Bjorn’s Corner: Aeronautical greats

By Bjorn Fehrm September02, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: One of our aeronautical greats, Joe Sutter, left us this week. He’s one of the characters in aeronautics that I admire for his capability to find what is the right thing… Read More

Boeing’s Joe Sutter, father of 747, dies at 95

Aug. 30, 2016: Boeing and aviation legend Joe Sutter died at age 95. The father of the 747, and instrumental in the development of the 727 and 737, Sutter remained active in Boeing well into his 90s. Boeing… Read More

Final flight for first Boeing 727

The first Boeing 727-100, sold to United Airlines (N7001U) made its first flight in 25 years March 2, 2016, from Paine Field in Everett (WA) to Boeing Field in Seattle. The 12 minute flight was also the airplane’s… Read More

World’s dud airliners

While we’re in the slow-news Holidays, we thought we’d have some irreverent fun. There have been many attempts at building airliners. There are the obvious successes but there have been many, many failures. Starting with the end of… Read More

Odds and Ends: 787 donation; Alenia sues Bombardier over CSeries; 2016 777 delivery slots opening up

787 donation: The Boeing Co. handed over 787 test airplane #3 (ZA003) to the Museum of Flight Saturday in an elaborate ceremony marking an unprecedented donation of a modern airliner to an aviation museum. To be sure, the… Read More

Farborough Air Show, July 16: Snipe hunts in an era of model improvements

Upate, 5:30am PDT: The Wall Street Journal has an article that is more or less on point to the theme of this post. It doesn’t matter what the competition does, it’s always inferior–until you do it yourself. The… Read More

No more moonshots stifles innovation

Boeing CEO said there will be no more “moonshots” at Boeing when it comes to future airplane development. Airbus says it will focus on derivatives rather than new airplanes. After the program debacles of the Airbus A400M and… Read More