Future materials: aluminum lithium, standard metals or composities

The Farnborough Air Show isn’t just about orders, though these get all the sex and headlines. While we weren’t at the show, we had a telephone interview with a company called Constellium, previously known as Alcan. Constellium spoke… Read More

Farnborough, Day 2: Dullsville; 737 MAX weights, ranges

Update, 8:30 PDT: If anyone thought Airbus’ John Leahy doesn’t have some orders up his sleeve, get a gander at this from Reuters: Airbus sales chief John Leahy was in typically combative and upbeat form: “The party’s over?…. Read More

Farnborough, Day 1: Orders, Price Calculator and other stuff

McNerney rejects “price war.” A quote from a Financial Times story (see below). He rejected suggestions that a price war had broken out between Airbus and Boeing over the A320 Neo and 737 Max but confirmed the US… Read More

Farnborough: CFM, PW engage in hand-to-hand combat

We’re all used to Airbus and Boeing engaging in hand-to-hand combat. The war has now spilled over to CFM and Pratt & Whitney and the LEAP engine vs the GTF. There have always been some sharp words. But… Read More

Farnborough Odds and Ends: Cathay and A350; AirAsia and CSeries??; BBD on CSeries timeline; Boeing’s Conner

Some more stories out of Farnborough, the day before the show officially starts: Reuters has two stories, one we’ve been tracking for some time (Cathay) and one that is totally new (and totally surprising) (AirAsia). Cathay could end… Read More

Farnborough underway with CFM press conference

Tweets from Saturday’s CFM press conference: Bernie Baldwin ‏@BernieBaldwin #FARN12 #FIA12 @CFM_engines Part commonality between LEAP-1A and LEAP-1B very little. Jon Ostrower ‏@jonostrower CFM: 737 Max Leap-1B engine core has 10-stage 22:1 pressure ratio in the HPC. 1st… Read More

The mid-size, twin-aisle battle

The mid-size twin-aisle battle While a plethora of new entrants are nipping at the heels of Airbus and Boeing in the single-aisle market, the battle in the twin-aisle segment is strictly between the two behemoths. The two OEMs… Read More

Bombardier mitigates Chinese fuselage risk

We learned about this months ago, but off the record, so we could never use it. This is why we weren’t exercised about the Shenyang connection on Bombardier’s CSeries. Aviation Week has the story and published it here…. Read More

Boeing’s twin-aisle product strategy provides better segment coverage than Airbus

Boeing’s airplane strategy has shifted its focus to twin-aisle aircraft with the decision to proceed with the 737 MAX, says Nicole Piasecki, vice president of Business Development & Strategic Integration for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. BCA has some critical… Read More

No plateau on 737NG: Boeing

“There is no plateau in interest on the 737NG,” says Boeing’s Beverly Wyse, VP and GM of the stalwart program. “Even though there are a lot of challenges in the industry, the growth, particularly in the single aisle… Read More