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On Oct. 26 ANA was the first airline to take to the sky with Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner. What is it about this aircraft that have many experts calling it a revolutionary game changer for the airline industry. Why has it taken so long to get it into the air? Today on Down to Business English we answer these questions and more.
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Dez: This is Dez Morgan here reporting from Abu Dhabi UAE
Skip: And I’m Skip Montreux in Tokyo Japan.
Dez: And you’re listening to Down to Business English.
Dez: Welcome back to Down to Business English everyone. The program that talks about current business news making headlines around the world.
Skip: If you use English in your business life, or are a student who hopes to use English in your career, this is the show to listen to.
Dez: So Skip, how have you been?
Skip: I’m doing well thank you. The only real concerns I have at the moment are about the above average radiation readings that are popping up all over the place around the Tokyo area.
Dez: Is that right? That does sound worrying.
Skip: Yes it is. And what is even more confusing is the Japanese government saying that it is not conclusive that this radiation is actually coming from the nuclear crisis in Fukushima.
Dez: Really?! Where else could it be coming from?
Skip: Media reports say that some of it could be coming from radium used in paint production and could have been lying around for years. It’s only being noticed now because citizens are being more proactive monitoring radiation levels.
Dez: That really does not sound good. People must be quite anxious.
Skip: Yes, everyone is. Sales and rentals of Geiger counters are going through the roof as no one completely trusts the information coming from the government.
Dez: That’s terrible. But I’m sure that the government doesn’t want to panic people unnecessarily.
Skip: And I can understand that. But there is a difference between reporting accurate information and hiding the facts. Anyway, it’s not all doom and gloom coming out of Japan. In fact, just recently a milestone event took place that has a strong connection to Japan.
Dez: And what event was that?
Skip: It was the maiden passenger flight of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
Dez: Oh that’s right. The Dreamliner had its very first flight recently didn’t it? It has been touted by Boeing as being a complete game changer for the Airline industry. And what exactly is the connection between the Dreamliner and Japan?
Skip: Well the first airline to put the Dreamliner into service is ANA, All Nippon Airlines, and on Oct 26, they carried their first passengers from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to Hong Kong.
Dez: Congratulations to Boeing and ANA. But the story of Boeing’s Dreamliner 787 has been full of setbacks and delays. Wasn’t it supposed to have gone into service a couple of years ago?
Skip: That’s right. It was initially scheduled to go into service way back in August of 2007 actually. But production setbacks postponed it a full 3 years.
Dez: Well, better late than never?
Skip: Maybe. Today on Down to Business English we will be reporting on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. We will look at what makes it different from the competition, how it may revolutionize the air travel industry, and what challenges Boeing faces to make the project profitable.
Dez: Great. Let’s do it. Let’s get D2B…Down to Business with the Dreamliner, the future of air travel?
Dez: Skip, why don’t you start by telling us exactly why the Boeing Dreamliner 787 is considered a revolutionary aircraft.
Skip: That’s a good place to start Dez. What sets the Dreamliner apart from other aircraft is that it has been designed as a mid sized aircraft that can make long haul flights. That translates into a plane that is both fuel efficient and ultra comfortable for its passengers.
Dez: Ultra comfortable? So they have designed it with more legroom. Wow, I look forward to that.
Skip: It’s more than just legroom. In an effort to create a more ‘open’ environment, the windows have been designed 30% larger which, according to Boeing, allows for spacious views. They claim that anyone traveling on the Dreamliner will feel as if they are sitting in a window seat.
Dez: Well that does sound more spacious, but it seems more of a cosmetic change than a ‘revolutionary’ step forward in air travel.
Skip: Perhaps, but the design feature that has everyone spinning is that the 787′s cabin pressure is higher and more humid than other aircraft. This higher pressure and humidity will reduce fatigue, dry eyes, and headaches that are so common among passengers on long haul flights.
Dez: An increase in the cabin pressure. Isn’t that something that can be done on conventional aircraft?
Skip: No, as a matter of fact, it can’t. What makes it possible on the Dreamliner is that the material used in the construction of the plane is a new, stronger and lighter high-tech composite of plastic and carbon fiber. Basically, the Dreamliner is a very strong plastic airplane.
Dez: A stronger but lighter aeroplane?
Skip: Exactly. And while being stronger allows the cabin pressure to be increased, being lighter, the Dreamliner is 20% more fuel efficient than other mid-size aircrafts.
