Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- 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
- Digital twin is a key to JetZero’s hopes for Blended Wing Body entry June 2, 2025
The Boeing 90 day executive summary to the FAA: An analysis
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By the Leeham News Team
June 3, 2024, © Leeham News: Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration last week released summaries of the company’s plan to fix its safety shortcomings following the Jan. 5 accident of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282.
That’s the day a 10-week-old 737-9 MAX saw a door plug blow out at 16,000 ft on take-off from Portland (OR). Nobody died but there were some injuries and damage throughout the cabin and the cockpit occurred. The flight crew made an emergency landing at Portland.
Following this accident, the FAA on Feb. 29 gave Boeing 90 days to come up with yet another plan to address safety and production failures. (Boeing developed plans after the 2018/19 737-8 MAX crashes that killed 346 people.)
In a three-hour meeting on May 31, Boeing CEO David Calhoun and other senior executives outline its latest plan. The FAA’s press release afterward largely was a reaffirmation that it will hold Boeing’s feet to the fire until it is satisfied the safety culture at Boeing changes. There is no timeline for Boeing to implement changes—at least none that was announced.
Boeing released an 11-page Executive Summary that largely outlined steps it has taken to improve safety, and which ones continue. The detailed PowerPoint presentation given to the FAA was not released. Through a spokesperson, the FAA declined to make FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker available for an interview.
A key element of the go-forward plan is a requirement by the FAA that a voluntary Safety Management System (SMS) is now mandatory.
The FAA and Boeing statements released last week drew immediate criticism for lack of detail, repetitive nature of steps already taken, and—given the steps taken in 2019 and 2020—why this is necessary today.
LNA’s news team, which includes former Boeing employees whose duties included safety, reviewed the information announced last week. This is the analysis.
Boeing, firefighters settle contract, ending lockout
By the Leeham News Team
Analysis
May 31, 2024, © Leeham News: Boeing firefighters on Thursday approved a new contract, ending a lockout by Boeing since May 1.
Firefighters approved the new contract by a vote of 78% to 22% (86 to 24). Firefighters return to work tomorrow.
The offer was good enough to end the lockout, but it’s not clear whether it will solve the chronic turnover in Boeing’s Fire Department. Despite Boeing’s attempts to paint the offer as competitive with other industrial fire departments around the United States, pay remains below the municipal departments right next door to its facilities in Everett, Renton and Seattle.
It still will take Boeing firefighters 10 years to get to maximum pay, which is an improvement over the current 14. (Most Seattle-area departments move firefighters to maximum pay in three to five years.)
Bjorn’s Corner: New engine development. Part 10. Airframe integration
By Bjorn Fehrm
May 24, 2024, ©. Leeham News: We do an article series about engine development. The aim is to understand why engine development now has longer timelines than airframe development and carries larger risks of product maturity problems.
To understand why engine development has become a challenging task, we need to understand engine fundamentals and the technologies used for these fundamentals.
In the last Corner, we looked at the nacelles used for a turbofan engine and for an open-rotor engine. Now, we go one step further and look at the integration of modern engines on an airliner.
Figure 1. Boeing 737NG (left) and MAX (right) nacelles compared. Source: Leeham Graphic from Boeing 737 images.
Boeing releases Executive Summary of FAA plan (Update with FAA comment)
Update: The FAA, responding to a query from LNA about deadlines and milestones, had this to say:
“This is about systemic change, and there’s a lot of work to be done. Boeing must meet milestones and the timing of our decisions will be driven by their ability to do so. Boeing has delivered a roadmap to change its safety culture, and the FAA will make sure Boeing implements the changes they have outlined. We will not approve production increases beyond the current cap until we’re satisfied they’ve followed through on implementing corrective actions and transforming their safety culture. The FAA will make sure Boeing makes lasting change using all of the tools at our disposal. We need to see a strong and unwavering commitment to safety and quality that endures over time.”
May 30, 2024, © Leeham News: Boeing today released an 11-page executive summary of its plan to the Federal Aviation Administration.
A top-level summary is below.
“A significant component of our Safety & Quality Plan are these six key performance indicators (KPIs) focused on safety, quality and production health,” a spokesperson wrote in an email.
- Employee proficiency measures share of employees who are deemed proficient in core skills.
