Odds and Ends: To fly or not to fly–CSeries; Qatar’s A350s; A320 production rates

CSeries: Bombardier’s sales chief says the CSeries might fly earlier than the six month delay announced on the earnings call. See this Reuters report from China’s Zhuhai Air Show. Qatar’s A350: Flight Global’s David Kaminski-Morrow reports Qatar switched… Read More

EADS announces earnings: depressed by A380 wing costs, a US customer Ch 11 and political issues

Not a good day for EADS and Airbus: Reuters: Spat with Germany affects cash position BBC: Hawker Beechcraft bankruptcy costs Airbus Washington Post: A380 wing fix costs EADS; A350 program “challenging”  

Boeing starts 777 build at 8.3/mo rate

777 Build Rate: Even as Airbus opened its A350 Final Assembly Line in Toulouse today, Boeing announced it has now gone to rate 8.3/mo on the rival 777. (One must wonder if the timing of the announcement is… Read More

A350 FAL opens today; 787-10 v A350-900; movement on A350-1000

The Final Assembly Line of the Airbus A350 opens tomorrow and there are several stories of note coinciding with this event: High Stakes for Getting New Jet to Market Airbus May Hike A350-1000 output Launch of 787-10 has… Read More

Odds and Ends: Germans withhold Loans on A350; CSeries; SPEEA update

A350 Loans: The German government is withholding repayable loans (aka launch aid) for the Airbus A350 in another one of its regular snits over work share. Airbus ought to forget these loans and either self-fund or go to… Read More

Odds and Ends: A350 launch aid; strike at Bombardier biz jets; Embraer demand off; EADS-BAE

A350 Launch Aid: The US Trade Rep says it has the documents outlining $4.5bn in launch aid for the Airbus A350, according to a Reuters story. Predictably, Boeing and the USTR have gone in to overdrive. The A350… Read More

Air France A350 contract stalled; here’s the way forward

Bloomberg News has this report that the Air France-KLM talks for 25 Airbus A350s remain stalled over the long-running dispute between the company and Rolls-Royce over AF’s desire to overhaul the Trent XWB engines. The Air France-KLM group… Read More

Odds and Ends: Why aircraft are late; catching up to Boeing

Why Aircraft Are Late: Boeing 747-8, 787, Airbus A380, A400M, A350, Mitsubishi MRJ, Comac ARJ-21, Sukhoi Superjet and probably Comac C919, Bombardier CSeries and Irkut MS-21–all late. It’s the new normal. Ernie Arvai at AirInsight takes a look… Read More

There is still a place for airframe mock-ups

In today’s computer world and fancy 3D programs, it turns out there is still a place for airframe mock-ups to cross-check computer programming and to actually be sure the human can reach the nooks and crannies in an… Read More

Odds and Ends: Dire outlook for airlines; 787 Deliveries; American-USAirways

Dire Outlook: This article is nothing to cheer about. The author predicts a low growth in global GDP, and this is what Airbus and Boeing rely upon for their growth and production forecasts. It says airlines are emitting… Read More