Leeham News and Analysis
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Collins Aerospace pacing for new materials, production for next new airplane
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By Scott Hamilton
Aug. 4, 2025, © Leeham News: As the aviation industry considers what new major airliners to develop for the next 50 years, new engines, folding wings, advanced materials, and new design and production processes will also be key.
Collins Aerospace, a unit of RTX Corp., is deep into research and development of advanced structures.
This portion of Collins’ antecedents is Hamilton-Sundstrand and B. F. Goodrich Aerospace. Each was acquired by United Technologies, the forerunner of today’s RTX.
Collins has three basic lines of business: aerostructures, landing systems, and propeller and cockpit controls.
Going back to Jim McNerney, the CEO of The Boeing Co. from 2005-2015, the company said repeatedly that its next new airplane will be as much, or more, about production than it will be about the aircraft.
A new materials airplane based on composites or thermoplastics or a similar material to replace the ubiquitous 737 needs a production rate of 60-80 a month, or even more. This can’t be achieved with an autoclave process. Boeing and NASA, the US space agency, are studying new materials processes aimed at this rate.
Airbus is conducting similar studies in Europe with EU companies.
Airbus is openly talking about launching a new airplane program in 2030 to replace the A320 beginning in 2038. Boeing is quietly understood to be operating on a similar timeline for a new program that may be aimed at a New Midmarket Airplane (NMA) category airplane.
The underlying question, then, is whether these new processes will be ready by the time Airbus and Boeing want to launch an airplane program.
Melrose profits climb on higher defense spending as transformation nears completion
By Tom Batchelor
Aug 3, 2025, © Leeham News: Melrose has reported a strong set of interim results for the first half of 2025 as demand for its defense products soared, driving expanding margins and a sharp uptick in profitability.
The UK-based group – now a focused aerospace and defense specialist – posted 6% like-for-like revenue growth compared to the same period last year, to £1.7bn, and a 29% increase in adjusted operating profit, to £310m.
Across the aerospace division, Melrose reported sales growth of 6%, a 27% increase in operating profit to £324m, with margins expanding by 3.9ppts.
Within that division, Melrose’s engines unit saw sales growth of 11%, driven by the civil aftermarket, with operating profit up 26% to £261m.
The structures unit registered sales growth of 3% and an operating profit up 32%, to £63m. A £14m loss in the corporate division took overall profit to £310m.
“We delivered a strong performance in the first half with a 29% improvement in profit and cash flow significantly stronger than last year despite the backdrop of supply chain and tariff disruptions,” said CEO Peter Dilnot.
Bjorn’s Corner: Faster aircraft development. Part 1.
By Bjorn Fehrm
August 1, 2025, ©. Leeham News: Four years ago I did a series about aircraft development together with Henry Tam and Andrew Telesca. Both worked on the Mitsubishi Spacejet program. You can find the series here.
It was about the arduous task of developing and producing a certified aircraft for the FAA Part 23 standard and its EASA equivalent. The idea was to better describe what’s ahead for the many upstarts that wanted to develop 9-seat and 19-seat alternative propulsion aircraft.
Now we do a series about recent ideas on how the long development times for large airliners can be shortened. New projects talk about cutting development calendar time by one-third or more. Is this realistic?
Figure 1. The A350 development schedule from December 2011. Source: Airbus.
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LEAP deliveries and spare parts demand lift Safran in H1 2025
By Tom Batchelor
Jul 31, 2025, © Leeham News: Safran has reported a robust set of half-year results for 2025, underpinned by booming aftermarket services, a ramp-up in LEAP engine deliveries, and strong growth across all business segments.
The aerospace and defence supplier posted revenues of €14.8bn ($16.9bn) for the first six months of the year, up 13.2% compared to H1 2024.
The Paris-based group’s propulsion division led the charge, with revenue up 16.9%, boosted by a 21.3% surge in aftermarket services and a 9.7% rise in original equipment (OE) sales.
Rolls-Royce shrugs off supply chain and tariffs woes as profits soar
By Tom Batchelor
Jul 31, 2025, © Leeham News: 
Rolls-Royce shrugged off lingering supply chain challenges and the uncertain tariff environment to post a strong first half performance in 2025.
CEO Tufan Erginbilgic hailed continued progress in his multi-year transformation of the British aerospace company, which saw underlying operating profit increase by 50% to £1.7bn ($2.25bn) with a margin of 19.1%.
This compares to an underlying operating profit of £1.1bn in the first half of 2024, and a margin of 14%.
The largest increase in underlying operating profit was in Civil Aerospace, driven by strong large engine aftermarket performance, contractual margin improvements and higher spare engine profit.
Underlying revenue reached £9.1bn in H1 2025, up 13%, with strong growth in the civil aerospace and power systems divisions.
Free cash flow in the period was £1.6bn, an improvement of £0.4bn compared with the prior period – up 37% yoy.
