Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Boeing’s 737 North Line and the Everett factory: in transition now June 9, 2025
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 25. June 6, 2025
- New RISE powerplant benefits from decades of GE research and development June 5, 2025
- Engine makers emphasizing durability, reliability June 4, 2025
- Boeing CEO: Lessons learned are key to certification of 737-7/10 and 777X June 2, 2025
US to tax fuselage, wings, tail imported for Airbus’ Mobile A320 assembly line
Dec. 31, 2020, © Leeham News: Airbus’ A320 Mobile (AL) plant is no longer exempt from tariffs applied by the US Trade Representative in the 16-year long trade war with the European Union.
The fuselage, wings and tail components for the Airbus A320/321 final assembly in Mobile (AL) will be taxed by the US, effective Jan. 12. These have been exempt up to now. Photo source: Airbus.
Effective Jan. 12, the US will slap a 15% tax on fuselage, wing and tail components shipped from France and Germany to Mobile for final assembly on A320s and A321s.
This is a setback in what appeared to be progress in resolving at long last the trade war over subsidies to Airbus deemed illegal by the World Trade Organization.
The US also will apply tariffs on helicopter parts imported from France and Germany for Airbus assembly sites in Mississippi and other US locations.
Podcast: 10 Minutes About Future Workforce Requirements
Dec. 30, 2020, © Leeham News: How many airline workers and aerospace manufacturing-supply chain workers have been laid off, voluntarily or involuntarily, in the pandemic?
Even before the pandemic, airlines faced an aging pilot workforce and regional airlines had difficulties finding and retaining pilots. The aging pilots get older during the layoffs. What kind of shortages will there be as the industry recovers over the next few years?
Kathryn Creedy, who writes for Leeham News and is editor of her own on-line newsletter, Future Aviation/Aerospace Workforce News, answers these and more questions in this episode of 10 Minutes About.
HOTR: Alaska Air still have A320neos on order; working with Airbus on best path forward
Dec. 29, 2020, © Leeham News: Stories and headlines shouted that this month’s Boeing order by Alaska Airlines adding 23 orders and 15 options to an existing agreement meant the death knell for the Airbus fleet.
Alaska indeed announced that all the A319s and A320s inherited from its acquisition of Virgin America will leave the fleet by 2024. But 10 Airbus A321neos remain at least through their lease terms in 2029.
The airline now has 68 Boeing 737 MAX 9s on order and 52 on option.
This is exactly as LNA suggested several times: rotate out the smaller Airbuses as leases expire and keep the larger A321neos.
COVID-19 accelerated the retirement of the smaller Airbus family members by a couple of years. But it never made sense to keep them in lieu of the 737-9 once Alaska committed to this plane several years ago.
But what of the old Virgin America order for 30 A320neos? These are still on the books.
Podcast: 10 Minutes About Boeing’s Next New Airplane
Dec. 29, 2020, © Leeham News: As Boeing works to return the 737 MAX to service and clear its inventory of ~450 airplanes, it must look to the future.
CEO David Calhoun all but killed the New Midmarket Airplane when he took over from Dennis Muilenburg in January. A full product strategy review would be undertaken, he said.
Boeing always looks at alternatives. In addition to the twin-aisle NMA, Boeing also had a single-aisle airplane under study.
In this episode of 10 Minutes About, LNA discusses what Boeing’s Next New Airplane should be.
Boeing NMA concept, by Leeham News.
Podcast: 10 Minutes About the Boeing 777X777X, Vincent Valery
Dec. 28, 2020, (c) Leeham News: Today LNA discusses 10 Minutes About the Boeing 777X.
Something that should have caught Boeing’s attention at the time of the 777X launch was the lack of interest from two key customer groups: the 777-300ER launch operator, Air France, and US airlines. The lack of orders from such airlines was perhaps a sign of a market smaller than what Boeing would have envisioned.
The discussion today looks at the program status and whether Boeing might cancel it. Scott Hamilton is joined by Vincent Valery, a writer and financial analyst for LNA.
Boeing rendering.
Boeing should build 757 replacement in Washington
Commentary
Dec. 22, 2020, © Leeham News: If you get a chance over the next few weeks – in between binge-watching The Queen’s Gambit, putting up the 79 extra feet of Christmas lights you ordered this year and figuring out how to buy surprise Christmas gifts for your spouse when you have a joint Amazon account – you should take 90 minutes to watch this video from our friends at the International Association of Machinists District Lodge 751.
