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787 Dreamliner designer on Boeing: ‘A designer is only as good as his client’

By Andrew Nusca | Dec 16, 2009 |

According to John Barret of design firm Teague, a designer is only as good as his client — and his firm found a great one in aerospace giant Boeing for the design of the 787 Dreamliner airplane.

In an interview between Barret and then-Fortune senior editor David Kirkpatrick, Barret explains how passenger comfort and interior design played a role in the design of a “breakthrough” airplane built expressly for efficient long-haul service.

The interview was conducted more than two years ago, when the 787 Dreamliner was closer to a pipe dream than reality. With the plane’s first flight a resounding success yesterday, it’s only proper that we look back and see how the airplane got to where it is today.

Here’s the interview, from ScribeMedia.org:

 
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    d. Bakal

    01/03/10 | Report as spam

    RE: 787 Dreamliner designer on Boeing: 'A designer is only as good as his client'

    To whom it may concern,

    I am a mechanic and a structural aircraft maintenance, I love to design things specially airplanes, in the year 2000, I designed an aircraft which was better aerodynamic and carrying more passengers, so I sent many emails to whom can help me to publish this new aircraft design, but no answered and during that time I was working in different countries in Europe, unfortunately I didn't have a chance, but in 2006, I saw in the newspaper that Pro. Ed Grietzer from Massachusetts Institute of technology, and Pro. Ann Dowling from Cambridge University had designed a "silent Aircraft" which was exactly 100% the same shape as my aircraft.
    I never stop and I kept carrying on with my designing within six months later I came up with another aircraft design, which is much better in higher speed and using less fuel.

    So please I will really appreciate that if you can help me to publish this aircraft to the world.

    Kind regards

    Dheia bakal
    dtbakal@hotmail.com

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Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

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Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancée and his cat, Spats.

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Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.
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