On 2006-05-22, wrote:
So the mostly composite airframe 787 with 20% improvement if fuel
economy, advanced aerodyamic wing and empennage, larger LCD flight deck
displays and dual HUDs doesn't count as imaginative, new or radical?

No, it's just an incremental improvement on what went on before. The
Sonic Cruiser would have been imaginative and radical. I don't dispute
that many engineering challenges were met with the 787 but that doesn't
make it imaginative or radical - it's just a better
Yet Another two-engines-under-the-wing widebody jet.

But what's conservative is what sells, ESPECIALLY if it comes with fuel
economy. The market doesn't want imaginative and radical. They want
familiar, boring and more efficient. The 'more efficient' bit will drive
the new aerodynamics.

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