- Notice of Escape (NoE) rework hours measures time performing rework in Boeing’s final assembly facilities to address non-conforming work from its fabrication division and external suppliers.
- Supplier shortages measures shortages per day from Boeing’s fabrication division and external suppliers.
- Rework hours per airplane measures time spent performing rework in Boeing’s final assembly facilities.
- Travelers at factory rollout measures unfinished jobs traveling from Final Assembly
- Ticketing performance measures quality escapes per ticketed airplane prior to delivery.
The all-important cabin. Part 2
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By Bjorn Fehrm
May 30, 2024, © Leeham News: We will do an article series about the all-important cabin and its seating for an airliner. The cabin layout and its comfort are the most important part of an airliner for the passenger. For an airline it’s its face to the customer.
We will look at the different types of cabins used and how these use the airliner’s real estate, what the cost is, and what the weight is. With the weight, we can also predict how different cabins affect the aircraft’s performance.
Summary:
- The configuration of the cabin has a large influence on total seating, weight, and cost.
- The relationships change up to 500%.
FAA, Boeing meet; “They must follow through on corrective actions.” Update 3: Boeing’s issues its statement
Update #3: Boeing released its own press release. Here it is:
Boeing’s plan is based on findings from FAA audits, recommendations from the FAA’s ACSAA panel review and feedback from our employees. This Safety and Quality Plan generally fits into four categories of actions:
- Invest in workforce training
- Simplify plans and processes
- Eliminate defects
- Elevate safety and quality culture
Statement from Dave Calhoun: “After the Jan. 5 accident involving a 737 airplane, we took immediate containment and mitigation actions to ensure airplane safety. We also made the decision to slow production as we took a hard look across every facet of our operations. We listened to our employees, engaged transparently with our regulator, welcomed the findings and recommendations from the FAA’s ACSAA panel review, and invited scrutiny from customers and independent experts. Based on that feedback and oversight, today we presented to the FAA our comprehensive plan to strengthen our safety management, quality system, safety culture and ODA responsibilities.
Many of these actions are underway and our team is committed to executing on each element of the plan. It is through this continuous learning and improvement process that our industry has made commercial aviation the safest mode of transportation. The actions we are taking today will further strengthen that foundation.
We thank Administrator Whitaker and the FAA team for their feedback today and we will continue to work under their oversight as we move forward.”
Statement from Stephanie Pope: “Our plan is built on the feedback of our employees who know best how to design, build and deliver safe, high-quality airplanes. We also incorporated the requirements and feedback from our regulator and welcomed the recommendations from our customers and industry experts.
Based on that feedback, our roadmap includes major investments to expand and enhance workforce training, simplify manufacturing plans and processes, eliminate defects at the source, and elevate our safety and quality culture, along with specific measures to monitor and manage the health of our production system.
We are confident in the plan that we have put forward and are committed to continuously improving. We will work under the FAA’s oversight and uphold our responsibility to the flying public to continue delivering safe, high-quality airplanes. We are also grateful for our customers’ patience as we implement this plan and return to predictable deliveries.”
From: Stephanie Pope
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Update #2: The FAA issued the following press release in the wake of its meeting with Boeing. Boeing is expected to release its own statement today. Additional updates will be made as developments occur.
FAA Continues to Hold Boeing Accountable for Implementing Safety and Production Quality Fixes
Agency meets with company on next steps following submission of their safety roadmap
WASHINGTON – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will continue to hold Boeing accountable after reviewing the company’s roadmap to fix its 
systemic safety and quality-control issues, Administrator Mike Whitaker said Thursday following a three-hour meeting with senior Boeing leaders at FAA headquarters.
In February, Whitaker directed Boeing to develop a comprehensive action plan to set a new standard for safety and how the company does business following the January 5 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX door plug incident. This roadmap is necessary to reset the safety culture at Boeing, as well as address the findings of the FAA’s special audit and the expert review panel report.
The company has developed this proposal over the last 90 days, with detailed input from the FAA throughout the process. Boeing senior leadership met with the FAA this morning to present the roadmap and discuss future implementation. Boeing is also now required to have a mandatory Safety Management System, which will ensure a structured, repeatable, systematic approach to identify hazards and manage risk.
