Boeing confirmed Friday that it issued a service bulletin Nov. 25 to operators of 777s powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 800s recommending a thrust reverser fix to address concerns related to overheating. The issue has not led to any accidents, but the manufacturer said damage associated with overheating has been discovered on the thrust reversers. It said 225 777s are affected. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the SB and Boeing later confirmed its existence to multiple media outlets.

Boeing's new Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Jim Albaugh has brought together several former top Boeing executives in a senior advisory group to aid him in reshaping the aerospace giant's troubled commercial division. Albaugh took over from Scott Carson in September after a career spent on the space/defense side of the aerospace business (ATWOnline, Sept. 1).

CFM56-7B powering a 737NG operated by TUIfly has logged more than 40,000 hr. on wing without a single removal, setting a new record for the engine model, CFM announced. It was installed in February 1999 and has logged 40,654 flight hr. and more than 14,000 flight cycles to date.

It turns out that a "better than expected" Dubai Airshow that featured an order for 12 A350-900s from Ethiopian Airlines was not the highlight of Airbus's November, which featured an order for 52 A320s from an undisclosed customer that pushed the manufacturer's total to 74 new aircraft for the month.

AeroLogic, the joint venture between DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo, will add two more 777-200Fs this month, an LHC spokesperson confirmed to ATWOnline. It already operates two of the freighters. The additional planes will be used to boost frequencies on current routes to Asia from Leipzig/Halle. Load factor is around 75%-80%. Two more 777-200Fs are expected in the spring and another two in the fall.

Gol said all of its aircraft will be equipped with GPS Landing System capabilities and Vertical Situation Displays by next month. It ended the third quarter with 109 737s in operation.

Boeing took a key step toward getting its first 787 in the air after completing the static testing necessary to validate the side-of-body modification work performed last month (ATWOnline, Nov. 17). Full analysis of the results will not be concluded for about 10 days, it said. During the tests, the leading and trailing edges were subjected to their limit load of about 2.5 g. The 150% structural tests required for certification are planned for spring.

Air France A330-200 registered F-GZCK and performing Flight AF445 from Rio de Janeiro Galeao to Paris Charles de Gaulle on Sunday night/Monday morning declared a mayday owing to severe turbulence near the equator, according to The Aviation Herald. The incident occurred near the site where AF447 was lost six months ago (ATWOnline, Aug. 21). The aircraft was at 38,000 ft. on airway UN866 about 4 hr. after takeoff, just before the DEKON waypoint about 680 nm.