Tanker face off at Farnborough

Boeing and EADS held tanker briefings this week–Monday for Boeing, Tuesday for EADS.

Boeing offered up top program officials while EADS offered up two American crewmen from its test flight program, a pilot and a boom operator. Boeing’s briefing was a standard presentation followed by Q&A; most of the briefing was taken up by the formal presentation.

EADS was an interactive briefing with reporters after a few brief remarks, with nearly the entire session devoted to Q&A.

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Farnborough/Tuesday

Updated, Wednesday 05:00 BST

We’ve updated this posting after all the text with orders completed through Day 2,

Original Post:

Tuesday will be another day where orders are expected to be announced. See our Monday posting, updated at 4pm for this information.

Pratt & Whitney

We will be attending a breakfast hosted by Pratt & Whitney; perhaps we can get some information about the issues Qatar reports in connection with its potential CSeries order. Or perhaps not. OEMs are loath to talk about customers. But we shall see.

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Farnborough/Monday

Updates throughout the post, 415PM BST.

Here is a look ahead for Monday at the Farnborough Air Show and what might be expected for news and orders in the coming week. We’ll update this post at the end of the day.

Airbus

John Leahy on Saturday predicted at least 130 orders will be announced this week. Boeing thinks that if Leahy is predicting 130, he’s got a lot more up his sleeve. Leahy also predicted orders from leasing companies, signaling improving economies. See individual companies below.

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Farnborough/Sunday-Boeing

The Boeing 787 arrived today at the Farnborough Air Show, a day before the event actually begins.

The plane, #3–the so-called “interior airplane” equipped with an interior that is more suitable for testing operations than representative of the actual 787 customer interior–arrived at 9 am UK time, after a 9 hour flight from Paine Field at Everett (WA). At least 100 people lined Farnborough Road adjacent the airport with binoculars and telephoto cameras to watch the landing.

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Farnborough/Sunday-EADS

We’re at the Farnborough Air Show and on Saturday attended the day-long EADS media briefings. We filed reports exclusively for KIRO TV (CBS) in Seattle. These stories are:

  • Airbus predicts 130+ orders at the air show;
  • Leahy says Airbus has to get current programs right before proceding with decision whether to re-engine the A320 family; decision due in 4th quarter;
  • Boeing Defense facing growing competition from EADS;
  • EADS sees “fair and open” competition for KC-X;
  • EADS chief raps “unfair” WTO.

These stories are below the jump.

Separately, word leaked from Farnborough that Boeing will get an order fo 20 777s, but this is a swap from the failing DAE Capital of Dubai. Here is this story.

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New 787 delay possible

In a conference call this morning, Scott Fancher, the program head for the Boeing 787, announced the first deliveries to All Nippon Airways might slip to after the first of the year.

Fancher emphasized that the schedule still calls for delivery by year-end, but Boeing is raising a “cautionary” note.

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French union understands “Buy American” on tanker

Update, July 19: Airbus says CGT is fourth Union out of five for Airbus in France, representing about 10 percent of Airbus employees in France.

Update, July 16: We received this from CGT:  the union severed ties in 1978.Christian and Jean-Jacques were amused and laughed about the Airbus response.

Original Post:

Only a few days after EADS and Boeing (and the long-shot bid from US Aerospace-Antonov) submitted their bids for the $35bn KC-X contract to supply tankers to the US Air Force, a French union at Airbus declined to endorse the EADS bid.

The Federation des Travailleurs de la Metallurgie, or CGT, holds the position that the French military should buy its equipment from French industry and to be consistent with this position, told us that it understands the “Buy American” approach of Boeing supporters.

Airbus and EADS dismissed the CGT’s view as that held by a minority union concerned about outsourcing and off-shore jobs.

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Questioning the effect of the WTO

We’re not the only ones questioning the effect of the recent WTO ruling against Airbus and its illegal subsidies.

A respected business writer from The Seattle Times has weighed in with this opinion piece.

We’ve long been cynical of the WTO and the Airbus/Boeing complaints as little more than political talking points. We’ve noted before the ineffectual rulings that Canada and Brazil illegally subsidized the Bombardier CRJ and Embraer EMB-jets, and nobody imposed sanctions.

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Boeing offers KC-767 to USAF

It’s now official: Boeing submitted a bid for the KC-X competition, offering the KC-767 NewGen tanker.

Boeing did not schedule a press conference, so the initial press release detailing its bid is below the jump, with our reporting following the PR.

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777 decision may come before 737: JP Morgan

Joe Nadol, the aerospace analyst at JP Morgan, this week opined that Boeing may make a decision on the 777’s future before that of the 737.
Here’s what he has to say: