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Part 1 of 5

By Scott Hamilton

July  17, 2025, © Leeham News: Some urge Boeing to take the plunge “now” to launch a new airplane program.

Institutional knowledge is slipping away, these people say. Boeing hasn’t launched a new airplane since December 2003 (the 787), they note. The 737 MAX is selling at a poor second to the Airbus A320neo family. Boeing continues to lose market share.

This illustrates the variety of aircraft being discussed for the next decade or more. Boeing already decided to nix the Transonic Truss Brace Wing aircraft (#2). Credit: Leeham News.

On the other hand, Airbus is in no hurry to launch a new airplane program—or so it says. It can’t keep up with current demand.

Beginning today, LNA will take a five-part look at what the potential new airplanes and/or airplane technologies are for the coming decade or more. Having recently attended the Paris Air Show, we have the latest to supplement our years of study in this arena.

We look at 13 airplanes and concepts (we don’t examine eVTOLs and pure-battery-powered aircraft). These are numbered for identification—not for any ranking of likelihood of proceeding to a real program.

Today’s Part 1 identifies and describes the 13 aircraft.