Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Who Controls the Movement of the Aircraft?
By R. Michael Baiada
ATH Group, Inc.
Special to Leeham News
Michael Baiada.
March 31, 2026, © Leeham News: “We’ll tell you where we want you to be in three dimensions…and we’ll tell you where we want you to be to hit that top of descent mark to [meet] the constraints of the runway.”
Bryan Bedford. Credit: Federal Aviation Administration.
Bedford believes telling airlines/users how to operate their aircraft is a good thing. As a 45-year pilot (USAF, United Airlines, and business jets), with decades of airline operational and ATC expertise, I do not agree. If implemented, FAA’s plan will increase airline costs and reduce airline quality.
In fact, airlines and FAA need to switch this around to where airlines/users do the telling and FAA/ATC does the listening.
Next, the FAA’s $31.5 Billion Brand New ATC System (BNATCS) will not reduce airline delays since it fails to focus on the root cause of delays (random Point Overloads). That said, BNATCS is a positive for equipment replacement, which is needed.
Even worse for airlines/passengers, as currently planned, the BNATCS ATC Centric Flow Management plan will, as Bedford’s statement above shows, further institutionalize ATC’s decades old process of control over the movement of the airline’s/user’s aircraft. This will haunt the airline’s “day of” operation for decades into the future, eliminating any chance of airlines achieving “day of” Operational Excellence.
Think about it. Who wants a government agency to control their primary production asset, or who believes a government agency can make an airline’s operation efficient? No one.
Change Incorporation, Configuration Control, and the High Cost of Getting It Wrong
Editor’s note: Boeing spent years doing rework on the 737 MAX and the 787 after the former’s grounding following two fatal crashes and the latter’s production flaws. “Shadow factories” began the 737’s rework after the 21-month grounding was terminated in November 2020. The last of 450 airplanes was delivered in 2025. Deliveries of the 787 were suspended in October 2020; 110 aircraft needed rework. The last of this inventory was cleared in 2025. This work is also known as “Change Incorporation.” Thirty-five 737 MAX 7s and 10s have been built and await certification, which idepends on design changes that must be retrofitted once the Federal Aviation Administration signs off. Change incorporation took 3-4 months for the 787s and was measured in months for the 737s.
More than 30 777-9s have been built while this program awaits FAA certification. This, too, will require Change Incorporation. Boeing has not revealed what changes the FAA will require, although revised flight control software is known to be one element. Nor has Boeing revealed how long Change Incorporation for the 777-9s will take.
LNA’s news team explains what Change Incorporation is, how it is undertaken, and the implications for the 777-9s in inventory.
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By the Leeham News Team
March 18, 2026, © Leeham News: In the commercial aviation industry, building aircraft before the type certificate is formally issued is not unusual. It is an economic necessity.
Undelivered Boeing 777-9s (among other aircraft) are lined up in open-air storage in this undated 2025 Google Earth photo of Paine Field, Everett (WA). The 777s are the “green” airplanes, though more are also painted in other colors.
Launching a production line months or years before final regulatory approval allows manufacturers to meet early delivery commitments, recoup development investment more quickly, and maintain customer relationships. But this strategy carries a profound and often underestimated technical liability: when the approved design specification continues to evolve through flight test, the already-built airframes must be brought into conformance with the final certified configuration. This is the essence of the Change Incorporation process.
The Boeing 777X program offers the most current illustration of this challenge. As of early 2026, Boeing has assembled more than 30 777-9 airframes, all built to early-production standards, while the aircraft’s type certificate is still in progress.
At the same time, the January 2024 in-flight separation of a door plug from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282—an event traceable directly to failures in Boeing’s parts removal and reinstallation process—has thrown the Change Incorporation process into the spotlight.
These two stories are connected by a single systemic thread: the consequences of inadequate configuration discipline in a complex, multi-stakeholder manufacturing environment.
