787 and 747-8

Boeing had a problem some years ago when Airbus proposed their ungainly, ugly behemoth called the A380. Airbus's bet was that increased demand required a big jet to fly people around the world.

Boeing already had a big jet - the 747. In addition to being big, the 747 is a very beautiful jet. The design evokes images of power and strength. It's just a really big beautiful jet.

However Boeing bet that increased capacity was due to decreasing ticket prices. Combined with increasing fuel cost, the world needed a jet that would be cheap to fly, but could fly far and carry a lot. Hence the 787.

The 787 was not a competitive product to the A380, rather, Boeing's take on the same data that Airbus used when they decided to build the A380. In order to compete on par, Boeing announced the 747-8 Transcontinental, a jet that was essentially a 787 in fabric but a 747 in design.

Unfortunately, despite serious marketing, both projects are in a little trouble. The 787-3, which is the launch product, has issues with marrying the avionics and other instruments. While this is a setback in time, it also induces uncertainty in the minds of customers. This directly threatens the 747-8 as that jet isn't scheduled to launch until 2010.

For the sake of beautiful design, we can only hope that Boeing's woes won't be the undoing of stylish flight design. Capitalism has never been stylish, yet we've managed to make it stylish. In the rush for profits, we can only hope the world keeps it that way.