Richard Branson on the Business Benefits of Volunteering – Entrepreneur

In many parts of the world, spring is in bloom and people are getting off the couch and going outside. This is the perfect time for you and your team to start planning which charity sporting events your company is going to be involved in this year. Combining your employees’ volunteer work with sport and exercise is great for business and the community, boosting relationships, health and morale all round. I started thinking about this because I have been on the road a lot lately, visiting Virgin businesses and raising money for our nonprofit foundation, Virgin Unite. The travel can be grueling, and I find that I can keep my energy levels up by exercising as soon as possible after I arrive.  Bike riding in the towns and cities I visit has been one of my favorite ways of getting out, and so, on a trip to South Africa in March, I competed in the Pick n Pay Cape Argus bike race with my son-in-law Freddie Andrewes and some members of the Virgin Group’s senior team. It was a stunning 109-kilometer ride from Cape Town to a distant point in a national park and back along a different route. There were a lot of people doing the circuit – it is the world’s biggest mass participation ride, with more than 35,000 competitors taking part in 2013, and raises a great deal of money for charity in South Africa.

More importantly, volunteering helps to get some personal benefits:

Benefits of Volunteering – United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Cleveland

1)   Meet new people – It is often difficult to meet new people, especially if you are not a naturally outgoing person. Volunteering is great way to meet people who share similar interests, thereby opening up avenues to make new friends and networking contacts.
2)   Learn new skills – Volunteering gives you firsthand experience that you cannot gain in the classroom, such as planning, goal setting, problem solving, and interacting with people outside of your usual peer group.
3)   Explore possible new interests –When you volunteer, you get a chance to “test drive” new interests and discover new passions you did not even know you had.
4)   Build your resume – Not only does volunteering provide networking contacts and skills that potential employers find valuable, but it also shows your commitment to the community. When employers see that you are a person who likes to give back to the community, it shows a side of you that cannot be reflected solely by your “prior work experience.”
5)   Improves your physical and mental health – You know that “good feeling” you get when you volunteer? It turns out that feeling may be something more. Studies show volunteers live longer and have lesser incidents of chronic pain and heart disease. Volunteering also lowers depression, especially in people over the age of 65…

It is also clear, that volunteering is a special task for everyone working in your business at a top-down level:

Richard Branson on the Business Benefits of Volunteering

First, as our experience showed, it’s important that everyone in your business be involved, including the leadership team – no one should be so busy that they can’t take part. Everyone needs to be able to take breaks for fun and exercise, and your company needs to have a healthy, engaged and creative workforce if you’re going to get ahead of your competition. Make sure that your employees have options to choose from: Some will want to join a corporate team to compete in a race or challenge, others will want to help organize events, and others may simply want to help raise money. While some of your competitors may dismiss your efforts as a distraction, such cooperation outside the office will be a key builder of your company’s culture, creating a real competitive advantage for years to come – we at Virgin have found this to be the case. We sponsor a number of large sporting events in Britain, such as the London Marathon, the Cyclone ride and the London Triathlon. All of these events increase the awareness of the Virgin brand in one form or another, but importantly, they raise money for charity and connect our companies to local markets and communities. More than that, volunteer work can stimulate enterprising ideas, some of which may be applicable to your business someday. One of our partners in Australia is the mobile and broadband group Optus, and its team, led by the CEO, Kevin Russell, just completed this year’s Tour de Cure, riding more than 1,500 kilometers in Australia from Adelaide to Canberra through the Snowy Mountains. The Tour de Cure is a cycling charity that raises money for all types of cancer research, awareness and prevention. The event has raised millions of dollars over the past seven years, which is quite extraordinary considering its beginnings: two guys chatting in a Sydney coffee shop.

