Boeing

Days after a fire was discovered on a Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner that had just landed in Boston, U.S. regulators announced plans for a sweeping review of the plane's design and assembly processes. The announcement came Friday at a news conference in Washington held by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta. "We are confident about the safety of this aircraft," Huerta said. "But we're concerned about these incidents and will conduct a review until we are completely satisfied.

Another Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines encountered a problem at Boston's Logan International Airport, just one day after a fire erupted on a different Dreamliner parked at a gate. About 12:25 p.m. EST Tuesday, a Japan Airlines Dreamliner headed to Tokyo was taxiing to the runway for takeoff when a fuel leak forced it to return to the terminal. Japan Airlines, or JAL, did not immediately provide any information on the incident. A person on the scene said the leak dumped about 40 gallons of fuel on the taxiway.

A Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner passenger jet was found to be on fire 15 minutes after arriving at Boston's Logan International Airport from Tokyo, adding to the list of complications for the 17-month-old jet. The fire found smoldering Monday in the plane's underbelly after passengers had deplaned prompted the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board to look into the incident. The Dreamliner program has had numerous problems over the years. The first large-passenger Dreamliner was delivered in September 2011, more than three years late because of design problems and supplier issues.

Aerospace giant Boeing Co. just can't seem to escape trouble with its new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet. More than three years late because of design problems and supplier issues, the much-anticipated plane has run into another bout of turbulence with fresh concerns about its safety. The Federal Aviation Administration this month ordered inspections of fuel line connectors on Dreamliners because of risks of leaks and possible fires. PHOTOS: Inside the Dreamliner On the same day, a United Airlines Dreamliner flight from Houston to Newark, N.J., was diverted to New Orleans after an electrical problem popped up mid-flight.

Boeing, the Chicago-based company that has built some of the world's most sophisticated aircraft, has turned to a very basic food staple to test airplane Wi-Fi: potatoes. About 20,000 pounds of potatoes were used as stand-ins for passengers during tests at the company's laboratories to ensure onboard Wi-Fi signals are consistent through the cabin without interrupting the navigation and communication systems, the company said Wednesday. The sacks of potatoes replicate the way human passengers reflect and absorb electronic signals, said Boeing spokesman Adam Tischler.

The U.S. Defense Department plans to open more than a dozen rocket launches to competition, moving to end a monopoly held by a Lockheed Martin Corp.-Boeing Co. joint venture. The Air Force is authorized to buy as many as 14 booster cores over the next five years from potential competitors such as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the Hawthorne company known as SpaceX and headed by billionaire Elon Musk, and Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., wrote Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, in a Nov. 27 memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

Re “ Boeing plans more cuts in region ,” Nov. 9 As a 40-year aerospace retiree, I was sad to hear of the latest decline of the Southern California aerospace industry, with Boeing cutting more facilities. The article indicates that the cuts are due to the latest reduction in military spending. However, the decline in the once extensive aerospace industry here has been going on for decades. Not surprisingly, this decline coincides with the almost total control of the California government by the Democratic Party and the bad business environment it created.

As the federal government reduces military spending, aerospace giant Boeing Co. is continuing to shrink its footprint in Southern California. One of the region's largest employers, the Chicago company said it is trimming its executive workforce 30% from 2010 levels, selling office buildings in Seal Beach and demolishing one in Huntington Beach. It has already sold property in Anaheim. These are the latest moves by the company in the last two years to bring down costs by relocating defense programs, slowing production lines and reducing its workforce in Southern California.

The Dreamliner, with passengers, has finally landed. United Airlines landed its inaugural domestic flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft Sunday morning at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, becoming the first U.S. carrier to fly the composite-plastic-fuselage aircraft. The twin-aisle plane, delayed more than three years by production problems at Boeing Co., was designed to be about 20% more fuel efficient and less costly to maintain than similar-size planes. Half the plane is made of strong and light composite materials, including the fuselage and wings, instead of metal.