By Bjorn Fehrm
Introduction
04 Aug 2015, © Leeham Co.: Boeing has for the last 20 years used an internal set of rules called Integrated Airplane Configuration ruleset, or IAC for short, for how it describes its own and competitors’ aircraft. These configuration rules, while comprehensive and consistently applied, have some problems, the most obvious is that they are 20 years old.
The IAC rules have filled an important role for Boeing: they have been the yard-stick how its different aircraft stack up but also how to value competitor’s aircraft. All aircraft in Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) have been configured and scrutinized with IAC.
The world of civil airliners have moved on since the creation of IAC in the early 1990s and there was time for an overhaul. This has now been done, after several years of internal work the new configuration rules are ready for prime time under the name of “Boeing Standard Rules”.
The most externally visual effect is that officially published seat information and performance data for Boeing’s aircraft change. The configuration ruleset dictates how everything is measured against a standardized set of parameters for each aircraft type and use.
We talked with Boeing’s Director for Product Marketing, Jim Haas, how to decipher the changes and how aircraft stack up before and after being “Standardized”. Read more
Pontifications: Looking ahead to 2016
Jan. 4, 2016, © Leeham Co. Let’s take a walk through our outlook for 2016.
Boeing is 100
There will no doubt be all kinds of celebrations at the Air Show. To the extent possible, I would imagine Boeing will try to have a whole lot of orders to announce there. There will be all kinds of run-up to the 100th anniversary. Few throw a party as well as Boeing. (Just don’t sing “Happy Birthday;” I never have liked this song.)
It’s a great achievement and we should all celebrate with Boeing for the next seven months.
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101 Comments
Posted on January 4, 2016 by Scott Hamilton
Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Comac, Farnborough Air Show, Leeham News and Comment, Mitsubishi, Pontifications, Pratt & Whitney
747-8, 777 Classic, A380, Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, C919, Comac, CS100, CS300, CSeries, Farnborough Air Show, Mitsubishi, MRJ90, Pontifications, Pratt & Whitney
737 MAX to roll out to Boeing product strategy challenges
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Introduction
The Boeing 737-8 rolls out tomorrow to challenges to Boeing’s product strategy. Image via Google images.
Dec. 7, 2015, © Leeham Co: Boeing rolls out its first 737 MAX tomorrow to no press fanfare. Today there is a limited press tour of the assembly line, but, according to reporters who were invited, there will be no press briefings.
It’s an inexplicably low-key event for what Boeing otherwise touts as a major evolution of the venerable 737 line.
As good as Boeing claims the airplane will be, and as much spin as Boeing’s marketing department tries to put on the rivalry vs the Airbus A320neo, the 737 MAX clearly is second fiddle—and it’s not going to get better.
Summary
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1 Comment
Posted on December 7, 2015 by Scott Hamilton
Airbus, Airlines, American Airlines, Boeing, CFM, Comac, MOM, Premium
737 MAX, A320NEO, Airbus, American Airlines, Boeing, Jim Albaugh, Jim McNerney, Southwest Airlines
State investment in Bombardier further mockery of WTO
Nov. 24, 2015, (c) Leeham Co. With the $1bn investment by the Province of Quebec in the Bombardier
CSeries program, another example of government funding emerges in commercial aviation development.
Setting aside whether the investment might be challenged before the World Trade Organization—and whether this makes good business sense for Quebec—the move makes a mockery of the entire concept of avoiding government support.
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22 Comments
Posted on November 24, 2015 by Scott Hamilton
Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, China, Comac, CSeries, Embraer, Irkut
737-7, A319neo, Airbus, ARJ-21, AVIC, Boeing, Bombardier, C919, C929, Comac, CS300, CSeries, Irkut, World Trade Organization, WTO
Bjorn’s Corner: Aircraft systems, the real nuts to crack
By Bjorn Fehrm
06 November 2015, ©. Leeham Co: COMAC’s C919 was rolled out in the week. We got to see a new shiny aircraft which looked ready to fly. The nicely curved fuselage and wings were immaculate, the paint was shiny and the CFM LEAP-1C engines were ready to go.