Finally, in today’s times of economic crisis it is important for businesses not only to sell good products or services, but also to build a strong social brand by helping people and organizations: Volunteering

Boeing Showcases BBJ 3 for the First Time at EBACE 2013 – PR Newswire (press release)

Boeing Business Jets (BBJ) is displaying a BBJ 3 for the first time at the 2013 European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland. The airplane, based on the 737-900ER, was outfitted with its custom VIP interiors at Jet Aviation in Basel, Switzerland. The BBJ 3 is currently for sale, so the exterior remains “green” or unpainted, ready for a livery to be selected by a new owner. The range of the BBJ 3 exceeds that of other business jets in its class. It can fly 4,900 nautical miles; more than 1,500 nautical miles (3 hours) farther than its direct competitor. ”The BBJ 3 range advantage is the reason why it has outsold its direct competitor by seven-to-one,” said Capt. Steve Taylor, president, Boeing Business Jets. “Our customers demand airplanes with great performance, enabling them to conduct business around the world.”  The BBJ 3 also features lower cabin altitude, pressurizing the cabin at 6,500 feet versus 8,000 feet of other business jets. This allows BBJ passengers to arrive at their destination relaxed and refreshed without feeling jet lagged.

On the other hand, as strict austerity measures continue to fuel the euro zone crisis and corporate industry executives remain pessimistic, there is a little ground of optimism for sales, in this year’s EBACE:

BizJet Manufacturers Upbeat In The Face Of Europe’s Downturn …

Europe’s largest Business Aviation confab opens today, in Geneva Switzerland. Despite global economic gloom, business jet manufacturers from Europe and North and South America will woo corporate buyers from across the around the world with new models offering, increased capability, improved fuel efficiency enhanced maintainability and superior value. According to Aviation International News Editor, Charles Alcock, the mood is upbeat signaling a forecast for clearing skies ahead.  Europe’s continued–and in some respects worsening–economic troubles give little grounds for optimism, and yet industry mood ahead of the 13th annual European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) appeared to be surprisingly bullish. This may be due in part to the success of the show (May 21 to 23) in attracting both exhibitors and visitors from well beyond the cash-strapped continent. The fact that the show will now be held in the Swiss city for the 13th consecutive year is no accident. In addition to having arguably the most convenient location of any business aviation event worldwide (with direct access from the PalExpo convention center to a static display on the apron of Geneva International Airport), Geneva continues to be an epicenter for private wealth, much of it having its origins well beyond Europe.

But, Embraer made a basic step and announced the sale of the first midsize Legacy 600 with new cabin interior and advanced electronics:

Embraer Executive Jets Sells First Legacy 600 Featuring New …

Embraer Executive Jets announced today at the 13th European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE – www.ebace.aero), the sale of the first super-midsize Legacy 600 with a new cabin interior and new Honeywell Primus Elite avionics.  The aircraft will be operated by AIR HAMBURG, a leading German-based business charter operator, serving European, Russian and Middle East destinations. The delivery is planned for the second semester of 2013.  “We are delighted to welcome AIR HAMBURG, an esteemed and valued customer as the first operator of the new enhanced Legacy 600,” said Colin Steven, Vice President, Sales – Europe, Africa, and Middle East, Embraer Executive Jets. “We have no doubt that passengers will appreciate the unparalleled combination of luxurious comfort, space and performance of the newly enhanced Legacy 600’s interior cabin.”  “AIR HAMBURG started receiving requests for charter flights to destinations that were out of reach for our current fleet. Its limited baggage capacity and range made the step into the super-midsize category necessary to fullfill customer needs,” stated Floris Helmers, CEO of AIR HAMBURG. “That’s why, after evaluating the market of new aircraft in the super-midsize category, the Legacy 600 was the best choice.”

Finally, EBACE 2013 is going to offer a strong sense of the current international competition is the business jet market. After Airbus with the ACJ318, and Boeing Business Jets (BBJ) is going to prove the competition.

