Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Rolls-Royce boosts mid-term targets, CEO dismisses UltraFan loan speculation
By Thomas Blackwood
Feb 26, 2026, © Leeham News: Rolls-Royce posted strong 2025 full year results on Thursday, with profits up and upgraded mid-term targets, as the UK-based manufacturer restated the case for its re-entry into the narrowbody engine market.
Speaking to analysts, CEO Tufan Erginbilgic said Rolls-Royce was seeking partners for the £3 billion ($4 billion) Ultrafan 30 engine development project, which will allow the company to establish itself within the large and growing narrowbody market.
Responding to media reports that he was seeking a UK government loan of up to £200 million initially to help support the development and testing of a demonstrator, Erginbilgic suggested Rolls-Royce was looking for grant funding through initiatives such as the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) rather than any lending facility. The ATI programme co-funds civil aerospace research and technology development in the UK.
“Let me be very clear, we are not asking for any loan from anybody, not to mention government,” he said. “It is not actually uncommon that governments support R&D, and our competitors get two-three times what we do. They are not actually loans… so we are talking about that kind of support. We don’t need any loan, but we are in a competitive world.”
Boeing defects and rework fell due to better supplier relations: exec
By Justin Bachman
Feb. 26, 2026, © Leeham News: Boeing has seen quality rework hours on aircraft production drop 40% over the past year as its supplier base has trimmed defects, aiding the company’s recovery, Boeing’s supply chain head said.
Ihssane Mounir, the head of the Boeing Commercial Airplanes supply chain, at the 2024 PNAA conference. Credit: Leeham News.
The rework decrease through 2025 is “incredible and very significant,” Ihssane Mounir, senior vice president of Global Supply Chain and Fabrication for Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), told supplier partners, speaking Feb. 11 at the annual Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance (PNAA) conference in suburban Seattle.
“When you think about how that happened, it’s a whole slew of things that had to happen to drive the number down that way,” Mounir said in a talk that touted Boeing’s recovery to its supplier partners after six years of crisis and production problems.
Mounir assumed the role of SVP, Supply Chain and Fabrication, in December 2022, following six years as BCA’s top sales executive.
“It’s you paying attention to quality. It’s us augmenting our quality in our engineering teams, our fabrication teams, and our support teams, and putting them with you and helping you,” he said. “It’s us increasing our engineering support and being more responsive to the changes and to the asks and the analyses that come our way.”
The prevalence of supply-chain defects and Boeing’s need to rework incoming parts and subassemblies during production had become a source of deep conflict between the company and many of its 1,200 suppliers for several years.
Strong OEM and maintenance business lift MTU to record earnings in 2025
By Thomas Blackwood
Feb 24, 2026, © Leeham News: MTU Aero Engines saw continued growth across its divisions in 2025 with revenue at an all-time high and continued MRO momentum, according to the company’s full-year figures published on Tuesday.
Adjusted revenue for the year was up 16% from €7.5 billion in 2024 ($8.84 billion) to €8.7 billion. Adjusted operating profit reached €1.4 billion, up 29% on the previous record of €1.1 billion set last year, and adjusted EBIT margin rose from 14% to 15.5%.
Adjusted net income also reached a new high of €968 million, up 27% year over year from €764 million. The results were in line with market expectations.
MTU said the revenue growth was driven by its commercial OEM division as well as the strong demand for engine maintenance. However there are still doubts over the strength of the supply chain. MTU said that while “improvements are evident … further progress is needed” to streamline the production and procurement of parts.
When does Boom go boom; military goes green and loses the battle
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By Scott Hamilton
Feb. 23, 2026, © Leeham News: “How long until Boom goes boom?”
“eVTOLs, the perfectly mediocre over-priced helicopter.”
“We lost the battle, but we had a more carbon footprint.”
These are just a few of the pithy comments to come out of the annual Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance (PNAA) conference this month in suburban Seattle.
Boom, the 88-passenger supersonic transport program, was founded in December 2014. Ten years later, it flew a demonstrator aircraft that bears no similarities to the Overture SST that the company is developing as the first passenger SST airliner since the Concorde.