Dez: That must be music to the ears of airlines who are always struggling to cut costs.
Skip: Most definitely. The main reason why so many airlines were interested in the Dreamliner was that it promised to make long haul flights possible for smaller mid-sized jets. Remember, typically, long haul aircraft like the Boeing 747 and Airbus 380 need to carry over 400 passengers.
Dez: That certainly is a lot of seats to fill on a regular basis. And I would imagine that if the flight was only 50 or 60% full, the flight would be a financial loss for the airline.
Skip: But now with the Dreamliner, which carries only 210-290 people, depending on its configuration, airlines can service much longer and direct routes with much lower operational costs.
Dez: I can now see how the Dreamliner can be considered a game changer. Currently, the structure of the airline industry is based a hub and spoke network, where large aircraft fly passengers into hub airports and smaller midsize jets fly them to their final destination.
Skip: And that entire paradigm is up for grabs. Airlines can now offer their customers more convenient routing options than they are currently providing.
Dez: So the airlines must be queuing up to place orders then?
Skip: Well, initially they were. When the Dreamliner was first rolled out to the public on July 8, 2007, it was already the fastest selling wide-body aircraft in history. At that time there were already 677 orders from 57 different customers. However, as the original launch date of August 2007 was pushed back time and time again, many of those original customers canceled orders.
Dez: So tell us about those delays. If the Dreamliner was supposed to first take to the skies in 2007, why is it only just taking off now?
Skip: In total, there were not 1, not 2, not even 3 or 4, but 5 separate delays. Most all of them stemmed from issues with the manufacturing supply chain. Now, in order to build the Dreamliner, Boeing made a radical departure from the way they normally construct aircraft.
Dez: And how exactly was it different?
Skip; Well, instead of assembling the entire plane from the ground up at their American facilities, they outsourced key components, such as the wings, the fuselage, the horizontal stabilizers, and even the landing gear, to subcontractors around the world.
Dez: And each subcontractor was responsible for assembling their piece of the plane and shipping it to Boeing where they would assemble the final product?
Skip: That’s right.
Dez: Well that sounds quite ingenious actually. One step further than the process Boeing’s competitor Airbus uses.
Skip: Maybe it looked good on paper, but it didn’t work quite as smoothly as they planned. They ran into delay after delay caused by a wide range of issues. And as I said many airlines cancelled their orders and opted for products from Airbus.
Dez: But that is all in the past. The Dreamliner has finally arrived and is now in service.
Skip: But even so, Boeing is not out of the woods yet. Even though the Dreamliner is now in service, airlines are still canceling orders, the most recent being Air India who just reduced their initial order of 27 to 12.
Dez: It looks like Boeings sales team has there work cut out for them.
Skip: That they do. Analysts says that Boeing needs to sell more than a thousand aircraft for the project to be profitable. Currently, they have 800 aircraft on order. However, Boeing’s vice president for marketing says he fully expects the total number of Dreamliner orders to increase over time.
Dez: What else is he going to say.
Skip: Well, nothing if he wants to keep his job.
Dez: Well thank you for that report Skip. Now it’s time to get D2V…Down to Vocabulary.
Skip: Just before we begin vocabulary today I just want to make a comment about the D2V section. As regular listeners know, we usually only discuss 7 to 10 words and explanations. If there is any other word or phrase that you would have an explanation for, or see an example sentence of, just visit our Facebook page and post your request. Either Dez or myself will post an explanation and an example sentence and it will be there for everyone to see.
Dez: Great idea. Okay, let me get things started today with the idiom to go through the roof. In the introduction to today’s story, Skip said that sales of geiger counters in Japan are going through the roof. This expression means that geiger counters are selling very quickly. It is a common phrase to say something is increasing in number or rising very quickly in a short period of time. Can you give us another example Skip?
Skip: I sure can. After news of the agreement between the Eurozone countries to bailout Greece yet again, the New York Stock Exchange went through the roof.
Dez: That it did, the S&P 500 was up 15% in the month of October. But there is no guarantee the gains won’t have been eroded once you listen to this.
Skip: Our next word is the verb to tout. To tout something means to advertise a unique feature of a product or to brag about how special it is. In the story, Dez mentioned that Boeing has touted the Dreamliner as being a game changer in the airline industry. In other words, Boeing is claiming that this aircraft is much better from other aircraft.
