a few months ago former Boeing CEO Phil Condit came out and forcefully said that the company needs to build a new plane and it needs to do so right now this isn't exactly a new take the company has long had a hole in its commercial lineup that it needs to fill but condit's reason for urgency is born out of the unique perspective in his view Boeing needs real honest to God product development if it wants to keep its engineer sharp and Pres erve their ability to innovate now this seems like a totally fair point in
recent years Boeing's engineering department has seemingly lost its way but perhaps it isn't so wise for Boeing to just blindly rush into a new project after all building the 797 will present some of the hardest problems that the company's ever faced and if they misfire they may fall into a hole that they can never climb out of let me explain before hopping into it today I wanted to talk real quick about my work life while I love having a job that lets me work from home it also means that a lot of the time I'm
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urgently simply put they haven't done it in a really long time it's now been 16 years since the company last saw the first flight of an allnew jetliner with the 787 Dreamliner making its made in Flight in 2009 that means that Boeing is now in the midst of its longest ever new product drought since the Dreamliner debuted the company has instead favored tinkering with its existing portfolio creating new variants like the 737 Max and the 7x based on their older designs this strategy has proven to be kind of a mixed bag on one hand it's
extremely cost effective it can save tens of billions in R&D while still satiating customer desire for a more efficient aircraft on the other hand it risks the company falling behind when it comes to Pure Innovation and that risk is now starting to become a reality there was a time when Boeing was the go-to company for bright Engineers that wanted to build a career but with other Aerospace upstarts like SpaceX and blue origin constantly pushing the envelope and innovating more than ever it's getting harder and harder for Boeing to both lure and retain the best and
brightest Engineers launching a new plane like the 797 could certainly help designing a new aircraft is a career highlight for any aerospace engineer challenging rewarding and deeply engaging and at least from a Personnel perspective it seems like the sooner that Boeing can launch it the better as reported by The Seattle Times many of the company's most senior Engineers have retired in recent years these are the same people who built the Dreamliner and they know how to navigate the incredible challenges of building a clean sheet design it really seems like Boeing should do everything that it
can to ensure that these Elders pass down their knowledge before they leave the company and pursuing a new plane is a great Forum to do that now this exercise wouldn't just be academic after all Boeing currently lacks a proper mid-market jet it hasn't had one since it stopped producing the 757 back in 2004 and today only the Airbus a321 XLR occupies the market if Boeing built the 797 it could both address this Gap in the Market while also keeping its engineer sharp but designing a new plane just isn't that simple Boeing's development of the 787
while ultimately successful was marred by delays cost overruns and technical issues and the 797 could pose an even greater technical challenge that's because Boeing wants to introduce a new novel technology on the platform the trust-based wing these long skinny Wings promise a 10% Improvement in fuel efficiency and Boeing plans to build a pair of fullscale demonstrators to vet the tech now I should probably address the fact that Boeing hasn't actually committed to adopting this Tech but if history tells us anything it's that Boeing is sure going to try the last time they built a fullscale
demonstrator was back in 1954 when it built the -80 this demonstrator was a direct predecessor to the 707 and many of its techn iies made it onto that jet if we use this program as precedent and the fact that Boeing has over a billion dollar earmark for the project it seems like Boeing is dead serious about making this their next big thing the decision is the exact kind of bold Innovation that people like Condit have been calling for and if hul goes well it could return Boeing to engineering Excellence but the thing is that actually
implementing this technology is going to be really really difficult and that seems especially true given Boeing's recent struggles for now let's cover the three biggest challenges that this new Wing design will present the first is range the trust-based wing is incredibly skinny this is great for fuel burn because it makes the wing lighter and more aerodynamic but the wings are where Modern aircraft store most of their fuel and the design will inherently lead to smaller fuel tanks sure the wings are also much longer but that means they're going to have to fold like those on
the tri 7x to fit into most airport Gates and that piece of the wing that folds is probably unsuitable to carry fuel now this is a problem because Airlines today are demanding so much more of their single aisle Jets planes like the 737 and A320 which were once reserved for short hops now routinely fly 5 to 6 hour missions and the a321 XLR is able to push 9 hours in the air now Boeing could always add an extra fuel tank to the belly to help stretch its legs but this will reduce cargo capacity an important
