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”  

United’s 787s delayed, but nobody is saying why

There appears to be a lot of focus on delays in delivering the next Boeing 787s to United Airlines–which has received one–but neither Boeing or United is saying what’s behind the delays. (Update, Dec. 1: one of the… Read More

Odds and Ends: China’s Wings; B-17; Airbus Market Forecast

We just finished a book about China National Aviation Corp. (CNAC). It’s a long book, 498 pages. it’s meticulously footnoted. The Bibliography is 100 of the 498 pages. We found the book a bit tedious for all the… 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

Odds and Ends: Judge smacks down American; ailing Hong Kong Airlines

We were traveling Wednesday so we’re a little behind on this: American Airlines: The judge overseeing American’s bankruptcy denied a request to void labor contracts, particularly the pilot contract. This is a huge blow to management–and would seem… Read More

It’s official–new A350 delay

EADS, parent of Airbus, reported that there will be a three month delay for the A350 EIS due to wing drilling issues. We reported on July 6 we expected a delay of 5-6 months and earlier this week… Read More

Post-Farnborough thoughts: why so few orders, PR overkill and more

The Farnborough Air Show is over. Here are our thoughts: For all the pre-show buzz about expected orders, with names and quantities identified, this show was a bust. Airbus was said to be shooting for 250-300 orders; it… Read More

The mid-size, twin-aisle battle

The mid-size twin-aisle battle While a plethora of new entrants are nipping at the heels of Airbus and Boeing in the single-aisle market, the battle in the twin-aisle segment is strictly between the two behemoths. The two OEMs… Read More

Boeing’s twin-aisle product strategy provides better segment coverage than Airbus

Boeing’s airplane strategy has shifted its focus to twin-aisle aircraft with the decision to proceed with the 737 MAX, says Nicole Piasecki, vice president of Business Development & Strategic Integration for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. BCA has some critical… Read More

Odds and Ends: MAX EIS dates; McNerney on business climate; A320 Tianjin plant only breaks even

MAX EIS dates: Aviation Week has this story that lists the planned MAX EIS dates: 737-8, 2017 (we previously reported 4Q2017); 737-9 in 2018 and 737-7 in 2019. AvWeek also reported the bypass ratio for the LEAP-1B is… Read More