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
Bjorn’s Corner: Faster aircraft development. Part 25. The Difference between Continuing and Continuous Airworthiness.
By Bjorn Fehrm
January 39, 2026, ©. Leeham News: We have done a series about ideas on how the long development times for large airliners can be shortened, while at the same time describing all the regulatory work that must be done, regardless of work practices.
It’s now time to sum up what we have looked at in terms of speeding up the development of a Part 25 Air Transport airliner in the 200-seat segment. But before we do that, we will look at what an operator of the aircraft we have delivered will have to do to qualify it for operation with its local regulator.
For an operator to operate our aircraft, Continued Airworthiness, as described in last week’s article, is not enough; the Operator must add what can be called Continuing Airworthiness. These words are close but not the same, and there is a substantial difference in what’s behind them.
The Abundance Problem: Why the FAA Has Spent 40 Years Modernizing Air Traffic Control—and Still Isn’t Done
By Vincent E. Bianco III
FAA Veteran and Senior Aviation Safety Consultant
Guest Column
Credit: Federal Aviation Administration.
Jan. 13, 2026, © Leeham News: Presidential administrations and Congresses dating to the formation of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 
1957 have failed to adequately fund the agency and modernize the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. An insider examines why.—Editor.
Introduction: A Crisis of Process Over Progress
In their book Abundance: What America Gets Wrong About Capitalism and What We Can Do to Fix It, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson describe a phenomenon in which institutions become paralyzed by process—where layers of well-intentioned rules accumulate, each logical in isolation, but together quietly stifling the very progress they intend to nurture.
This scenario is not theoretical for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); it is a reality for anyone involved in its modernization programs. The FAA’s experience over the past four decades serves as a case study in how process can overwhelm purpose.
Boeing seeks ICAO exemption for 777-200LRF to offset 777-8F delays, MD-11F grounding
Dec. 19, 4:15pm CST: Updated with Boeing comment.
By Scott Hamilton
Dec. 19, 2025, © Leeham News: Boeing has asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to grant an exemption to the 2017 ICAO fuel efficiency rules that mean an end to production of the 777-200LRF freighter on Dec. 31, 2027.
Boeing seeks approval by May 1 next year.
“The requested relief will allow Boeing to meet anticipated customer demand and support the substantial public interest in the sustained transportation of air cargo prior to the 777-8F entering service. This petition therefore requests exemption of a total quantity of 35 777F airplanes until achievement of 777-8F first delivery and entry into service,” Boeing wrote in its filing today with the FAA.
FedEx is among the large users of the Boeing 777F. The airplane is scheduled to go out of production on Dec. 31, 2027, due to international regulations. Boeing has asked for an exemption to continue production. Credit: Fed Ex.
“Additional 777Fs are needed after January 1, 2028, to maintain an uninterrupted supply of large freighters to the market prior to the introduction of the 777-8F,” Boeing wrote. The company asked the FAA to extend the exemption outside the US.
Continued certification delays for the new generation 777X, including the 777-8F freighter, are the reason. Certification has been moved to a goal of 2026. Entry into service (EIS) of the passenger 777-9, the lead of the family, is now planned for 2027. EIS for the 777-8F has a goal of 2029, but some customers already believe this won’t happen until 2030. EIS of the passenger 777-8 follows the freighter by a year.
The 777-9 was supposed to enter service in 1Q2020, with the 777-8P two years later and the freighter two years after that. EIS for the freighter was moved up to be second once the FAA agreed to adopt the 2017 ICAO emission standards. The standards mean the end of production of the Boeing 767-300ERF and the 777-200LRF by the end of 2027.
Alternative energy companies certification seen in two years
By Scott Hamilton
Billy Nolen, former acting administrator of the FAA. Credit: ZeroAvia.
Dec. 16, 2025, © Leeham News, Washington (DC): A former acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration predicts that alternative technology aircraft will be plying the US skies in two years.