Airbus ACJ318 cabin takes centre-stage at EBACE – International …

Airbus is showing an ACJ318 corporate business jet at EBACE (European business aviation conference and exhibition, 21-23 May in Geneva), giving potential customers the chance to see how much wider and taller its cabin is in comparison with other large business jets. The Airbus ACJ318 on display is operated by Tyrolean Jet Services of Austria for a private customer, as well as on VVIP charters, and features lounge areas, a private room that doubles as an office and a bedroom, plus beautiful bathrooms. It seats up to 19 passengers in unprecedented comfort and space. “It may be our smallest aircraft, but the Airbus ACJ318 still has the widest and tallest cabin of any business jet and, with extra fuel tanks that give it intercontinental range, delivers the kind of comfort and space to which other manufacturers aspire,” comments Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers, John Leahy. “And, with a similar wingspan and length to that of other large business jets, it fits within the same ramp space,” he adds. The Airbus ACJ318 has widespread market appeal, because it delivers the best comfort and space in the sky while taking flights between continents in its stride. Its customers include those that acquired it as their first jet, as well as those that upgraded from an existing aircraft.

On the other hand, Embraer Executive Jets is going to debut the midsize Leagacy 500 jet prototype and the 2013 Lineage 1000:

Embraer Executive Jets to Debut Legacy 500 Prototype at EBACE

Embraer Executive Jets will mark the world debut of its all new, midsize Legacy 500 jet prototype at the 13th European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE – www.ebace.aero), at Geneva Palexpo Exhibition Center, in Switzerland, during May 20-23. The company will also debut the 2013 Edition of its ultra-large Lineage 1000. The entry-level Phenom 100, the Phenom 300 light business jet and the large Legacy 650 will be featured in the static display. “EBACE, Europe’s premier business jet aviation gathering, is an excellent showcase to debut the Legacy 500 and the 2013 Lineage 1000,” said Ernest Edwards, President, Embraer Executive Jets. “As with the Phenom 100 and the Phenom 300 before it, the Legacy 500 is recognized as a game changer in its category. It is the first midsize business jet with full fly-by-wire technology for complete envelope protection and improved comfort, efficiency and reduced pilot workload resulting in even more safety. In addition, we are also bringing our new 2013 Edition of the Lineage 1000, featuring an enhanced interior, refined exterior appearance and our Enhanced Vision System EVS.

More importantly, Airbus also aims at successfully penetrating in China’s business jet market:

Airbus ACJ318 brings comfort and elegance to ABACE …

“The high-end business jet market in China wants the best in comfort and elegance, plus the ability to transport larger groups, and Airbus corporate jets lead on both counts, which helps to explain our strong presence there”, points out Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers, John Leahy. “China is also the fastest growing business jet market today, so it is a good place in which to highlight the widest and tallest business-jet cabin,” he adds. The Airbus ACJ318 appeals to a broad market, because it combines the best cabin of any business jet with the range to fly between continents, making it a sensible first jet for high-end private customers, as well as a natural next step for those already flying their own aircraft. The Airbus ACJ318 now comes with an upgraded cabin that delivers popular features such as domed ceilings, as well as options such as appearance enhancing and fuel-saving Sharklets,  Airbus corporate jets are derived from the world’s most modern airliner family, giving them excellent efficiency and robust reliability, as well as making them an interesting investment of proven value. They have won more than 170 sales, and are flying on every continent, including Antarctica.

The Airbus ACJ318 offers its cabin with more elegant decoration, new seats and quality in-flight entertainment:

Airbus ACJ318 Enhanced | Aerosoft Sim News

The Airbus ACJ318 Enhanced capitalises on this early success by introducing new elements as standard – such as a more elegant cabin decor, new seats and high-definition in-flight entertainment – as well as formalizing options such as fuel-saving Sharklets, a shower and a cinema lounge. “We’ve always had a culture of innovation at Airbus,” points out Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers, John Leahy, “and the Airbus ACJ318 Enhanced cabin and efficiency improvements will help us to deliver even more value to customers – as well as giving the aircraft a fresher feel on the inside and a more lively look on the outside.” New features that are standard on the Airbus ACJ318 Enhanced include domed ceilings and window-shades throughout the cabin, which provide a more comfortable feel and ambiance, new linings allowing a better integration of overhead lights and air supply outlets, and light-emitting diode (LED) illumination throughout. Others include a wider choice of seats, including a new one with more comfortable curves and a more stylish shape, high-definition (HD) in-flight entertainment  with Blu-ray player, state-of-the-art displays and HDMI interfaces for external equipment, and a new passenger information system.

