Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
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 the A350-1000 and the engine powering this model—the direct competitor to the 777-300ER—doesn’t seem to faze Boeing.
Officials have held off any decisions on what to do about the future of the 777 until they fully understand the competitive threat posed by the A350-1000. Company CEO Jim McNerney and Jim Albaugh, the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, others at Boeing and some executives of airlines and lessors said for the better part of a year the -1000 as designed fell short of the performance promised by Airbus.
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 Airplane (NSA).
The emerging new metal alloys seem to attract more favor at EADS while Boeing officials are intrigued but still leaning toward the bet they made with the composite 787, which structurally is 52% composite with the fuselage and wings made of the substance.
Airbus confirms A350-1000 news, pushes back model and -800
Airbus and Rolls-Royce confirmed June 18 news we reported 10 days ago: that the A350-1000 will get a more powerful engine and more range. Airbus officials also confirmed that the changes will push the entry-into-service of the -1000 from 2015 to 2017, somewhat later than we reported; and that the smaller A350-800 EIS is also being pushed back from 2014 to 2016.
EIS for the baseline A350-900 remains the same, late 2013.
We’re off to the Paris Air Show
Today is Thursday and we are on our way to the Paris Air Show.
First up on the schedule is the EADS/Airbus media day on Saturday, with a briefing that is expected to unveil the changes we previously reported to the A350-1000. The briefing day is embargoed to 12:01 am Sunday, June 19 (Paris time), matching the Boeing air show briefing embargo.
We’ll be filing regular reports on this site.
Additionally, Addison Schonland, managing director of AirInsight and of Innovation Analysis Group, will be at the show. He’ll be posting on both sites.
Boeing ups 737 production to 42/mo from 1H2014
Boeing announced today that it will increase the production rate of the 737 to 42 a month from the first half of 2014. This is on top of consecutive rate increases from 31.5 to 35 to 38 a month, which haven’t even been implemented yet. The 38/mo is due to be effective in 2013 and 35/mo next year.
This compares to an announced rate of 42/mo for the Airbus A320, although 737 Program Vice President and General Manager Beverly Wyse said during the Boeing pre-Paris Air Show briefing that because Airbus shuts down production in August for the month, the 42/mo really equals 40/mo. (With the announced rate increase, Boeing lifted the news embargo on Wyse’s presentation; embargoes on other briefings remain until June 19 Paris time.)
Boeing’s thinking still up in the air on New Small Airplane
Boeing promises “clarity” at the Paris Air Show about its New Small Airplane (NSA) program, but aside from settling on the performance it believes is required, little clarity has truly been achieved inside Boeing.
We learned last week key insights to Boeing’s thinking–and the divisions still remaining–within Boeing about the direction to go with the NSA. Our information comes from within Boeing, but the sourcing remains unidentified because the sourcing was not authorized to speak to the press. This information was obtained entirely separate from the pre-air show press briefings held June 2-3, which are embargoed to June 19 (Paris time)/June 18 Seattle time.
Information has been cross-checked with others and with statements made by Boeing executives in the public domain.
Odds and ends: A350-1000, A380 orders coming; NLRB action starts today
A350-1000: We broke the international news that Airbus and Rolls-Royce were going to modify the design of the A350-1000 to increase the range of the airplane. Now, the ever-thorough Flight Global has this story with a fair amount of detail that leaves the two companies little left to announce at the Paris Air Show next week.
A380 orders: When we did the Paris Air Show outlook for affiliate AirInsight, we indicated that Hong Kong Airlines would likely place the order for five A380s that had been expected at the Zhuhai Air Show but failed to materialize. It’s now been confirmed by the airline. Aspire Aviation takes a look at the rationale.