Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- JetZero readies effort for private equity fund raising May 5, 2025
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 20. May 2, 2025
- Supplier Howmet exceeds expectations despite tariffs May 1, 2025
- Airbus 1Q2025 results: So far, so good, but US tariffs make future results unpredictable May 1, 2025
- Does an Airbus A220-500 need a new wing and engines? May 1, 2025
Bjorn’s Corner: Pitch stability, Part 8
By Bjorn Fehrm
Feb. 01, 2019, ©. Leeham News: In last week’s Corner, we covered the high-speed pitch stability problem most airliners have, Mach tuck.
Now, we continue with low-speed problems which made Boeing introduce Speed trim on the 737.
Figure 1. The block diagram for Boeing’s 737 Speed Trim system. Source: Boeing.
Boeing’s 777X analyzed, Part 2
By Bjorn Fehrm
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Introduction
January 30, 2019, © Leeham News: We started an analysis of the Boeing 777X last week as its rollout and first flight should happen this spring/summer. In the Figure below, the first flight test aircraft has its engine mounted, before roll out.
We will spend this article on the 777X engines, the GE9X from GE Aviation. Surprisingly, these are less powerful than the GE90 engines on the Boeing 777-300ER, the aircraft the 777X is derived from, despite the 777-9 being larger and heavier than the -300ER. This is with intent. The design of the 777X is to achieve more with less. We reveal how this is done below.
Figure 1.
Summary:
- The Boeing 777-9 is larger and heavier than the 777 variant it replaces, the Boeing 777-300ER.
- Despite this, the GE9X engines on the 777-9 are specified with 10,00lbf lower maximum thrust than the GE90-115 on the 777-300ER.
- How does it all work? We reveal how below.
Key customers shrug off Boeing’s 2020 NMA launch date
Jan. 30, 2019, © Leeham News: Key customers and suppliers shrugged off Boeing’s announcement today that a program launch for the prospective New 
Midmarket Aircraft won’t come until 2020.
If Boeing goes ahead with the NMA, a decision yet to be made, an announcement was widely expected at the Paris Air Show in June.
Authority to Offer (ATO) the airplane for sale may still come as early as March or April.
Forget the NMA, go after A321–say ex-Airbus exec
Jan. 29, 2019, © Leeham News: Boeing should forego the New Midmarket Aircraft and instead create a new single aisle airplane targeting the Airbus A321, former Airbus COO-Customers John Leahy said.
Leahy, who was Airbus’ top salesman for more than two decades and the opponent Boeing loved to hate, said Boeing is pursuing the wrong market with the NMA.
Leahy made his remarks at the Airfinance Journal Dublin Conference last week.
Too many orders? Yes, says consultant. No, says ex-super-salesman
Jan. 28, 2019, © Leeham News: There are too many airliner orders for the future demand, says a leading aviation consultant.
John Leahy. Airbus photo.
No, there aren’t, says the leading industry salesman, now retired.
These opposing views emerged at the Airfinance Journal Dublin conference last week.
Adam Pilarski, the consultant from the US firm Avitas, said a recession is on the horizon.
John Leahy, the former COO Customers from Airbus, said overbooking orders is a good thing.
UTC-Collins merger creates super-supplier
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By Bryan Corliss
Jan. 28, 2019, © Leeham News: You might have missed it over the holidays, but something happened about the time you polished off the last of your Thanksgiving leftovers that just might have changed the balance of power between the major players in our industry.
That something was the closing of the merger between United Technologies Corp. and Rockwell Collins.
The deal, which formally closed on Nov. 26, created a new super-supplier that rivals Boeing’s Commercial Airplane division in size, outstrips it in terms of profitability and has the potential to upset the multi-tiered supply chain pyramid the industry has grown used to over the past few decades.
Pontificatons: From the sidelines at the AFJ Dublin conference
By Scott Hamilton
Jan. 28, 2019, © Leeham News: Launch by Boeing of the New Midmarket Aircraft (NMA) is pretty much a given, despite a still undecided business case, say people on the sidelines of the Airfinance Journal’s Dublin 2019 conference.
Here is a potpourri of information picked up at the conference, which is attended by about 2,000 people.
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Boeing’s 777X analyzed
By Bjorn Fehrm
Subscription Required
Introduction
January 24, 2019, © Leeham News: Boeing will roll out the first 777X flight test aircraft mid-spring. The first aircraft, the static test airframe, was rolled out in September. Flight-testing should start in the early summer and first delivery is expected mid-2020.
With certification and delivery 18 months away it’s time to look at the project and understand where the 777X positions itself versus the competition.
Figure 1. First flight test Boeing 777-9 with the GE9X engines mounted. Source: Boeing.
Summary:
- The 777X achieves better fuel consumption per seat despite a larger and heavier airframe thanks to more advanced wings and engines.
- We compare its design to the 777-300ER and the Airbus A350-1000 competitor.
Look at entire portfolio when investing in sub-types, Airbus and Boeing say
Jan. 23, 2019, © Leeham News, Dublin: Investors and lessors should take into account the entire product line offered by Airbus and Boeing when considering sub-types that may 
have few sales to date, officials of the two companies said at the annual conference in Dublin organized by Airfinance Journal.
Tim Myers, president of Boeing Capital Corp., and Mark Pearman-Wright, Head of Leasing & Investor Marketing for Airbus, said the 737-7, 737-9, 737-10, A319neo, A321LR, A330-800 and the new 777X should be looked at in context of the entire 737, A320, A330 and 777 lines when making investment decisions.
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Rolls-Royces sees NMA “addressable” market as 4,000-5,000, same as Boeing
Jan. 22, 2019, © Leeham News: Rolls-Royce sees an “addressable” market for the Middle of the Market Aircraft at between 4,000 and 5,000 over 20 years—the same size Boeing sees.
But at the Airfinance Journal annual conference today in Dublin, an executive declined to be specific about the details of this assessment.