Finally, the international business jet market is to be the new field of extreme competition in the international aviation industry. Aircraft producers are seriously aware about this trend. The Airbus ACJ318 is here…

Why Google and the Pentagon want ‘quantum computers’

The search giant and the US space agency are the latest high-profile backers of an experimental machine that could transform computing. But what do they want it for?  Imagine a computer that can teach your mobile phone to recognize any object it sees, or one that can instantly find optimal travel routes for thousands of planes to avoid a snowstorm and deliver their passengers safely to a destination, or even one that can trawl through millions of social media posts to identify a potential terrorist. Traditional computers, including supercomputers, require substantial time to crunch that kind of big data. But scientists have long theorised that a computer that harnesses the often-peculiar principles of quantum mechanics could perform these kinds of calculations in a flash, and even solve problems that would take years for a normal computer to churn through.  The scientific community is still debating whether a true quantum computer can ever be built. But one quantum computing company, D-Wave, is forging ahead. It has already won over the Pentagon’s biggest weapons builder and has now received another huge endorsement: a three-way collaboration between the US space agency Nasa, search giant Google and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) that it will buy the second D-Wave Two computer. D-Wave Systems, a Canadian-based company, came to prominence in 2007 when it stunned the scientific community by announcing that it had built the world’s first quantum computer. That claim was also met with scepticism and critics, particularly from scientists who wanted peer-reviewed, published proof of the claims, rather than just a public announcement.

More importantly, Google is moving forward by taking advantage of quantum computers as it is going to study “machine learning” with NASA:

Google Buys $15M Quantum Computer: Faster, Smarter Artificial Intelligence Is … – iDigitalTimes.com

The search giant just purchased a $15 million quantum computer created by D-Wave System that will help them process the information it collects across of all its platforms. In addition to making the big purchase, Google announced that it would be teaming up with NASA to study machine learning using the new multi-million dollar computer. Google’s investment in quantum computing makes perfect sense. Although quantum computing was long considered an element of science fiction, the technology has actually become viable within the past 10 years. Quantum computing, in theory, allows computers to work faster and deal with heavier loads of information. Processing and calculation power is significantly stronger – thousands of times faster – than any existing supercomputers built around binary. ”You think you’re in Dr. Seuss land,” said Catherine McGeoch, the Beitzel Professor in Technology and Society (Computer Science) at Amherst College in a report. “It’s such a whole different approach to computation that you have to wrap your head around this new way of doing things in order to decide how to evaluate it. It’s like comparing apples and oranges, or apples and fish, and the difficulty was coming up with experiments and analyses that allowed you to say you’d compared things properly. It definitely was the oddest set of problems I’ve ever coped with.”

But D-Wave has created an unusual computer…

D-Wave’s Quantum Computer Goes to the Races, Wins

When I visited D-Wave last year I saw some spectacular hardware and heard of significant backing for the company. But no one was able to show me results from pitting one of D-Wave’s unusual computers directly against a conventional one to prove how much faster they could be. Now the first results of a proper race between D-Wave’s quantum machine and conventional software on a regular computer have come out, and they look good for the Vancouver company (although they don’t address the question of whether quantum or conventional physics are what makes its chips work). Catherine McGeoch, a computer science professor at Amherst College, carried out the tests and will soon present her results in a peer reviewed paper at the International Conference on Computing Frontiers. Her verdict on D-Wave’s computer? “In some cases, really, really fast.”

