Boeing makes strides on new freighter
Boeing Co. said Tuesday it had completed the basic design for its 747-8 freighter, allowing its engineers to begin work on final detailed designs for the new jumbo jet.
In the year since it formally announced plans to produce a longer, more fuel-efficient version of its four-engine 747, Boeing has received 44 orders for the cargo model and is still waiting for an airline order for the passenger version, dubbed the Intercontinental.
Dan Mooney, vice president of the 747 program, said Boeing is in talks with several passenger airlines and “potentially could have an order by the end of this year, but I would say confident is probably too strong a word.
“We still feel very positive about the Intercontinental market and confident we will have a good market and a good number or orders and customers.”
In mid-October, Boeing announced it was lengthening the Intercontinental to make room for about 17 extra seats, bringing the seat count to 467.
On Tuesday, Mooney said Boeing will likely give airlines the option of putting a galley on the plane’s second deck, which would boost the total seat count to 479 — even closer to that of rival Airbus SAS’s A380, which will seat 555 people.
Mooney said most airlines have expressed greater interest in lengthening the plane to add seats and cargo capacity, rather than extending the plane’s flying range.
Mooney did not say whether airlines have shown keener interest in the 747-8 after Airbus recently doubled the A380 production delays to two years.
The 747-8 freighter will be about 250 feet long.
“After months of delay, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. on Tuesday filed its overdue financial statements for the fiscal year that ended in January, reporting that its annual net loss narrowed to $135.7 million while its revenue fell to $543.4 million.
In fiscal 2005, the company reported a loss of $198.3 on revenue of $707.8 million.
The late annual report also said that during the fourth quarter, Krispy Kreme lost $37.7 million, or 61 cents per share, compared with a loss of $36.1 million, or 58 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter fell 24 percent to $122.2 million.
The filing comes as Krispy Kreme also announced it reached a tentative $75 million settlement with plaintiffs in a pending securities class action lawsuit.
Krispy Kreme has yet to file reports covering the first, second and third quarter of fiscal 2006, the third quarter of fiscal 2005 and the first two quarters of its fiscal 2007 year.