an airplane company, the company\u2019s CEO says. But some of the things we\u2019ll call airplanes might be what we\u2019d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[39,564,670,4997,4883],"class_list":["post-18331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerospace","tag-aviation","tag-boeing","tag-dennis-muilenburg","tag-transportation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}