There’s a change coming to the $100 bill. How big of a change we don’t know – and it will be late next month when the Treasury Department reveals the redesigned version.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t design one of your own. So let’s have a contest!

Design a new $100 bill. Make it say what money should say, whatever that is. Create your image and send it to us, either electronically or by mail, and judges will pick winners from a youth division (say if an entire classroom of students wants to get involved) and from an …

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Health care reform wasn’t the only legislation signed last week by President Obama. He also inked an extension – through April – of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s ability to provide enhancements to two programs aiding small businesses

According to a release from the SBA, the enhancements, which first appeared under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, include both a higher guarantee on some SBA-backed loans and reliedf from certain fees.

The agency estimates the $40 million extension will support about $1.4 billion in small business lending. Read more »

Early flight testing has uncovered a problem with the landing gear doors on Boeing’s new 747-8.

That problem may require a redesign of the landing gear doors or a modification of the aerodynamic profile of the area near where the new generation 747′s wing meets the aircraft body.

The problem, vibration called buffet, occurs when the new 747 is in a landing configuration with its flaps fully extended and its wheels down. The interaction of the airflow around the open landing gear door and the fully-extended flaps creates a vibration.

The new 747 is in flight testing with a plan …

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Chile’s LAN Airlines has traded Dreamliner launch customer All Nippon Airways for several early delivery positions for Boeing’s new 787 twin jet.

The airline said it will now take the 10th and the 16th 787 off the production line in Everett. ANA had been scheduled to receive those aircraft.

Dreamliner 10 is already sitting on the Everett flight line, and Dreamliner 16 is in production. The aircraft can’t be delivered until Boeing completes flight testing for the new planes. That FAA certification is expected to come late this fall with the first delivery to ANA late this year.

LAN, under …

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Boeing plans to give the 787 Dreamliner’s new composite wing the ultimate strength test Sunday in Everett, aviation sources say.

The test, conducted inside the Boeing plant, will subject the new aircraft’s wing to 150 percent of the maximum load it is expected to encounter in flight.

The test aircraft, mounted in a steel testing jig, will see its wing subjected to increasing force by jacks that will bend it upward. The test is a requirement from the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure that the plane’s wings won’t fail in flight.

In similar tests with other new aircraft, Boeing has …

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Southwest Airlines, trimming its national late summer-early fall schedule by 116 daily flights, announced today it will discontinue non-stop service from Sea-Tac Airport to St. Louis and Baltimore Aug. 14.

The airline said those flights are likely to return in the summer of 2011, but for the fall and winter they’re going away.

The airline, like most of its competitors, is refining its schedule, deploying aircraft to routes it hopes will give it a better return.

The airline is trimming daily flights at some of its bigger airports such as Orlando, Tampa and Baltimore by double digit daily numbers. …

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A Texas-based marine construction company is coming to Tacoma and leasing land from the port.

Northwest Marine Co. — owned by Orion Marine Group — will occupy 3.5 acres of waterfront port property in the Tacoma’s Tideflats.  The term of the lease is five years, with options for two additional five year terms, according to a news release from the Port of Tacoma.

Northwest Marine officials said that its Tacoma office will employ about 100 people.

The company specializes in marine construction including marine pipeline construction, marine transportation facility construction, and dredging.  It’s new Tacoma site will serve the entire …

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Boeing today began its formal testing aimed at earning commercial flight certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for its 787 Dreamliner after the aircraft passed basic flutter and ground effects testing.

Under Boeing’s testing program, the initial flight test airplanes had to prove their basic safety and reliability before moving on to the second phase of testing with government inspectors overseeing.

To complete the first phase of testing, Boeing test pilots probed the limits of the plane’s flight envelope taking it up to its 43,000-foot ceiling and diving it at near the speed of sound to discover whether the plane’s …

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