Additionally, Jeff Bezos and the CIA have a serious interest for using quantum mechanics on the effort to unleash superb computer power:

The CIA and Jeff Bezos Bet on Quantum Computing | MIT …

Inside a blocky building in a Vancouver suburb, across the street from a dowdy McDonald’s, is a place chilled colder than anywhere in the known universe. Inside that is a computer processor that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the CIA’s investment arm, In-Q-Tel, believe can tap the quirks of quantum mechanics to unleash more computing power than any conventional computer chip. Bezos and In-Q-Tel are in a group of investors who are betting $30 million on this prospect. If the bet works out, some of the world’s thorniest computing problems, such as the hunt for new drugs or efforts to build artificial intelligence, would become dramatically less challenging. This development would also clear the tainted reputation of D-Wave Systems, the startup whose eight-year-long effort to create a quantum computer has earned little more than skepticism bordering on ridicule from prominent physicists.

Finally,  Google, NASA, and the CIA seemed determined to research and use the power of quantum mechanics for producing and testing the next generation of superpower computers, the quantum computers..!

Planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft in trouble – CNN

Controllers found Tuesday that Kepler had gone into a “safe mode” and one of the reaction wheels needed to orient the spacecraft would not spin, Associate NASA Administrator John Grunsfeld told reporters. NASA engineers are trying to figure out whether they can get the balky part back into service or whether they can resume control by another method, Grunsfeld said. ”We’re not ready to call the mission over,” he said. But at roughly 40 million miles from Earth, “Kepler is not in a place where I can go up and rescue it.” The Kepler mission has identified 132 planets beyond our solar system since its launch in 2009, leading scientists to believe that most stars in our galaxy have planets circling them. It has gone into a “safe mode” with its solar panels facing back at the sun, giving controllers intermittent communication with the craft as it spins.

The Kepler Telescope faces problems with one of its reaction wheels, which help it to keep its precision steering:

Kepler telescope planet-hunting days crunch to a close – New Scientist

“Kepler was my North, my South, my East and West, my working week, no weekend rest, my noon, my midnight, my talks, my song; I thought Kepler would last forever: I was wrong.” So laments planet hunter Geoff Marcy, with a due nod to W. H. Auden, upon hearing the news that NASA’s Kepler space telescope is probably close to ending its search for extrasolar planets. But the pioneering telescope has been hobbled by a damaged reaction wheel, NASA announced at a press conference. These wheels help Kepler keep its orientation in space, and precision steering is crucial to the mission.  The telescope has been watching some 150,000 stars near the constellation Cygnus for changes in brightness caused by a planet crossing, or transiting, its face as seen from Earth. To do this, it needs to keep the same specific pixels of its light detector trained on given stars for months at a time. Kepler started out with four reaction wheels – one to control its motion around each axis and one spare. One wheel stopped turning in July last year, leaving the telescope with no backup. In January, a second wheel began misbehaving, so mission managers gave Kepler a small break from planet hunting, in the hopes that a spot of R&R would fix the problem.

NASA Kepler spacecraft planet-hunting days may be numbered – Boston.com

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler telescope is broken, potentially jeopardizing the search for other worlds where life could exist outside our solar system. If engineers can’t find a fix, the failure could mean an end to the $600 million mission’s search, although the space agency wasn’t ready to call it quits Wednesday. The telescope has discovered scores of planets but only two so far are the best candidates for habitable planets. ‘‘I wouldn’t call Kepler down-and-out just yet,’’ said NASA sciences chief John Grunsfeld. NASA said the spacecraft lost the second of four wheels that control its orientation in space. With only two working wheels left, it can’t point at stars with the same precision. In orbit around the sun, 40 million miles from Earth, Kepler is too far away to send astronauts on a repair mission like the way Grunsfeld and others fixed a mirror on the Hubble Space Telescope. Over the next several weeks, engineers on the ground will try to restart Kepler’s faulty wheel or find a workaround. The telescope could be used for other purposes even if it can no longer track down planets.

