Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Pontifications: A Personal Note June 19, 2025
- Airbus books 142 firm orders as Boeing retracts from the Paris Air Show June 19, 2025
- AIN Media Group Agrees to Acquire Leeham News & Analysis June 17, 2025
- Five for Five: Air India crash points to systemic problems at Boeing that CEO Ortberg must fix June 15, 2025
- Airbus sees Boeing as medium-term competitor, with Comac next June 14, 2025
Paris Air Show preview: Don’t look for big news
By Scott Hamilton
June 11, 2025, © Leeham News: Don’t look for big news at the Paris Air Show, which begins on Monday and runs through Thursday.
There won’t be any program launches. Orders from ATR, Airbus, Boeing and Embraer shouldn’t be anything huge. The engine makers won’t have anything new to announce, except perhaps Pratt & Whitney Canada. PWC has quietly been developing a small version of the Open Fan engine for MAEVE, a start-up Netherlands/German company.
The obvious question is whether the sibling, “big” Pratt & Whitney, is developing a full-size version for mainline jets. At big PW’s air show briefing, president Rick Deurloo vowed it’s only interest is an evolution of the Geared Turbo Fan engine.
Maeve and Pratt & Whitney Canada revealed a re-design by Maeve of its proposed 76-100 seat, five-abreast regional airliner powered by a new-design Open Fan engine. Credit: Maeve.
MAEVE is developing a 76-100 seat, five abreast aircraft aimed straight at the US Scope Clause-restricted market. It went public this week with its concept, which has operating specifications that directly compete with Embraer’s older generation E175 E1. MAEVE’s airplane is a hybrid-electric aircraft.
Start-up hybrid plane OEM MAEVE teams with MHIRJ for sales, more
By Karl Sinclair
Dec. 5, 2024, © Leeham News: Start-up company Maeve last week signed a collaborative agreement with MHIRJ to provide sales and potentially product support for its proposed 80-seat M80 hybrid-electric commuter airliner.
Maeve has administrative headquarters in The Netherlands and technical headquarters in Munch. MHIRJ is the old Bombardier CRJ regional jet global product support system headquartered in Canada.
MHIRJ will lead Maeve’s sales effort for the new M80 and instantly give Maeve credibility in potentially offering a reliable product support system. MHIRJ also has global access to airlines via the CRJ program, which Maeve lacks as a start-up.
If things go as planned, Maeve will see the launch of the first clean-sheet turboprop aircraft in over three decades. The M80 is scheduled to undergo a critical design review by the beginning of 2028, make its first flight in 2030, and enter service in 2032.
“That’s the timeline that they’re still working towards, and that’s why they brought us on, to start looking at their design, from all aspects,” said Ross Mitchell, Senior Vice-President of MHIRJ, in an interview with LNA.
MHIRJ is a fully owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and is the result of Mitsubishi’s 2020 acquisition of the CRJ Series program.
“MHIRJ is the largest MRO for regional aircraft in the world,” said Mitchell. “The [US labor contract] Scope Clause is a little more complicated than some people think, and because we had that experience dealing with Scope Clause over the years, we can certainly advise them on how to make sure your airplane is most suitable for the US market.”
MAEVE’s proposed M80 hybrid-electric 80-seat airliner. Credit: MAEVE.
Scope Clauses limit the size and number of passengers a regional aircraft can carry and exist between mainline carriers and their respective pilot’s unions. The most common clause among the Big Three is a maximum take-off weight of 86,000 lbs and a seating limit of 76 passengers.