Revenue stream for many airlines a second big issue with the wing is speed as a general rule of thumb the more sweep that an airplane's Wings have the faster it can fly this is a big reason why the 747 is still the fastest commercial jet on Earth its wings have the most sweep of any subsonic jet but the trust-based design inherently has to have less sweep than a traditional Wing otherwise it'll experience aerodynamic instability and stalls early testing has shown that These Wings Are most stable and efficient at around mack7 which is anywhere from 10
to 20% slower than other Boeing Jets this reduction in speed simply means that the airplane can't fly as many flights a dead and over the 20 plus year lifespan of an aircraft this can lead to thousands of fewer flights and in turn millions and lost Revenue oh and we can't forget the fact that this would probably also hurt the passenger experience now Boeing's been hard at work addressing this issue by partnering with NASA they've been able to tweak the design and boost top speed to mack8 but this speed increase does come with an efficiency tradeoff
and suddenly the fuel bur Savings of this this seemingly groundbreaking technology falls into the single digits the third and final issue with the trust-based wing that I want to cover is scalability unlike conventional Wings the design may not scale super well with different sized variants in fact Boeing's two upcoming demonstrators dubbed vss1 and vss2 will be pretty similar in size with vss1 size to carry about 150 passengers and vss2 size to carry about 190 but despite being close relatives each plane will need its own bespoke Wing now typically oems like Boeing and Airbus prefer to
use the same Wing across an entire aircraft family since this helps simplify production and the supply chain but if the 797 uses a trust design it seems unlikely to benefit from these efficiencies this could make it more expensive to procure than something like the a321 XLR which has a more conventional design and production process now I want to pause here for a second to play some Devil's Advocate yeah the presents some pretty big challenges but it's not like Boeing hasn't tackled big projects before I mean just look at the 787 it included a whole host
of moonshot Technologies including a mostly composite structure and while the program was over budget and behind schedule it did result in a truly spectacular jet one that's going to be an industry staple for years to come but I think the situation with the 797 is a little bit different working with composites on the 787 was a challenge sure but this technology really only stood to boost the plane's performance Composites really don't present any downsides when it comes to the day-to-day operations of airlines in contrast the trust based Wing is more of a mixed bag yeah
it can improve fuel burn but it also hurts range and speed downsides that Composites really don't have this will put even more pressure on Boeing's engineers and while they certainly need to be pushed this may be taking things too far in short commercializing this technology might just be the most difficult undertaking that Boeing's ever attempted now if this were still the late 90s or early 2000s back when Boeing was at the height of its powers maybe it would have the will and the skill to overcome these hurdles but that's just not the Boeing we know
today the company is currently struggling to just get basic designs right so jumping head first into such an ambitious project while it could help attract and retain bright Talent seems like an untenable risk I think Boeing management has realized this they've essentially ignored condit's calls to build the 797 now stating that their primary focus focus is on the 737 Max and 7x they're taking the calculated risk of punting on 797 development until the 2030s this will give the technology more time to mature but it'll also give the competition a chance to LEAP ahead it's vitally
important that Boeing Leadership keeps its eye on the clock here and Strikes without delay when the time is right ultimately Boeing finds itself in a bit of a catch 22 it desperately needs to innovate to stay competitive not just against Airbus but also against other aerospace companies that are eager to steal away top talent but it can't take big Innovative risks because it's struggling with the loss of institutional knowledge and ongoing challenges with basic aircraft development this seems like an impossible situation and it illustrates just how difficult a job Boeing's new management is facing let's
just hope that they can find the right path forward because it seems like no matter what the 797 will either make or break this Aviation Titan so what do you guys think do they need to build the 797 now or should they kick it down the road or do they just need to take a more conventional approach altoe let me know your thoughts in the comment section below oh and if you want to learn about one huge Airline that's desperately counting on the 797 to succeed then be sure to check out this video right here
and thanks again to flexis spot for sponsoring today's video to get $50 off their E7 plus standing desk simply visit the link in my bio and use my promo code on screen thank you so much to my patrons for helping to make this video possible if you like what I do and want to help the channel grow check out this link right here and as always if you learn something new today leave a like And subscribe to keep learning and until I see you again don't forget to look up [Music]