More importantly, the Kepler Spacecraft mission is the first of its kind focused on finding Earth-size planets:

Faulty steering wheel jeopardizes Kepler spacecraft telescope’s quest for alien life – Fox News

A faulty steering apparatus may bring an early end to NASA’s Kepler space telescope, a $600 million tool in the space agency’s quest for life elsewhere in the universe. Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water. Launched in 2009, it has discovered thousands of such planets, including a pair just 1,200 light years away. Called Kepler-62-e and Kepler-62-f, the news of their discovery came about one month ago. But yesterday, Kepler’s mission ran into trouble. Kepler is powered by four solar panels, and the spacecraft must execute a 90-degree roll every 3 months to reposition the solar panels to face the sun while keeping its eye precisely aimed. Kepler launched with four wheels to control that motion — and one of them failed last year. The space telescope was placed in “thruster-controlled safe mode” yesterday, said NASA spokesman J.D. Harrington. “Unfortunately, Kepler isn’t in a place where I can go up and rescue it,” John Grunsfeld, associate administrator, science mission directorate at NASA said during a hastily arranged press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Finally, NASA engineers have to work hard for solving the problem, as they didn’t declare the Kepler Spacecraft dead yet…

Do You Have Entrepreneurial Determination..? | Interesting News …

Richard Branson in a recent post has given valuable advice on entrepreneurial determination, and especially in its importance for moving forward. Self-motivation and determination are important for moving forward and overcoming difficulties. Richard Branson learned from his mother to dive into situations even if he wasn’t completely sure about his own abilities, and then solve the problems that came up as he went along. When he was almost 12, she once sent him alone on a long bike-riding expedition to another town, knowing that h would be fine, but also that he’d have to find water and ask for directions along the way.

It is important to be mentioned that self-motivation is crucial for enhancing your entrepreneurial determination:

Richard Branson on Entrepreneurial Determination | Entrepreneur …

Q: Is self-motivation an innate quality or is it something that can be learned and improved upon?
If you aren’t good at motivating yourself, you probably won’t get very far in business – especially as an entrepreneur. When you’re starting up a company and for the first couple of years afterward, there are a lot of long nights and stressful days, and the workload is heavy. You have to be able to give the job everything you’ve got every day, or it will easily get the better of you. The ability to tap into your determination and grit is not just an innate skill. You can teach yourself to get up every day and try to keep a new business going despite long odds, partly by structuring your life and job to make sure you are working toward your larger goals. I learned a lot about this from my mother, who is a very energetic and strong-willed individual. As I wrote recently, I’m thankful for the life lessons she taught me, without which I would probably not be where I am today. I always wanted to go out there and prove myself, but I was very shy when I was young, and it was clear that I would have to master this if I was going to succeed. My timidity could have easily held me back if she hadn’t helped me come out of my shell. She feels that shyness is very selfish, as it means you are only thinking of yourself, and so she was very insistent that I look adults in the eye and shake their hands, and carry on conversations with guests at dinner and at parties — no excuses.

On the other hand, what is your main motivation..?

How to Increase Entrepreneurial Determination to Succeed

As Richard Branson notes,  it is important to understand what your main motivation is so that you can focus your efforts on reaching those goals. Then structure your job – perhaps by delegating some work – so that you can spend as much time as possible turning this energy to your company’s advantage. These days, one of my goals is to keep challenging myself. I see life as one long university education, in place of the one I never had — every day I learn something new. And perhaps I didn’t miss out, since there’s only so much you can learn sitting in a lecture hall. I’ve found that I often learn a great deal from the people I meet, and some of them have inspired me. Meeting Mick Jagger and Steve Jobs had a big impact on me. They accomplished so much in their respective fields that spending time with them made me think about what I might do in mine. Afterward, I was more motivated than ever to do the best possible job in my own business.