Yet many ask, when will it fly for the first time? It used to be that when the airframe was finished and the engines ran reliably it was time to fly. No longer! Today the most challenging part of an aircraft program is the integration of all the complex systems which hide under the skin. This is what kept the Bombardier CSeries on ground longer than it should and the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380 had the same flu (the latter also had to short wires).
It is the part of the aircraft which takes longest to get to work reliably. The A380 is known for its long period of nuisance warnings from the complex avionics system after entry into service and the reliability work for the 787 has to a large extent been one of software tuning of its system side.
As the system function of modern aircraft has grown more complex the whole architecture of how it was built had to be changed. Here’s how.
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23 Comments
Posted on November 6, 2015 by Bjorn Fehrm
Airbus, Bjorn's Corner, Boeing, Bombardier, CFM, China, Comac, CSeries
737, 737 MAX, 777, 787, A320, A350, A380, Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Comac, CSeries
No fear of C919 for a generation
Nov. 4, 2015, © Leeham Co. The first COMAC C919 was rolled out of the factory over the weekend, China’s mainline entry into the fiercely competitive arena now “owned” by the Airbus-Boeing duopoly.
COMAC C919. Click on image to enlarge. Photo via Google images.
Although the two giants each has said China is the next competitor they will have to face, the Big Two have nothing to worry about for a generation to come.
Here’s why.
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38 Comments
Posted on November 4, 2015 by Scott Hamilton
Airbus, Boeing, CFM, China, Comac
737-8, 737-800, 737NG, A300, A320, A320NEO, Airbus, ARJ21, AVIC, Boeing, C919, C929, CFM, Comac, LEAP
COMAC C919, first analysis
By Bjorn Fehrm
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Introduction
Nov. 04, 2015, ©. Leeham Co: COMAC rolled out China’s first modern airliner Monday. We have commented on its place in the market in a sister article. Here we will do a first analysis of its competitiveness compared to the established aircraft in the 150 to 200 seat single aisle segment.
The C919 is an aircraft which resembles another airliner which is assembled in China, the Airbus A320. Many think it is a carbon copy. While many dimensions and solutions are similar, there is enough original thinking on the aircraft to give China credit for having created their own first mainline airliner.
China is going the safe way and staying away from exotic solutions. Designing close to the most modern aircraft in this size bracket is no fault, it’s being prudent. There is no prior knowledge how to do such an aircraft in the country and the A320 is not a bad model. How good is the final result? We do a first analysis with our proprietary aircraft model and check if COMAC’s claim of 5% better aerodynamics than A320 and lower operating costs holds water.
Summary:
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4 Comments
Posted on November 4, 2015 by Bjorn Fehrm
Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, CFM, Comac, CSeries, Premium
737 MAX, A320NEO, Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, CFM, CFM LEAP-1A, CFM LEAP-1C, Comac, CSeries, Pratt & Whitney
Assessing the China market
Introduction
Sept. 30, 2015, (c) Leeham Co.: The Boeing deals announced last week with China put the country into the spotlight about its commercial aviation ambitions.
For many, the various deals announced by Boeing raise alarm bells. For most, that fire horse already left the fire station. The smoke has been billowing out of China (or maybe that’s smog) for a long, long time.
Summary
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Leave a Comment
Posted on September 30, 2015 by Scott Hamilton
Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, CFM, China, Comac, CSeries, Embraer, Premium
737 MAX, 737NG, 747-8I, 777, 777 Classic, 787, Airbus, ARJ21, AVIC, Boeing, Bombardier, C919, Comac, CSeries, Embraer, Q400, Y-10
Chinese 737 Completion Center makes tactical, strategic sense
President Xi of China. Photo via Google images.
his state visit to Seattle this week that Boeing will develop a Completion Center for the 737 in China is a significant event that may one day lead to an assembly line there.