Dez: Here is another example. In its early days, Twitter was touted as a faster way to get news than main stream media.
Skip: Great example. It was very often true too, as people tweeted about real time events like earthquakes and airplane crashes faster than news organizations could report on them. What’s our next word?
Dez: Next I have a noun phrase. A cosmetic change. Just as cosmetics are used to make a face fresher or younger looking, a cosmetic change is a change that on the surface looks different or new, but underneath is still the same old thing.
Skip: I see why you are still a single man Dez.
Dez: Very funny. When Skip told me about the larger windows in the Dreamliner, I asked if it was just a cosmetic change. I wondered if the Dreamliner was actually that much different.
Skip: Every year car manufactures roll out new models. Some of them look very different but usually the changes are mostly cosmetic. The engines and body frames are basically the same.
Dez: I have a Ford and every few years they change the body but it is the same old car really. Shall we move on?
Skip: Yes. Now let’s look at the expression, to have everyone spinning. This is a common expression too, and it communicates that people are very excited about something. In the story I said that the design feature that has everyone spinning was the higher cabin pressure in the 787. What I meant was that everyone is very excited about flying in an airplane that has better atmosphere.
Dez: Usually this phrase is used in a positive context, but depending on the situation, and the speaker’s tone of voice, it could also be used in a negative way. For example, I was just spinning after getting off the phone with Blackberry’s customer service line. They told me it would be days before full email service was restored.
Skip: Oh dear, I’m sure you were not too happy about that!
Dez: Actually no I was overjoyed. People couldn’t instant message while driving and the students even had to pay attention. All of which was music to my ears which incidentally is my next phrase.
Skip: I think that is an easy idiom to get a mental picture of.
Dez: Yes. Listening to music is a pleasurable activity. It’s a nice way to relax and put yourself in a good mood. When you say that something is music to your ears, you’re saying that what you heard was good news. In the story, I commented that the news that Dreamliner was more fuel efficient than any other commercial aircraft must be music to the airline industry’s ears. They must be very happy to hear about that.
Skip: It was music to my ears when I heard that our sales team had landed a big client last week at our office. Without that contract things were looking pretty bad for this year.
Dez: Do you think you will be getting a bonus?
Skip: Well, that would be even more music to my ears, but I won’t know for awhile yet. Moving on, I want to briefly talk about the noun configuration. A configuration is the arrangement of something to meet your requirements. In the report I said that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner seats 210-290 people, depending on its configuration. What I meant is that airlines can choose from several different ways to arrange the inside of the aircraft to suit their needs.
Dez: This is a very common business word and it’s also often used in its verb form. For example, the great thing about smart phones is that each and every user can configure them to suit their needs. In other words you can set them up exactly the way you want to.
Skip: It took me 3 days to configure my new iPhone 4s just right. I have all my apps arranged nicely into little folders on one single screen.
Dez: And you got to mention on the show that you’ve got one.
Skip: Yes I did, and I love it.
Dez: Almost Skip. You almost made it through one episode without mentioning Apple. Fanboy!
Skip: Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
Dez: Finally today we have the phrase to be up for grabs. When we say something is up for grabs, we mean that it is available for anyone to take control of or to change it from its current form. In the story, Skip said that the current paradigm for passenger air travel is up for grabs. In other words, that paradigm is now open to be completely changed.
Skip: I would say that with the U.S. economy in such bad shape at the moment, Barak Obama’s Presidency is up for grabs next November. Especially now that his most recent attempt at creating jobs in the U.S has hit a political brick wall.
Dez: That may be true, but a lot can happen in a year. Especially in politics.
Skip : That is all the time we have for Vocabulary today. Please, go back and listen to the report again and try to catch those key words and phrases in context.
Skip: Thanks so much for listening today.
Dez: Yes, thank you very much everyone. And don’t forget that the free PDF audio script for today’s report on the Dreamliner is available on our website at downtobusinessenglish.com . That’s downtobusinessenglish.com
.Skip: Yes, please drop by. And while you are on the site be sure to sign up for the Down to Business Newsletter. The next issue is coming out soon.
Dez: Yes, please do that. And remember that if you have any questions about any other words or phrases that we didn’t talk about in D2V, visit the Down to Business English Facebook page and post your question on the wall.
Skip: Okay everyone, that’s all for now. See you next time.
Dez; Yes, take care. Bye.
