Leeham News and Analysis
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The state of alternative propulsion aircraft? Part 4.
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By Bjorn Fehrm
December 4, 2025, © Leeham News: In our series about alternative propulsion aircraft, last week we looked at the aircraft batteries. These are heavy components with very low energy capacity per unit weight.
To illustrate the kind of aircraft-level challenges the batteries pose, we are using our Aircraft Performance and Cost Model (APCM) to design a typical alternative-propulsion battery-electric aircraft and then fly it on typical missions.
The aircraft is similar in size to a 9-seat Tecnam P2012 commuter (Figure 1) but optimised for Battery-Electric propulsion.
Figure 1. The Tecnam P2012 nine-seater commuter. Source: Tecnam.
The APCM will give us the airframe-level energy consumption for each phase of the flight. Subsequently, we can add the different losses in the propulsion system to determine the energy consumed from the battery and the endurance/range it offers, dependent on VFR or IFR mission reserves.
Boeing CFO Jay Malave: Priorities are debt, investments, then shareholders
By Karl Sinclair
Dec. 3, 2025, © Leeham News: Boeing’s chief financial officer outlined the priorities for the use of cash going forward, and it reaffirms what has been obvious but largely unstated: debt reduction is the top priority.
Speaking at the UBS Global Industrials and Transportation Conference, The Boeing Company’s (BA) new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jay Malave reiterated the corporation’s prudent position on where Free Cash Flow (FCF) was going to be spent.
“I think that between the balance that we have today, the cash flow that we’re going to be generating, that will give us plenty of optionality to pay down the debt, to invest in the future, and start thinking at the right time about investor returns,” Malave said.
Boeing CFO Jay Malave. Source: Boeing.
This is quite a departure from the position of the previous CFO Greg Smith, who once reported that Boeing was committed to returning 100% of FCF to investors. It is very much in line with the new culture that CEO Kelly Orberg is attempting to instill in the company.
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.
The airliners of tomorrow: understanding the opportunities
Bjorn Fehrm (right) discusses the industry’s challenges with Nico Buchholz (left). Credit: Charlotte Bailey, Leeham News.
By Charlotte Bailey
Dec. 2, 2025, © Leeham News: As aerospace companies, investors, and industry analysts gather in Amsterdam for the second iteration of the annual Future Aero Festival, the attributes and advantages offered by clean-sheet aircraft concepts are in the spotlight.
The first program point was when Bjorn Fehrm, analyst and consultant at Leeham Co., and Nico Buchholt, president and deputy CEO of BermudAir, were interviewed by Sustainable Aero Lab’s founder and CEO, Stephan Uhrenbacher.
The ’next big aircraft program’: a simultaneously inevitable yet somehow elusive concept OEMs and airlines alike are already considering with a view to future operations. Certainly, the scale of the challenge facing aircraft developers is significant.
From alternative propulsion strategies to entirely clean-sheet designs, industry insiders agree that tomorrow’s airliners are likely to be substantially different from currently operational concepts. But how are these ideas starting to shape up, and what is currently understood about commercial aviation’s future direction?
An aircraft is a “production tool for an airline: it exists to satisfy a certain need,” clarified Nico Buchholz. Although Buchholz has personally participated in the launches, demo flights, and entry into service of more than ten aircraft types, “on the other side, we see the slowness” of development, he added.
Fehrm of Leeham Co believes that a combination of motor, generator, and battery “makes a lot of sense on turbofans and turbofan engines,” he said, citing complexities with gas turbine acceleration and deceleration. “You actually have to design the engine a little less efficiently because of that. So, if you have the electrical motor in there to help, you can actually make a more efficient engine.” Read more
Book excerpt: Legacy Boeing’s last hurrah
Dec. 1, 2025, (c) Leeham News: In October, Boeing announced another delay in certification of the 777X and a delay from 2026 to 2027 of entry-into-service of the -9 model. Tim Clark, the president of Emirates Airline, is vocal about his dismay over the continuing delays. Emirates has more 777Xs on order than any other customer. The first airplane was due in early 2020. Had it been on time, Clark says Emirates would have had 110 in service by now.
During the Dubai Air Show, he told the financial news network CNBC that he believes Boeing can restore its glory. He doesn’t know or predict when. But legacy Boeing’s last hurrah was the development of what is now called by some to be the “Classic” 777.
Scott Hamilton’s new book, The Rise and Fall of Boeing and The Way Back, details not only how Boeing lost its glory and how it’s recovering. It tells the story of legacy Boeing’s last hurrah: development of the 777 Classic.