Boeing’s touch labor union, the IAM 751, was predictably critical. In a post on the 751 website last week, the union said, “In a previous meeting with Renton’s 737 leadership we saw a brief presentation outlining Boeing’s perceived market conditions regarding sales of single aisle aircraft and the company’s desire to collaborate with China. We have asked the Company for details of what is intended with “collaboration” and have not received ANY information on “collaboration” or confirming or disputing the media reports. While we don’t know specifics of any such proposal, ANY shift of aerospace jobs from our bargaining unit or Washington State causes grave concern.”
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16 Comments
Posted on September 22, 2015 by Scott Hamilton
Airbus, Boeing, China, Comac, IAM 751, International Aero Engines
737 Completion Center, 737 MAX, 737NG, 777 Classic, 777X, 787, A320, A330, Airbus, Boeing, C919, China, Comac, IAM 751
Boeing start applying “Standard Rules” to its and competitors’ aircraft.
By Bjorn Fehrm
Introduction
04 Aug 2015, © Leeham Co.: Boeing has for the last 20 years used an internal set of rules called Integrated Airplane Configuration ruleset, or IAC for short, for how it describes its own and competitors’ aircraft. These configuration rules, while comprehensive and consistently applied, have some problems, the most obvious is that they are 20 years old.
The IAC rules have filled an important role for Boeing: they have been the yard-stick how its different aircraft stack up but also how to value competitor’s aircraft. All aircraft in Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) have been configured and scrutinized with IAC.
The world of civil airliners have moved on since the creation of IAC in the early 1990s and there was time for an overhaul. This has now been done, after several years of internal work the new configuration rules are ready for prime time under the name of “Boeing Standard Rules”.
The most externally visual effect is that officially published seat information and performance data for Boeing’s aircraft change. The configuration ruleset dictates how everything is measured against a standardized set of parameters for each aircraft type and use.
We talked with Boeing’s Director for Product Marketing, Jim Haas, how to decipher the changes and how aircraft stack up before and after being “Standardized”. Read more
40 Comments
Posted on August 5, 2015 by Bjorn Fehrm
Airbus, Bjorn's Corner, Boeing, Bombardier, Comac, Embraer, Mitsubishi, United Aircraft
737 MAX, 747-8, 777X, 787, Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Comac, Embraer
Mitsubishi opens Seattle Engineering Center ahead of MRJ90 first flight
The MRJ90 testing and entry into service timeline. Source: Mitsubishi. Click on image to enlarge.
August 3, 2015, © Leeham Co.: Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. today opened its Seattle Engineering Center jointly with local company AeroTEC in advance of the first flight of the MRJ90 in September or October. During the second quarter of next year, four of five MRJ Flight Test Vehicles will be domiciled in Moses Lake in Central Washington for the bulk of the flight testing over the following year. Entry into service is planned for 2Q2017 with launch customer All Nippon Airways.
The engineering center represents the first in Washington State for an aircraft OEM other than Boeing. Mitsubishi will assign 50 engineers from Japan to the new SEC, in South Seattle a short distance from Boeing Field. One hundred engineers will be hired locally.
AeroTEC and Mitsubishi began discussing working together only last January, said president Lee Human, who added that the seven months from January to the opening of the SEC today was remarkable for the speed in which negotiations, contracts, permits and hiring was achieved.
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1 Comment
Posted on August 3, 2015 by Scott Hamilton
Airlines, Bombardier, Comac, E-Jet, Embraer, Mitsubishi, Pratt & Whitney, Sukhoi
AeroTECH, ARJ21, Bombardier, Comac, CRJ900, E-175-E2, E-190, E-190 E2, E-195 E2, Embraer, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi MRJ, MRJ90, SSJ-100, Sukhoi
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