Finally, it is becoming clear that doing business in difficult times is challenging not only for the entrepreneur but also for economies in local and international scale. But, first everyone must have entrepreneurial determination…

Boeing Rolls Out First 787 Dreamliner at Increased Production Rate …

Boeing has rolled out of the factory the first 787 Dreamliner to be built at the increased production rate of seven airplanes per month. The airplane, which rolled out earlier this week, is the 114th 787 to be built overall and the 100th 787 to be built at the Everett, Wash., factory. Boeing’s 787 program is on track to achieve a planned 10 per month rate by year-end. The production rate accounts for airplanes built at the Everett Final Assembly facility, the Everett Temporary Surge Line and Boeing South Carolina. To date, 50 787s have been delivered to eight airlines. The program has more than 800 unfilled orders with 58 customers worldwide.

On the other hand, problematic 787 batteries which caused the almost six month grounding are to have an X-ray examination in order to help investigators identify the real causes of the problems:

Boeing 787 battery x-rays ordered as flights resume – Chicago Tribune

The batteries that resulted in Boeing 787 Dreamliners months-long grounding across the globe have been ordered to undergo X-rays to aid investigators in finding out what caused them to overheat and catch fire. The National Transportation Safety Board, which recently held two days of hearings to better understand how the batteries malfunctioned, is expected to begin the scans next week. They’re not expected to delay the plane going back into service, which will be staggered over the next six weeks. The failure of two batteries first grounded the fleet in January.

More importantly, Boeing aims to produce 10 Dreamliner airplanes per month by the year end in order to cover global demand for the aircraft:

Boeing moves past 787 Dreamliner grounding, speeds up production – Los Angeles Times

After months of headaches brought on by its 787 Dreamliner jet, Boeing Co. is now back on track and even speeding the production rate of the new airliner. The aerospace giant said it has increased the production rate of seven airplanes per month at its Everett, Wash., factory. The program is set to reach 10 per month by year-end. It’s good news for the beleaguered 787 program. Around the world, all 787s had been grounded from Jan. 16 until late last month because of safety concerns with the plane’s lithium-ion battery system.  During that time, Boeing had not been allowed to deliver any new 787s but continued building them. Before the grounding order, the company delivered 50 of the planes to eight airlines worldwide, including United Airlines, the only U.S. carrier that operates 787s. The program has more than 800 unfilled orders with 58 customers worldwide. Final assembly of the 787 is in Everett, but the bulk of the large components arrive from suppliers around the world already assembled. There are about 50 suppliers in California alone. Boeing has had to redesign the 787’s battery system after two overheating incidents this year — one of which resulted in a fire. The planes that were already built had to be retrofitted with the new design, and some airlines have already begun 787 commercial flights. United said it plans to enter its planes into operation on May 31.

On the other hand, Japan’s All Nippon Airways is to put its Dreamliner aircraft back in normal flight schedule by June 1, as it is the biggest user of Boeing 787 till now:

ANA to resume Boeing 787 services June 1 – ATWOnline

All Nippon Airways (ANA), launch customer for the Boeing 787, said it willresume Dreamliner services from June 1, following the completion of a series of battery system modifications, safety checks and test flights. ANA grounded its 787s in January after one of its aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing following an incident related to its lithium ion battery system. The reintroduction of the 787 aircraft will result in partial amendments to ANA’s summer flight schedule for international and domestic services, the company said in a statement. “ANA will also introduce the 787 onto a further three international routes from this summer—Narita to Beijing and Shanghai and Haneda to Taipei—bringing the number of overseas destinations served by the 787 to five,” ANA said. ANA president and CEO Osamu Shinobe said “Our engineers have worked closely with Boeing to undertake the required improvements and we are fully satisfied with the safety of our 787 fleet.”

Finally, the Dreamliner story unveils the true price of innovation for Boeing which has faced a serious crisis situation since last January. But innovation is worth the effort as the Boeing 787 will soon prove in the aviation industry.