Billy Nolen was acting administrator from April 1, 2022, to June 2023. He predicts that three companies will be certified. He did not name the companies, but referred to supersonic and hybrid propulsion.
Nolen appeared at the monthly meeting of the AeroClub Washington (DC) on Dec. 2 along with three other former top FAA officials.
“I am optimistic about, I believe that in two years, we will probably have three companies that will be certified. We will continue to show the use cases. You’ve got other forms of hybrid propulsion. We’ll have supersonic travel. It could come at a better time,” he said.
Nolen was named in March as Senior Strategy & Regulatory Advisor of ZeroAvia, which is developing hydrogen-powered aircraft. He is the chief regulatory officer for Archer, an eVTOL company. His resume does not list an affiliation with Boom SuperSonic, which is developing an 88-passenger SST designed to be capable of using 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Boom’s potential certification, however, will go beyond the two-year horizon Nolen suggested.
Nolen also said Artificial Intelligence (AI) will become increasingly common and that the FAA will benefit from it.
“AI is here. If we use it wisely, we will have an agency that in two years’ time will have the structure, the tools, the capabilities, the talent, and most importantly, the money that needs to go into the national economy.”
Boeing’s “hangover” of the MAX is over, says former acting FAA administrator who dealt with crisis
By Scott Hamilton
Dan Elwell, former acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. Credit: Alaska Airlines.
Dec. 3, 2025, © Leeham News, Washington (DC): Boeing’s “hangover” and PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome) following the 737 MAX crisis of 2019 and beyond is over, says the former acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who had to deal with the fallout before Congress.
Dan Elwell faced investigations from hostile Congressional hearings, a criminal probe, civil litigation, an Inspector General’s inquiry from the FAA’s parent department, and in-depth reporting from many newspapers and television media in the months after the second of two MAXes crashed in March 2019, five months after the first fatal accident. The probes, lawsuits and civil and criminal discoveries revealed serious safety and quality control shortfalls at Boeing and shortcomings of the FAA’s oversight of the company and certification of the MAX.
“The FAA still is sort of feeling and nursing sort of the wounds,” Elwell said during an appearance on Dec. 2 at the monthly luncheon of the AeroClub of Washington (DC). “There was a certain amount of MAX PTSD after the pressures that hung around for a while” at Boeing and the FAA.
Elwell said that the biggest challenge he felt was trying to get both the agency and the “really outstanding engineers and people” who work at Boeing to sort of put it behind them, and do what they know best with confidence. Then, Elwell said, it was necessary to support those who were doing what they know how to do best.
“I think…the FAA is getting there,” he said, adding that Boeing is also making progress. Then company is meeting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that they’re following, and recently received FAA approval to increase the 737 production rate from 38/mo to 42/mo. Boeing wants to further increase rates to 47/mo and 52/mo in two “rate breaks” next year.
Dubai Air Show: 777X, flight demos.
From our partners at AIN:
Nov. 25, 2025, © Leeham News: LNA’s partner AIN attended the Dubai Air Show and has now posted videos from the event. There are also two unrelated stories about the US Federal Aviation Administration’s efforts to modernize the Air Traffic Control system.
Videos from the Dubai Air Show, and more:
AIN Reporting
Bjorn’s Corner: Faster aircraft development. Part 16. Certification Compliance Planning.
By Bjorn Fehrm and Henry Tam
November 14, 2025, ©. Leeham News: We do a series about ideas on how the long development times for large airliners can be shortened. New projects talk about cutting development time and reaching certification and production faster than previous projects.
The series will discuss the typical development cycles for an FAA Part 25 aircraft, called a transport category aircraft, and what different ideas there are to reduce the development times.
We will use the Gantt plan in Figure 1 as a base for our discussions. We are in the Detailed Design phase and working with the Certification Compliance plan.
Figure 1. A generic new Part 25 airliner development plan. Source: Leeham Co. Click to see better.
*** Special thanks to Andrew Telesca for helping with this article ***