“In the immediate aftermath of January 5, the FAA took unprecedented steps to increase oversight on Boeing. Over the last 90 days, that has meant everything from more safety inspectors in the facilities to halting production expansion. Today, we reviewed Boeing’s roadmap to set a new standard of safety and underscored that they must follow through on corrective actions and effectively transform their safety culture,” Administrator Whitaker said. “On the FAA’s part, we will make sure they do and that their fixes are effective. This does not mark the end of our increased oversight of Boeing and its suppliers, but it sets a new standard of how Boeing does business.”
Whitaker met Thursday morning with Boeing President and CEO David Calhoun and other senior leaders to discuss next steps to ensure effectiveness.
“I made clear once again that we need to see a strong and unwavering commitment to safety, which must always come first,” Whitaker said. “Systemic change isn’t easy but in this case is absolutely necessary, and the work is never really done when it comes to the safety of the flying public – from Boeing, airlines, or the FAA. But we will hold the company accountable every step of the way to make sure these changes happen.”
The FAA communicated with Boeing officials throughout the last 3 months, including 30- and 60-day check-ins, to ensure they clearly understood the agency’s expectations and were making real-time progress.
The agency required Boeing to provide a detailed update on completed actions as well as mid- and long-term actions Boeing will take. These actions include:
- Strengthening its Safety Management System, including employee safety reporting
- Simplifying processes and procedures and clarifying work instructions
- Enhanced supplier oversight
- Enhanced employee training and communication
- Increased internal audits of production system
Additionally, Boeing had to identify the results of completed actions and how it will monitor those and future actions to validate progress and sustain the changes.
To ensure long-term success, the FAA will actively monitor review Boeing’s progress in a variety of ways, including:
- A team of FAA subject matter experts will continually review Boeing’s progress and the effectiveness of the changes in addressing the audit findings and expert panel recommendations
- Senior FAA leaders will meet with Boeing weekly to review their performance metrics, progress, and any challenges they’re facing in implementing the changes
- They also will conduct monthly reviews to gauge Boeing’s progress
The FAA will continue its enhanced oversight of Boeing and its suppliers. This includes:
- More safety inspectors in the Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems facilities
- More conversations with company employees to gauge the effectiveness of changes
- Additional inspections at critical points of the production process and auditing of the production process
- Monitoring quality system metrics to identify any areas of concern
Additional actions the FAA has taken as part of its aggressive oversight of Boeing and its suppliers include:
- Immediately grounded 171 Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in U.S. territory.
- Increased onsite safety inspector presence at Boeing’s facility in Renton, Washington, and Spirit AeroSystems’ facility in Wichita, Kansas.
- Halted production expansion of the Boeing 737 MAX.
- Administrator Whitaker visited to Boeing’s factory floor in Renton, Washington, to see the 737 production line and hear directly from Boeing engineers, mechanics, and others about quality control processes. He has actively encouraged all whistleblower complaints, and the FAA investigates every single one.
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- Concluded an audit of Boeing’s production line that went above and beyond FAA’s standard inspection process. The FAA identified non-compliance issues in Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control. Our audit is complete but it is part of an ongoing investigation, and we cannot release further details.
- The FAA continues to issue airworthiness certificates for every newly produced Boeing 737 MAX.
Original story:
FAA appears poised to grant Boeing extension on safety report; FAA issues denial (Update)
Update #1: The FAA today said it has not granted an extension for Boeing to submit its report. This story will be updated as developments occur.
By the Leeham News Team
May 29, 2024, © Leeham News: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) appears poised to give Boeing a 90 day extension on the 90 days required to come up with an actionable plan to improve safety on its production lines, LNA is told.
Then, according to this information, Boeing will be given three years to implement whatever is finally approved by the FAA.
Boeing CEO David Calhoun is scheduled to deliver the 90-day plan to the FAA tomorrow.
LNA reported on April 18, 45 days into the 90-day mandate, that Boeing would unlikely meet the FAA deadline.
Related article
This week Boeing must deliver on safety–again
By the Leeham News Team
Analysis
May 28, 2024, © Leeham News: Boeing’s FAA-mandated plan to improve its safety culture is due this week.
Following the Jan. 5 accident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 and a year-long safety study commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Boeing was given 90 days to come up with a new plan to improve safety procedures.
Boeing’s been down this path before. Following the 2018/19 crashes of two 737-8 MAXes in which 346 people died, Boeing implemented several safety studies and procedures. Flight 1282 demonstrated a shocking lack of results from the earlier efforts.