Airbus 1H2025 results: A solid first half except for 60 gliders
By Bjorn Fehrm
July 31, 2025, © Leeham News: Airbus CEO Guillame Faury and CFO Thomas Toepfer presented the Airbus first half 2025 results yesterday. The Airbus performance is very much to plan, except there are 60 A320/A321 gliders standing on the aprons, missing engines.
“The lion’s share of these engines are CFM LEAPs, but Pratt & Whitney GTFs are also missing,” said Faury. “Our plan, supported by the engine OEMs, is to be at zero gliders by year-end”.
Except for delivering 60 A320/A321 less than planned, Airbus is executing to plan. “We are on plan with A320/A321 production. Finished airframes are standing waiting for engines,” continued Faury. “Overall, our divisions are on track with their actions and deliveries during the first half of 2025. Our guidance for 2025 is unchanged”.
What’s the next new aircraft, Part 5
By Scott Hamilton and Bjorn Fehrm
July 31, 2025, © Leeham News: We wrap up our five-part series today on What’s the Next New Airplane in the coming decades. We now look at Airplanes 9-13 in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. The 13 airliners we look at in the series. Source: Leeham Co.
These are the (9) COMAC 929, (10) Eco-version of New Light Twin, (11) CFM Open Fan single aisle, (12) the Boeing 787 re-engine, and (13) the Airbus A350 re-engine.
Odds and Ends from Boeing, Textron, China and the US DOT
By the Leeham News and AIN Teams
July 30, 2025, © Leeham News: It’s time for a few odds and ends in aerospace.
- Boeing and tariffs.
- Textron and the small cargo airplane SkyCourier.
- China certifies the first eVTOL.
- The DOT watchdog focuses on the Newark ATC meltdowns
Boeing on tariffs
Boeing is optimistic that evolving tariff policy by the Trump Administration will continue to exempt aerospace products.
On the Boeing earnings call on July 29, CEO Kelly Ortberg said Boeing previously estimated the impact from tariffs imposed by the US on imported parts would be about $500m.
“One of the key areas for us is the equipment we import from Japan. Getting this Japan [tariff] agreement in place will be helpful for us going forward. We understand that to include zero-for-zero, no input tariffs.
“We still need to see what happens with Italy. We import some fuselage components from Alenia in Italy, so hopefully that will also result in zero-for-zero. My understanding is that is the kind of the baseline negotiation strategy as they go through these bilaterals that we will end up in a zero-for-zero, but [there is] still work yet to do,” Ortberg said.
The trade agreement negotiated in the first Trump Administration between the US, Mexico and Canada is called USMCA. Ortberg said this agreement is very important because of the amount Boeing imports from Mexico and Canada. The second Trump Administration upended the USMCA with new tariff demands.
“As they revisit that USMCA, hopefully, that stays in the same trade situation that we’re in today. We don’t see additional tariffs going forward. But if we continue to see this zero-for-zero, I think we’ll be able to beat that $500 million bogey that we’ve established here.”
Ortberg becomes more cautious about 737 MAX production ramp timing
By Scott Hamilton
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg. Credit: Getty Images.
July 30, 2025, © Leeham News: Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg began to walk back just a bit about the timeline to ramp up production of the 737 MAX during the 2Q2025/1H2025 earnings call.
It’s the first time that LNA has seen a little equivocation.
In previous interviews and earnings calls, Ortberg said that once the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approves, Boeing would ramp up production of the 737 MAX every six months in increments of five.
For example, Boeing is currently producing the MAX at a rate of 38/mo (although July may fall short, according to tracking by Planespotters). The next rate, subject to FAA approval, is 42/mo (yes, this is only four, not five, but this is the figure Boeing has said). After that, Ortberg has said repeatedly that rate breaks in increments of five would be every six months. LNA was skeptical from the start.
Jamie Baker and Mark Streeter, the airline analysts for JP Morgan, came up with an apt term when discussing the Southwest Airlines guidance that applies equally here: “Very Aggressive and Seemingly Unobtainable (or VASU for short).”
In response to questions from an analyst, Ortberg began walking back on the 2Q earnings call yesterday.
Boeing’s CEO Kelly Ortberg, “Our recovery plan is taking hold.”
By Karl Sinclair
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg. Credit: Getty Images.
July 29, 2025, © Leeham News: The Boeing Company (BA) President and CEO Kelly Ortberg is confident that, despite there still being work to do, he likes the direction that the company is headed in.
“We’re making steady progress to stabilize our business, strengthen development program execution, and change our culture to set up for the future,” he said on the 1H2025 earnings call.
While the company still reported a loss for the quarter, it was less than expected, and there were signs of improvement in areas that were projected to take longer to turn around.
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• Boeing 1H2025: Turnaround underway
Despite projections in the first quarter that 2025 would be a loss-making year for the company, along with a substantial drain on cash reserves, management was pleased to note that things were progressing along in a timely and orderly manner.
“I’m pretty pleased with where we are through the first half and through my first year. I’m not surprised with the performance of the company and the recovery. We’ve got great people in the company,” said Ortberg.
Boeing is first and foremost a commercial aircraft manufacturer. The company will go as that division does.