The Boom Overture SST has many, many skeptics. Two were speakers at the annual conference of the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance. Credit: Boom.
No established engine maker agreed to power the Overture. Rolls-Royce had an exploratory contract for a time, but bowed out. Boom cobbled together three companies to make an engine. More recently, the company is going to use the engine, whenever it works, to power energy plants.
There are few believers in aerospace who think Boom will be successful, despite raising a reported $600m-plus in funding, building a production facility and winning conditional orders from Japan, United and American airlines.
Richard Aboulafia, a managing director of Aerodynamic Advisory, said he would just “write off” Boom. Kevin Michaels, also an MD at the same consultancy, was just as direct. “We have a bet in our office going how long until Boom goes boom?”
They were no more kind toward the prospect of eVTOLs, especially the possibility of the US military using battery-powered eVTOLs on the battlefield.
Open Forum, Week of Feb. 23
LNA’s Comments Open Forum allows Readers opportunities to comment about any post (note, we said “Post”, not any “Topic”). All comments will be held for review and Moderation per our new policy. The Open Forum enables Readers to Comment on paywall articles (to the extent the paywall preview is open to all readers).
Maintain civility and follow Reader Comment rules.
A new Open Forum will be posted weekly.
Bjorn’s Corner: Faster aircraft development. Part 28. Development times.
By Bjorn Fehrm and Henry Tam
February 20, 2026, ©. Leeham News: We have, since August 2025, gone through an FAA CFR 14 Part 25 development project of an airliner in the 200-seat class. The aim was to identify the activities required for such a project and the regulatory actions needed to achieve Type Certification (TC) and Production Certification (OC) for the aircraft.
The program followed the time plan in Figure 1, which indicated that it would take about seven years from the start of conceptual design to deliver the first aircraft and enter service (EIS). At each phase, we assessed whether modern support techniques, such as AI, could help with development and certification and whether they would accelerate the program plan.
Figure 1. A typical Program Plan for a smooth-running Part 25 airliner development. Source: Leeham Co.
We now summarize the findings and incorporate additional modern support, such as Digital Twin support, to assess the overall impact of today’s technologies on the program plan timeline in Figure 1. Read more
Airbus FY2025: Not happy with Pratt & Whitney
By Karl Sinclair
Feb. 19, 2026, © Leeham News: The normally reserved Airbus (AB) CEO Guillaume Faury had some strong words for engine-maker Pratt & Whitney (P&W), at the annual video conference reporting results for the 2025 financial year.
Airbus is ready to “enforce contractual rights” with regard to the engines being supplied to the airframe maker from P&W (corporate speak for “You’ll be hearing from our lawyers”), in an effort to meet delivery requirements.
The issue is centered around the resources that Pratt is deploying to remedy the problems caused by powdered metal coating contamination misstep, which is hampering production of both the A320neo and the A220 families.
According to Airbus, the engine-maker has focused more effort on addressing in-service fleet issues, while eschewing its responsibility to provide engines to the aircraft OEM for deliveries.
This is hindering Airbus’s efforts to increase production as it seeks to meet its commitments to airlines and lessors.
“On the A320 family, the continued failure to commit to the number of engines ordered by Airbus is negatively impacting this year’s guidance and the ramp-up trajectory for this year. As a consequence, we now expect to reach the rate of between 70 and 75 aircraft a month by the end of 2027, stabilizing at a rate of 75 thereafter,” said Faury.
Whether this is simply sabre-rattling to force P&W to increase production by publicly calling them out is unclear.
Faury elaborated further in the earnings call, “Pratt & Whitney has resigned from the orders we had placed, and they had accepted for the volumes in 2026. We have to base our guidance on what they tell us now they’re willing to commit and deliver. We’ll continue to work hard to enforce our contractual rights, which we believe are not respected in that case…We are not happy with the outcome, but that’s what it is today.”
These are choice words in an industry where airframe and engine makers work closely together to meet their customers’ needs.
Airbus leans toward launching “A220-500”, but faces challenges
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By Bjorn Fehrm and Scott Hamilton
Feb. 19, 2026, © Leeham News: Airbus appears likely to launch the long-discussed stretched version of the A220-300, nominally called the -500, as early as the Farnborough Air Show in July.
