November 19, 2019: The Republic of Ghana declared at the Dubai Air Show that the country intends to re-launch an airline starting with the B787-9 Dreamliner.
Boeing and Ghana signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for three airplanes with a current list price of $877.5 million.
"There is a growing demand for air travel to and from Ghana and we believe the advanced 787-9 Dreamliner gives us an efficient and flexible machine to launch a regional network and eventually serve international destinations in the future," said Joseph Kofi Adda, minister of aviation and member of parliament, Republic of Ghana.
Honored that the Republic of Ghana has selected the fuel-efficient 787-9 #Dreamliner to help re-launch their airline.
Adda noted that the carrier, to be based in Accra, would establish the capital city as a strategic hub that serves cities across West Africa.
"Africa boasts a growing, young workforce and vast natural resources.
Boeing and Ghana signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the airplanes with a current list price of $877.5 million, to re-launch a national airline.
"GE Aviation is honoured to provide GEnx engines for the new 787 Dreamliners that Ghana will acquire to re-launch a national carrier," said Mahendra Nair, general manager of the GEnx programme.
"The GEnx engine has proven itself with the highest reliability and utilisation rates that benefit our customers, and we look forward to working with Ghana as the country progresses on its strategy to re-enter the aviation industry."
The engine celebrated its 15th anniversary since its launch and marked the assembly of its 2,000th engine.
With the most advanced technologies and materials, the GEnx has the highest reliability and utilisation, lowest fuel burn and longest range capable of any engine available on the B787 aircraft.
The highest pressure ratio compressor in commercial service today enables the best fuel efficiency in its thrust class, resulting in the GEnx engine powering the longest B787 routes, such as Qantas' B787-9 record-breaking non-stop flight from New York to Sydney last month.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a key enabler of all three,” said Tony Douglas, group chief executive, Etihad Aviation Group, at the 2019 Dubai Airshow.
In partnership with Boeing, this one-of-a-kind aircraft will be used to test technology, products, and initiatives designed to help reduce carbon emissions and build a future of sustainable air travel.
The specially-themed 787 will come into service early next year and operate regular flights in Etihad Airways' network, while occasionally serving as a testbed for examining ecological sustainability initiatives.
"The 787 Dreamliner and its track record of environmental performance make it the perfect platform to advance our industry's commitment to sustainable growth," said Stan Deal, president and chief executive officer, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
"We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Etihad Airways to identify more opportunities to improve efficiency across commercial aviation."
Beyond the environmental testing on the airplane, the two companies will build on the technical capabilities that Etihad Airways has developed while maintaining its own Dreamliner fleet and that of other operators.
He was surprised to discover a fully unprotected server on Boeing's network, seemingly full of code designed to run on the company's giant 737 and 787 passenger jets, left publicly accessible and open to anyone who found it.
He suggests that for a hacker, exploiting those bugs could represent one step in a multistage attack that starts in the plane’s in-flight entertainment system and extends to highly protected, safety-critical systems like flight controls and sensors.
But he and other avionics cybersecurity researchers who have reviewed his findings argue that while a full-on cyberattack on a plane's most sensitive systems remains far from a material threat, the flaws uncovered in the 787's code nonetheless represent a troubling lack of attention to cybersecurity from Boeing.
An attacker could potentially pivot, Santamarta says, from the in-flight entertainment system to the CIS/MS to send commands to far more sensitive components that control the plane's safety-critical systems, including its engine, brakes, and sensors.
But he says his research nonetheless represents a significant step toward showing the possibility of an actual plane-hacking technique.
"IOActive’s scenarios cannot affect any critical or essential airplane system and do not describe a way for remote attackers to access important 787 systems like the avionics system," the company's statement reads.