By Bryan Corliss
The Machinists on Dec. 8 hosted (on Zoom, of course) a high-level panel discussion about the state of the aerospace industry and Washington state’s role in it, featuring a whole bunch of Brand-Name People Who are Smarter Than Me(c).
They shared their insights for those of us coffee-drinkers who are trying to read the tea leaves to divine what Boeing’s next moves should be as it tries to get back on its feet – and what the implications are for its home state.
The takeaway:
The problems for Boeing are obvious, and the solutions are pretty clear – but doing the smart thing would require a major cultural shift from an executive team that’s locked into a 1990s vision of how business gets done.
- Boeing needs a 757 replacement this decade
- It should get built in Washington state
- There are concrete – and audacious – steps for the state to take
- Can GE alum Calhoun change Boeing’s GE culture?
Buzz about Boeing’s next new airplane returned this month to making a 757 replacement. Boeing photo.
Senate report reveals FAA retaliation, hostile culture
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By Scott Hamilton
Introduction
Dec. 21, 2020, © Leeham News: The US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Friday issued a damning report taking Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration to task.
A 20-month investigation began in the wake of the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in October 2018 and March 2019.
The report concluded Boeing inappropriately coached the FAA pilots during recertification simulator training to test fixes to the now-infamous MCAS system.
Details were widely reported last week.
More troubling is the larger picture painted by the Committee of an FAA for years ignoring several US airlines’ safety violations and attempts by FAA inspectors to enforce safety regulations.
Whistleblowers were subject to retaliation, Committee investigators found. The FAA and its parent agency, the Department of Transportation, refused to make FAA employees available for interviews and stonewalled when documents were requested.
The bigger picture of an agency that protects airlines more than the public raises questions of a culture that favors cozy relationships with airlines. Media reports focused on the Boeing-FAA relationship and not the larger issues.
Summary
- Restoring confidence in FAA certification with other regulators.
- US Congress crafts FAA reform bill.
- 777X is next up
- The full report is here: CST FAA Aviation Safety Oversight Report
Pontifications: 2020 Retrospective–the worst ever seen
By Scott Hamilton
Dec. 21, 2020, © Leeham News: This is my last Pontification of 2020. I’ll be off between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
It’s only fitting to look back at what is the worst year in commercial aviation—ever.
I’ve just completed my 41st year in this industry. I’ve seen two Gulf Wars, SARS, 9/11, the Great Recession and several economic cycles.
Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas exited the commercial airliner business.
I’ve seen three groundings: the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, Boeing 787 and 737 MAX. I’ve been on site of two significant crashes: the American Airlines DC-10 in Chicago and Delta Air Lines’ 727 in Dallas. I flew over a third, a Delta L-1011 in Dallas the day after it happened.
I worked for the first new airline certified by the Civil Aeronautics Board in 40 years, the first Midway. I also went through one bankruptcy and one merger, each part of the deregulation shake-out.
As a reporter, I covered some of the business giants, including Bob Crandall, Herb Kelleher, John Leahy and others.
It’s been a great four decades.
But nothing compares to the global industry disaster of 2020.
Bjorn’s Corner: The challenges of hydrogen. Part 18. Airliner hydrogen tank
By Bjorn Fehrm
December 18, 2020, ©. Leeham News: After discussing the risk-reducing research programs we need to do before a program launch in 2027, we focus the next Corners on the hydrogen airliner’s biggest problem, the liquid hydrogen tank.
In this Corner, we start with the placement and discuss how it affects aircraft performance.
Figure 1. Airbus ZEROe turbofan airliner concept. Source: Airbus.
The A350, Part 1: Intro and A350-800
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By Vincent Valery
Introduction
Dec. 17, 2020, © Leeham News: After running a series on the Dreamliner, LNA will now start a series on Airbus’ latest-generation twin-aisle aircraft, the A350. Airbus should deliver its 400th A350 this month.
After a delayed ramp-up to 10 units per month, Airbus had to cut the A350 production rate to five per month after the COVID-19 pandemic. The European OEM might have to follow Boeing’s footsteps and reduce twin-aisle production rates further.
The A350 program has an official backlog of 532 orders: 415 for the -900 and 117 for -1000. Once passenger traffic recovers, Airbus should ramp production back up of its best-selling twin-aisle aircraft.
Despite its success, the A350 program wasn’t without hiccups. There were several and sizable iterations before Airbus finalized the A350 platform, and the -800 variant is non-existent but not officially canceled.
Summary
- A few iterations before launch;
- Development without significant issues;
- An in-favor aircraft family;
- The aborted A350-800.