Leeham News and Analysis
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How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 7. Other OEMs.
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By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 25, 2025, © Leeham News: In Part 1 of this series, we described the production system for Embraer. Should Embraer or any other OEM enter the race for the next aircraft in the single aisle segment, it will pose the same challenges as for Boeing and Airbus.
Embraer has recovered from the collapse of the Boeing-EMB joint venture, and the E195-E2 is selling well. But the regional jet market is limited. Embraer is considering whether to move up to the mainline jet sector. Credit: Embraer.
The aircraft must integrate new types of engines, and large parts must be made with the new types of composites that enable high-rate production.
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 6. Airbus: Production of future aircraft
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By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 22, 2025, © Leeham News: In Part 5 of this series, we described the efforts to improve Airbus’ present production, and what the learnings were from changes in the FAL setup.
Airbus A220 production line in Montreal, when it was still Bombardier. Airbus is revamping the process to become more efficient and reduce costs. Credit: Leeham News.
We also described how Airbus has learned to refocus on the production mechanic, as he/she is finally the enabler and problem solver in a complicated system.
For the next generation aircraft that will replace today’s single aisle A320/A321 there are special challenges that are forcing Airbus to change the way that the aircraft are produced.
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 5. Airbus: Improving the present
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By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 18, 2025, © Leeham News: In Part 1 of this series, we described the history behind Airbus’ very different production setup. The need to give a distributed value creation to participating countries in the then-Airbus joint venture, forced a multinational distributed production system that remains today.
The Airbus A320 fuselage production line in Hamburg, Germany. Credit: Leeham News.
We now examine the recent changes/improvements in this setup, including Airbus’ recent policies around the organization of production from a pre-Paris Air Show demonstration of their new A320/A321 Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Toulouse.
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 4. Boeing: new aircraft production
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By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 15, 2025, © Leeham News: In the fourth part of our article series about the Production of the next new aircraft, we look at what changes Boeing needs to do to produce the next new aircraft we described in our series What’s the next new aircraft.
Boeing 737s awaiting delivery, November 2022. Credit: Leeham News.
The new small widebody described in the series and a replacement for the 737 MAX will be an all-composite aircraft. For these products, new, cheaper, and faster composite production technology is needed.
The present widebody composite methods are not made for high-rate, low-cost aircraft, as Boeing found out lately with the NMA, which was canceled, not least because of the high-cost composite methods used.
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 3. Boeing: Improving the present.
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By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 11, 2025, © Leeham News: In the third part of our article series about the Production of the next new aircraft, we look at where Boeing is with the present production and how this can develop in preparation for a next-generation aircraft.
Several of Boeing’s production sites have their roots in World War II factories making Bombers for the war effort. Each has built new production lines and modernized them over time.
Figure 1. Boeing 737 factory in Renton (WA). Credit: Boeing.
Boeing has fallen well behind Airbus in commercial aircraft narrowbody sales over the last decade. Poor strategic and tactical decisions, emphasis on shareholder value vs product strategy, poor execution on new commercial, defense, and space programs, and a series of safety crises with its 737 and 787 programs also took tolls, according to many observers, including Richard Aboulafia and Kevin Michaels of Aerodynamic Advisory, and aerospace analyst Ron Epstein of Bank of America.
Boeing has less than 40% market share in the dominant single aisle market, more than $50bn in debt, it’s losing money, and has an aging product line.
For Boeing, a drastic makeover in its aircraft programs, from concept to design to production, is key to its financial and market turnaround.
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 2. Advancing the State of the Art
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By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 8, 2025, © Leeham News: In the second part of our article series about the Production of the next new aircraft, we look at the latest trends around advancing the state of the art for aircraft production.
Figure 1. The next new airplane, whether from Airbus, Boeing, Embraer or another company, will use AI and other new technologies. Credit: Leeham Co.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to replace human beings, or so claims Elon Musk.
Digital design and digital twin factories are going to dramatically lower costs, speed construction, and improve production efficiency. At least that’s what proponents claim.
While there might be a lot of truth in these claims, it’s not the whole story.
But the drive toward reindustrialization, as one industry consultant calls it, may be a drive that is too theoretical and could overlook the fact that production is done and controlled by humans.
One aerospace company is putting the brakes on the theoretical spin and focusing on the road to higher efficiency by slowing down this transformation in favor of employee training and motivation to emphasize safety over cost-cutting and automation to gain efficiency.
Striking a balance between the reindustrialization theoretical gains and the focus on the human in the system will be tricky. LNA had spent months interviewing companies, consultants, current and former employees of key companies, and researching public-domain information to paint a picture of how production will be transformed in the coming years.
We begin the advancement of the state-of-the-art part of the series with an interview LNA did at the Paris Air Show with the consulting firm Accenture.
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 1. The starting point.
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By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 4, 2025, © Leeham News: The coming decade is likely to see announcements of new airplanes from Airbus and Boeing. If Embraer decides to move up into the mainline sector, a new airplane from the Brazilian manufacturer should also be announced in the next few years.