One order of steel; hold the greenhouse gases – MIT News

Anyone who has seen pictures of the giant, red-hot cauldrons in which steel is made — fed by vast amounts of carbon, and belching flame and smoke — would not be surprised to learn that steelmaking is one of the world’s leading industrial sources of greenhouse gases. But remarkably, a new process developed by MIT researchers could change all that. The new process even carries a couple of nice side benefits: The resulting steel should be of higher purity, and eventually, once the process is scaled up, cheaper. Donald Sadoway, the John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry at MIT and senior author of a new paper describing the process, says this could be a significant “win, win, win” proposition. The paper, co-authored by Antoine Allanore, the Thomas B. King Assistant Professor of Metallurgy at MIT, and former postdoc Lan Yin (now a postdoc at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), has just been published in the journal Nature. Worldwide steel production currently totals about 1.5 billion tons per year. The prevailing process makes steel from iron ore — which is mostly iron oxide — by heating it with carbon; the process forms carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Production of a ton of steel generates almost two tons of CO2 emissions, according to steel industry figures, accounting for as much as 5 percent of the world’s total greenhouse-gas emissions. The industry has met little success in its search for carbon-free methods of manufacturing steel. The idea for the new method, Sadoway says, arose when he received a grant from NASA to look for ways of producing oxygen on the moon — a key step toward future lunar bases.

On the other hand, as we experience today’s energy revolution, the old energy approaches seem to stay strong:

New Technology Propels Old Energy Boom – The Epoch Times

Technology created an energy revolution over the past decade—just not the one we expected. By now, cars were supposed to be running on fuel made from plant waste or algae—or powered by hydrogen or cheap batteries that burned nothing at all. Electricity would be generated with solar panels and wind turbines. When the sun didn’t shine or the wind didn’t blow, power would flow out of batteries the size of tractor-trailers. Fossil fuels? They were going to be expensive and scarce, relics of an earlier, dirtier age. But in the race to conquer energy technology, Old Energy is winning. Oil companies big and small have used technology to find a bounty of oil and natural gas so large that worries about running out have melted away. New imaging technologies let drillers find oil and gas trapped miles underground and undersea. Oil rigs “walk” from one drill site to the next. And engineers in Houston use remote-controlled equipment to drill for gas in Pennsylvania. The result is an abundance that has put the United States on track to become the world’s largest producer of oil and gas in a few years. As domestic production has soared, oil imports have fallen to a 17-year low, the U.S. government reported Thursday. And the gushers aren’t limited to Texas, North Dakota, and the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Overseas, enormous reserves have been found in East and West Africa, Australia, South America, and the Mediterranean.

More importantly, the traditional old energy industry paid emphasis on innovative technologies which are focused on oil and gas:

‘Old Energy‘ still holding edge in technology race – Marietta Daily Journal

The new century brought deep concerns the world’s oil reserves were increasingly concentrated in the Middle East — and beginning to run out. Energy prices rose to record highs. Climate scientists showed that reliance on fossil fuels was causing troubling changes to the environment. “The general belief was that the end of the oil era was at hand,” says Daniel Yergin, an energy historian and author of “The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World.” As a result, Wall Street, Silicon Valley and governments were pouring money into new companies developing alternative forms of energy that promised to supply the world’s needs without polluting. But while the national focus was on alternatives, the oil and gas industry was innovating too. New technology allowed drillers to do two crucial things: find more places where oil and gas is hidden and bring it to the surface economically.Large oil companies such as Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP turned up huge discoveries offshore in ultra-deep water with the help of faster computers and better sensors that allowed them to see once-hidden oil deposits. Onshore, small drillers learned how to pull oil and gas out of previously inaccessible underground rock formations.For most of the oil age, drillers have looked for large underground pools of oil and gas that were easy to tap. These pools had grown over millions of years as oil and gas oozed out of what is known as source rock. Source rock is a wide, thin layer of sedimentary rock — like frosting in the middle of a layer cake — that is interspersed with oil and gas.

Finally, innovation is becoming a key concept not only in traditional old energy practices and approaches, but also in steelmaking, as more is to come!