Figure 1. This illustration, created years ago by Leeham News, shows the concept of a “simple stretch” for the “A220-500.” This illustration does not include some aerodynamic improvements LNA believes are necessary. Airbus is already planning a high-density version of the A220-300. Credit: Leeham News.
Lars Wagner, the new CEO of Airbus Commercial Airplanes, told Reuters in January that he favors the new aircraft, which would seat 165 passengers in single class configuration. Wagner assumed the position on Jan. 1. His predecessor, Christian Scherer, had long favored the stretch.
Wagner didn’t provide Reuters with any details about the new airplane. But Scherer told LNA last year that the debate within Airbus was whether to pursue a “simple” stretch or one with a larger wing and more powerful engines. A simple stretch trades range for capacity. Scherer told LNA that customers told Airbus they were more interested in capacity than range.
Figure 2: The ranges of the A220-300 and the proposed A220-500, using airline rules and calculated by LNA’s Aircraft Performance and Cost Model (APCM). Air France (CDG) and Delta Air Lines (ATL) have expressed interest in a stretched A220-300. Credit: Leeham News.
LNA confirms that a simple stretch is the preferred option. However, this does not mean that Airbus won’t tweak aerodynamics to improve operating and take-off performance and maintain as much range as possible. LNA has a good understanding of the likelihood of these tweaks and of the current proposed configuration of the A220-500. Using our proprietary Aircraft Performance and Cost Model (APCM), the -500 should have a range about 13% lower than the -300.
LNA’s APCM analysis is based on today’s information. The data is subject to final details when Airbus completes the design freeze.
Here’s our analysis.
Privatizing Air Traffic Control: Why Canada’s Success Story Won’t Work Here
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By Vincent Bianco III
Opinion Contributor
Feb. 16, 2026, © Leeham News: Every now and then, calls to privatize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or Air Traffic Control (ATC) emerge.
Vincent Bianco III.
Calls to privatize the FAA emerged after revelations about FAA oversight of The Boeing Co.’s 737 MAX certification came to light following the 2018 and 2019 fatal crashes that killed 346 people.
Following the January 2025 mid-air collision between an American Eagle regional jet and a military helicopter near Washington Reagan National Airport, calls once again to drastically revamp the FAA and/or privatize the ATC system emerged.
Some pointed to the privatization of Canada’s or Europe’s air traffic control systems as examples to follow. These calls also raise legitimate frustrations about government shutdowns disrupting air travel. As someone who spent the last 35 years inside (and alongside) the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO), I understand the urgency when the system breaks down.
But the solution—abolishing the FAA and creating “competing private certifiers”—betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes aviation safety work.
Let’s start with what these calls get right: Government shutdowns do create unnecessary vulnerability. User-fee funding models do provide more stable revenue. And yes, the 737 MAX disaster exposed serious problems with regulatory capture at the FAA.
Now let’s talk about what is catastrophically wrong.
Read more
Safran hails ‘outstanding’ 2025; prepares for Airbus ramp-up
By Tom Batchelor. Feb. 13, 2026, © Leeham News:
Safran enjoyed an “outstanding” 2025 with a record number of LEAP engine deliveries, a thriving aftermarket and significant growth across its defense activities, CEO Olivier Andriès said on Friday as he announced the French aerospace group’s full year results.
Describing its “all-time high financial performance,” Andriès noted that Safran had delivered more than 1,800 LEAP engines, up 28% versus 2024, and 49% higher year-on-year in Q4 – and said the aviation, defense and space group was preparing to meet Airbus’ targeted production capability of 75 A320 Family aircraft per month in 2027.
For the full-year period ended December 31, 2025, revenue stood at €31.33 billion ($37.14 billion), with a recurring operating income of €5.2 billion and free cash flow of €3.92 billion.
This compares with revenue of €27.32 billion (up by 14.7%), recurring operating income of €4.12 billion (a 26.2% year-on-year increase) and free cash flow of €3.12 billion in 2024. Safran’s operating margin stood at 16.6% of revenue, up from 15.1% in 2024.