Muilenburg’s challenges as Boeing CEO

Subscription Required. Now open to all readers Introduction Jan. 27, 2015: Dennis Muilenburg has been the No. 2 at The Boeing Co. for a little more than a year. He was named vice chairman, president and COO in… Read More

First flight for Boeing’s KC-46A tanker program launched Sunday

Dec. 28, 2014: Boeing launched the first flight of its KC-46A tanker program on Sunday. The flight, with a 767-2C and not a tanker-configured KC-46A, was with what’s known as EMD 1. EMD stands for Engineering, Manufacturing and… Read More

Looking ahead in 2015 in commercial aviation

Here’s a visualization of events to look for in commercial aviation in 2015.  

Odds and Ends: Qatar gets first A350-900; WTO Airbus-Boeing fight, continued; A380, continued; 767-2C first flight; our Holiday schedule

Dec. 21, 2014 Here’s a piece we did for CNN.com on the Year Ahead in Aviation for 2015. Qatar gets first A350-900: Unless U-Turn Al U-Turns again, Qatar Airways will take delivery of the world’s first Airbus A350-900… Read More

Boom times leads to looming cash flow shortfall across OEMs

Subscription Required. Introduction Dec. 16, 2014: There have been record aircraft orders year after year, swelling the backlogs of Airbus and Boeing to seven years on some product lines, Bombardier’s CSeries is sold out through 2016, Embraer has… Read More

Boeing and Washington State; and: Congressional meddling may threaten KC-46A

The Washington State Legislature may consider implementing a mechanism to track the benefits of the Boeing 777X tax incentives granted last year, according to the on-line news service Crosscut. Boeing opposes the measure, according to the report.

USAF moves up AF One replacement, reports Inside Defense

Dec. 7, 2014: The US Air Force is moving up the the Presidential Aircraft Replacement program to seek Requests for Proposals next year, according to the specialty newsletter Inside Defense. An airframe purchase will occur in 2016, according… Read More

Odds and Ends: Korean tanker competition sounds like US rerun; About that blister on the top of airliners; JetBlue explains bags, seats

Korean tanker competition: South Korean is holding a competition for an aerial refueling tanker and in many respects, it sounds like a rerun of the USAF competition between Airbus and Boeing. In the US contest, major debates happened… Read More

Odds and Ends: JetBlue defers A320s; Delta’s A350 order; Another KC-46A delay?

JetBlue defers A320s: This US airline announced at its investors’ day that it is deferring Airbus A320s from this decade into next. JP Morgan had this commentary November 19: JetBlue…announced a deferral of 18 A320-family aircraft from 2016-18… Read More

Embraer’s big bet on its largest airplane yet

Introduction Embraer is days away from the roll-out of its biggest airplane project yet and one that has the potential to make its biggest inroads yet into the global defense market: the KC-390. The airplane, with a fuselage… Read More