1,000 NEOs and “parity” is all it is

Airbus may have booked close to 900 orders for the A320neo family by the time the air show ends tomorrow, a plane that  Boeing says merely reaches “parity” with the 737-800. Airbus, of course, hotly disputes Boeing’s computations… Read More

Odds and Ends at the Paris Air Show, Day 2

Odds and Ends at the Paris Air Show, Day 2 Airbus Airbus owned the day again with a bunch of orders, including capturing a Boeing 737 operator, Garuda Indonesia. For the A320neo (In this context, we’re not counting… Read More

Qatar’s CEO on A350, CSeries

Qatar Airways was the launch customer of the Airbus A350-1000, for which Airbus has now moved entry-into-service back from 2015 to 2017 in order to provide for a higher-thrust engine design from Rolls-Royce, increased payload and increased range…. Read More

Odds and Ends of the Paris Air Show, Day 1

Odds and Ends of the Paris Air Show, Day 1 The Air Show began with heavy downpour that delayed traffic and buses, but fortunately not us since we didn’t stay in the City—but rather just 5km up the… Read More

Odds and ends on the final pre-Air Show day

 Odds and Ends from the Paris Air Show While an order or two are expected to come from Qatar Airways’ mercurial CEO Akbar Al-Baker, the buzz here already is that U-Turn Al may yet again live up to… Read More

777 remains stalwart at Boeing

Boeing retains full confidence in the 777 despite the frontal attack by Airbus with its A350 family. News, first broken by Leeham News June 5 in this forum, that Airbus and Rolls-Royce will revise slightly the design of… Read More

Boeing 737 re-engine studies very much alive

Boeing officials like to downplay the prospect of re-engining the venerable 737, but studies are very much alive as the company tries to figure out what the market wants and how to respond to the Airbus A320neo. Boeing… Read More

Airbus parent skeptical of composites for A320 class airplane

Paris Air Show: The chief technology officer for Airbus parent EADS is skeptical of composites for the A320 class of airplane while Boeing considers the material to be the “baseline preference” for what officials call the New Small… Read More

Boeing ‘supersite’ may be just super-dream

Visions that Boeing could create a production “supersite” appear to be little more than a “super-dream,” it turns out. Mike Bair, vice president of Advanced 737 Product Development, first revealed his vision for a production supersite shortly after… Read More

787 delivery plan targets 3Q

Scott Fancher, VP in charge of the Boeing 787 program, believes delivery of the first Boeing 787 will, at long last, be achieved in the third quarter. In a briefing in advance of the Paris Air Show, Fancher… Read More