Boeing aims to clear its 737 Max for flight as soon as October. But the planemaker also is plotting how it would respond to a far worse scenario: a grounding that stretches months longer. Complicating both efforts is the tightest US labour market in half a century. With experienced mechanics and engineers increasingly difficult to hire, Boeing is pondering what once loomed as a last-ditch choice -- a temporary factory shutdown -- to preserve its workforce. The company wants to avoid a potential unravelling of manufacturing expertise across a broad swath of North America as its recovers from the Max crisis. That’s the risk if large numbers of highly skilled workers from the 600 mostly US companies building components for the jet were to move on to other jobs at a time of historically low unemployment. <br/>
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The leading US developers of supersonic aircraft called on the DoT Aug 27 to modify its proposed rule on supersonic flight authorisations, arguing the proposal’s wording amounts to an effective prohibition on all supersonic flight. The comments came in response to DoT’s June 28 notice of proposed rulemaking to streamline the application process for supersonic flight authorisations. The rulemaking will not constitute a repeal of the current prohibition on overland flights in excess of Mach 1, although FAA will reserve the authority to approve supersonic operations on an individual basis. Aerion wrote that the rulemaking’s requirement that test flights cause “no measurable sonic boom overpressure to reach the surface … would effectively create a ban on all supersonic flight.” <br/>
Work on Dubai’s Al Maktoum Airport, designed to be one of the world’s biggest with an annual capacity of more than 250m passengers, is on hold as Gulf Arab economies falter, people familiar with the matter said. Construction activity has been halted and finances for expansion frozen until further notice. The completion date for the first phase of the airport, envisaged as a US$36b super-hub allowing local airline Emirates to consolidate its position as the world’s No. 1 long-haul carrier, had already been pushed back 5 years to 2030 in October. Dubai Airports said it’s reviewing the long-term master plan and that “exact timelines and details of next steps are not as yet finalised.” It said it aims to ensure development takes full advantage of emerging technologies, responds to consumer trends and preferences, and optimises investment. <br/>
Russia Wednesday unveiled to clients its new MC-21 passenger plane, billed as a competitor to Boeing and Airbus even though the project has been stymied by sanctions and glitches with its predecessor, the Sukhoi Superjet. The new plane was the showpiece at the MAKS air show outside Moscow, which president Vladimir Putin formally opened Tuesday with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Produced by Siberia-based manufacturer Irkut, the medium-haul plane seats up to 211 passengers and has a range of 6,000 km — enough to take it from Moscow to any European destination. It is the Russian aviation industry’s big hope after setbacks with the regional Sukhoi Superjet 100 liner, launched in 2011 as the first post-Soviet civilian airplane. <br/>