The FAA on Feb. 29 gave Boeing 90 days to make a realistic plan for addressing the path forward to an acceptable level of quality. This is an exceptionally tall ask given all that has gone wrong in the recent past. It’s unclear if the FAA will release Boeing’s proposal publicly. But LNA’s reporting team, which includes retired Boeing employees whose duties included safety and production, thinks that whatever plan is put forth to the FAA will all boil down to one point, execution. That’s Boeing’s problem today: Failure to execute its production plan as documented in its operation command media.
Big hurdles for COMAC to become serious challenger to Airbus, Boeing
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By Scott Hamilton
May 27, 2024, © Leeham News: A flurry of orders by China’s Big Three airlines finally began to balance announced deals for the COMAC C-919 mainline jet.
Until the recent orders from Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern, the vast number of the announced transactions were concentrated among Chinese lessors. The imbalance was not a good thing.
Airbus and Boeing prefer speculative orders by lessors amounting to 25% to perhaps 35% of the order book. (Lessors in recent decades often accounted for 40% to 50% of the in-service fleet, but the differences were from sale/leasebacks of orders originally placed by airlines.)
Boeing and Airbus have different views toward lessors. Airbus, especially under then-Chief Commercial Officer John Leahy, viewed lessors as an extension of the Airbus marketing arm. Lessors broadened Airbus’ market penetration, especially during the early years of the A320’s entry into service.
On the other hand, Boeing viewed lessors as a necessary evil, preferring to deal with a select few rather than a large number. Both viewed lessors to some degree as competitors to direct sales.
Before the Big Three orders, COMAC’s tally was around 760+ for the C919. More than 70% of the announced orders were for Chinese lessors. No lessor outside China was a customer and only Indonesia’s Trans Nusa (partly owned by Chinese lessor CALC) was a customer outside China.
Following the Big Three orders, about 46% of the orders are from airlines—a much better mix than before but still overweighted with lessors.
With Airbus’ A320 family sold out into the 2030 decade and Boeing’s MAX production and delivery schedules in disarray, what alternatives do customers have to the Big Two OEMs? COMAC is the most likely, but the challenges are immense.
COMAC’s challenges
COMAC has big challenges ahead if it wants to become a major global player in commercial aviation.
- Gaining credibility for the C919 inside and outside China.
- Economic competitiveness to the A320neo and 737 MAX.
- Ramping up production.
- Global product support.
- Geopolitical concerns.
Bjorn’s Corner: New engine development. Part 9. The role of the Nacelle
By Bjorn Fehrm
May 24, 2024, ©. Leeham News: We do an article series about engine development. The aim is to understand why engine development now has longer timelines than airframe development and carries larger risks of product maturity problems.
To understand why engine development has become a challenging task, we need to understand engine fundamentals and the technologies used for these fundamentals.
In the last Corner, we looked at why Open-Rotor engines have two fan stages, either both rotating in different directions or one rotating followed by a de-swirling stator stage. Now we study the flow field ahead of and around the fans to understand the role of the nacelle and the open rotor spinner.
Figure 1. A graphic showing the different parts of a Pratt & Whitney PW1100G nacelle. Source: Pratt & Whitney.
The all-important cabin. Part 1
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By Bjorn Fehrm
May 23, 2024, © Leeham News: We will do an article series about the all-important cabin and its seating for an airliner. The cabin layout and its comfort are the most important parts of an airliner for the passenger.
Most of the time, the traveler doesn’t know what type of aircraft he is flying on, but he will have a clear understanding of the cabin and whether it meets his expectations.
The cabin is where the airline can expose its branding and set the flight experience for the passenger. It’s thus an area that is updated to new cabin concepts for the fleet more often today than 10 years ago, especially for mainline carriers.
The cabin is also important in evaluating airliners, as the characteristics of the aircraft (fuel consumption, operational costs) are evaluated per seat. OEMs have become experts in maximizing the seating of their aircraft to gain an advantage during an evaluation. Sometimes, in a non-transparent way. We will explain the typical tricks and how to guarantee an apples-to-apples comparison when evaluating airliners.
Summary:
- The cabin and its seats mean different things to a passenger, airline, and evaluation expert.
- We go through the different priorities, and how they affect the end product.