This means the clock is ticking toward program launches anywhere between 2027 and 2030, depending on progress from GE Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce in developing new engines.
New airplane concept: The Boeing New Midmarket Airplane, c. 2019. Credit: Leeham News.
For the airframe manufacturers, there are important steps before a new program can be launched. One is how the aircraft shall be developed. We wrote about it in our series “What’s the Next New Aircraft?”. But equally important is, how shall the next new aircraft be produced? It’s what this seven part series is about.
Since June, LNA has published a series of articles about new airplanes, new technologies, new design and new production processes that must be sorted before any of the OEMs move forward. Across the seven parts of this series, we identify flaws and challenges at both Airbus and Boeing, with lessons to be learned as both airframers reshape their approach for future manufacturing.
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We call this series “How’s the next new aircraft produced?”. We start by going through where the major OEMs are with their legacy production.
Trump tariffs beginning to hurt US aerospace companies; EU competitors to benefit
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By Scott Hamilton and Karl Sinclair
Sept. 1, 2025, © Leeham News: New policies by President Donald Trump in the first six months of his second administration in trade, with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) are causing a what may become a significant shift in defense spending that will benefit European companies.
The added business could strengthen those that also participate in commercial aerospace, to the detriment of US companies, notably Airbus.
US companies that for decades were the major suppliers to allies are already beginning to see European countries redirect spending to EU firms. Following Trump’s imposition of high tariffs on certain EU countries and others on Aug. 1, US defense companies have been hurt. India canceled deliveries of Boeing 737-based P-8A Poseidons.
Figure 1. Boeing P-8, based on the commercial 737 NG. India suspended delivery of the P8 due to the Trump tariffs. Credit: Boeing. Airbus now proposes a rival airplane based on the A321.
Airbus, Rolls-Royce, MTU, and others expect to benefit from these changes. And, as these companies see more defense work coming their way, then—at least in theory—their commercial business will benefit from stronger balance sheets, profits, cash flow, and perhaps the corporations’ technology.
In an interview at the Paris Air Show in June, the consulting firm Accenture told LNA that it is beginning to see key trends and increases in the defense sector.
Figure 2. Spain and Switzerland canceled orders for the Lockheed F-35. Credit: Lockheed. Airbus stands to benefit, among other EU-based defense contractors.
“Obviously, things are changing in terms of the dynamics,” said Jeff Wheless, Growth & Strategy Research Leader at Accenture. “I think certainly from a NATO perspective, I think folks are increasing their spending.”
Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, said that Trump’s pressure on NATO countries to increase defense spending to 5% of their budgets paid off. For decades, NATO countries were committed to a 2% spending level, but often failed to meet this commitment.
“Europe is spending by far less money on defense acquisitions than the US,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury in response to an LNA question at the Paris Air Show. “It’s a ratio of one to four or one to five. On top of that, Europe is procuring a lot from the US. I think the message is loud and clear from the U.S. that Europe should take better care of its own security.”
Airbus’ A330neo gets better and better. Part 4
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By Bjorn Fehrm
August 28, 2025, © Leeham News: We analyze Airbus’s A330neo, how the different variants were developed, their sales, and their performance before and after the neo upgrade.
After examining the history of the A330-200 and its evolution into a neo version, the A330-800, we now assess its performance. We utilize our Aircraft Performance and Cost Model (APCM) to compare the performance of the A330-800 to Boeing’s smallest Dreamliner, the 787-8.
Figure 1. The A330-800, the very long-range A330. Source: Airbus.
Summary:
- The Airbus A330-800 is an aircraft for especially demanding routes. It’s the only 8,000nm airliner in the 250-seat class.
- Our 787-8 comparison shows where the A330-800 has its advantage, on the world’s longest routes.
GE increasing use of automation and AI to support MRO
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By Scott Hamilton
A tool used by GE Aerospace for its Artificial Intelligence MRO process. Credit: AIN.
Aug. 25, 2025, © Leeham News: GE Aerospace is using robotics, automation, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as rare access to supercomputers throughout its global footprint, services, and in research and development as it strives for engine maturity, reliability, and creating new engines.
Shop visits, on-wing engine inspections, and repair technologies must be made more efficient, rapid, and cost-effective to serve the thousands of legacy CFM56s, GE90s, CF6s, and the growing number of CFM LEAP engines.
The CFM56 and LEAP engines power the Boeing 737. The CFM 56 and LEAP also power the Airbus A320neo family in competition with the previous generation International Aero Engine V2500 and the current generation Pratt & Whitney GTF, respectively. The CF6 still powers older widebody airplanes, like the Boeing 767. The GE90 powers legacy Boeing 777s.
The forthcoming GE9X, the giant engine on Boeing’s 777X series, is also benefiting from efforts to mature the engine as much as possible before entry into service next year. This is a special case because of the six-year certification and delivery delays of the 777X brought by some initial technical issues of the GE9X discovered during flight testing and the negative halo effect of the certification crisis surrounding the 737 MAX, beginning in 2019.
The 777X was to be delivered in the first quarter of 2019; now, entry into service (EIS) is expected next year.
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