Here is an excerpt.
Airbus rolls out prototype A350F in march toward 2026 certification
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By Scott Hamilton and Bjorn Fehrm
Dec. 1, 2025, © Leeham News: Airbus rolled its first A350F out of the factory last week. It now moves to another building for the installation of systems and engines. The first flight is planned for the third quarter next year, as a second freighter is completed to begin regimented flight testing.
Airbus hopes to deliver the first freighter in the second half of 2027.
Figure 1. The first Airbus A350F rolled out of the factory this month. Source: Airbus.
Boeing’s new freighter, the 777-8F, is still a “paper” airplane. With 59 orders from six customers, entry into service (EIS) is now estimated for 2029 (some say 2030). Airbus has more than 80 orders from 13 customers. Airbus claims a 58% market share of new freighter orders.
A350F sales fall short of the 120 sales for new-build A300-600Fs, Airbus’ best-selling freighter, most of which went to package operators FedEx and UPS. However, neither has chosen between the A350F or the 777-8F for their next airplanes to replace the decades-old Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) MD-11Fs. The future of these aircraft is uncertain following the Nov. 4 crash of a UPS jet in Louisville (KY).
Within days of the accident, which killed three pilots and 11 people on the ground, Boeing recommended grounding the nearly 60 MD-11 freighters on the US registry for inspections. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) made the grounding mandatory shortly after.
Related Stories
- UPS crash presents potential opportunities for Airbus’ A350F
- Airbus sticks to 2027 EIS for A350F (Briefing pre-Dubai Air Show)
Bjorn’s Corner: Faster aircraft development. Part 18. Prototype Parts and Systems.
By Bjorn Fehrm and Henry Tam.
November 28, 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 have exited the Detailed Design phase after conducting Critical Design Reviews, CDRs, and now enter into Prototype Manufacturing.
Figure 1. A generic new Part 25 airliner development plan. Source: Leeham Co. Click to see better.
** Special thanks to Ron Everlove for helping with this article **
The state of alternative propulsion aircraft? Part 3.
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By Bjorn Fehrm
November 27, 2025, © Leeham News: In our series about alternative propulsion aircraft, last week we looked at the electric motor of an electric aircraft, which drives propellers or fans. It’s a component that is straightforward to develop, but the certification requirements for the aircraft and VTOL industry have slowed progress.
Now we look at the component that causes trouble for all alternative propulsion aircraft, except those that burn hydrogen in gas turbine engines: the batteries. Batteries work well in cars, where the requirement for energy capacity relative to weight is much lower and where energy recovery during braking reduces the energy required from the battery.
Figure 1. The battery-electric aircraft that flies operational trials as we speak, the Beta Technologies Alia CX300. Source: Leeham Co.
Aircraft batteries are a heavy component with very low energy storage capacity. Today’s aircraft battery system has about 60 times lower energy density per kg or lb than aircraft fuel.
The hope over the last decade has been that this relationship should improve. It has, it’s gone from about 70 times to 60 times in the last 10 years. This will improve further, the question is if it will continue at the slow pace of the last 10 years or not?
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
Emirates seeks larger A350, 777 after big Dubai order
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By Scott Hamilton
Nov. 24, 2025, © Leeham News: Boeing landed a big order for its 777-9 at the Dubai Air Show last week, valued at $38bn at list prices for 65 airplanes ($575.8m each). Emirates Airline, already Boeing’s largest customer for the airplane, now has 270 777Xs on order. This represents 43% of the firm orders once added to Boeing’s backlog.
Rendering of an Emirates Airline Boeing 777-9. Credit: Boeing.
Emirates simultaneously said it will support a feasibility study to stretch the 777-9 to a larger capacity 777-10. Airline president Tim Clark has been urging Boeing to launch the larger derivative.
Also at the air show, Airbus Commercial airplanes CEO Christian Scherer said Airbus is revisiting a study whether to stretch the A350-1000 (the same size as the Boeing 777-300ER) to a larger “A350-2000” model. This would be the same size as the 777-9.
However, don’t look for Airbus to launch a stretch any time soon, if at all. Airbus previously studied stretching the -1000 and decided the market couldn’t support two airplanes the size of the 777-9. Furthermore, the best target market for these aircraft—the Middle East—already accounts for about 63% of 777X orders before the latest Emirates deal, highly limiting the market potential for an X competitor.