New Report on Boeing

AirInsight has published a new report on The Boeing Co. This follows reports on Airbus, the emerging competitors to Airbus and Boeing and Re-Engining the A320 and 737 families published since August.

We co-authored these reports with Ernest Arvai and Addison Schonland of The Arvai Group and Innovation Analysis Group. The link to these reports is here.

The Boeing Co. report contains a competitive assessment vis-a-vis Airbus, updating our Airbus report published in August; a close look at Boeing’s programs; its relationship with labor; the prospect for replacing the 737 and 777 to meet Airbus competition; the KC-7A7 and more.

We also have a special comment about the Airbus A400M program. Inclusion of extended commentary of an Airbus military program in a Boeing report may seem odd, but the financial-disaster-in-the-making of the A400M will have a major, negative affect on Airbus’ ability to compete with Boeing should the European governments and Airbus fail to satisfactorily resolve the controversy.

See our separate post on this issue.

3 Comments on “New Report on Boeing

  1. Scott – One of the many fascinating questions relating to this piece, is where Boeing will put the dividing line between its 737 replacement and the 787-8. From what Randy Tinseth has said this week in Singapore, the new 737 is likely to include the 757 replacement.

    I have also read reports that the 737/757 replacement will not necessarilly be single aisle. Does this mean Boeing are seriously considering BWB for these replacements? Any comments?

    • When we launched Leeham.net main website in 2006, one of the first postings was a Boeing design for a “small” twin aisle jet with as few as 90 passengers on up to 200. It sort of looked like a scaled-down C-17 with two engines. The patent is filed with the US Patent office.

      Such a broad seating range is impractical with one design. Although the BWB is more efficient that even the 787, Boeing tells us the plane is not scalable in the fashion that the traditional tube-and-wing design is (via a simple stretch), and when you think about it, that statement is readily apparent. A stretch requires a simple fuselage plug. A BWB is more much complex to make bigger.

      So our view is that the 737/757 replacement won’t be a BWB, and since Boeing is apparently going to abandon the below 150-seat, a 150-200 seat 7X7 certainly could be a twin aisle, 2x2x2 perhaps.

      A BWB probably makes more sense for a 777/747 replacement.

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