China short on re-engine orders, but nearly 400 C919 “commitments”

The Chinese government and airlines have very few orders for the re-engined Airbus A320neo family and Boeing 737 MAX. There are no identified Boeing 737 MAX orders in China and just 19 A320neos. There are 197 Unidentified MAX… Read More

Odds and Ends: SuperJet 100; cell phones on airplanes; 787 real-time monitoring; Crikey

SuperJet 100: This airplane, which is basically the old Dornier 728 jet design, was supposed to be Russia’s leap to western standards. It hasn’t worked out that way, according to this article. Cell Phones on Airplanes: There continues… Read More

Boeing: ExIm needed so we can do R&D, not finance planes; how about dropping stock buybacks instead?

The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that a Boeing exec says the US Export-Import Bank is necessary to help finance Boeing aircraft so free cash flow can go toward R&D rather than financing customer orders. Hmm. We think… Read More

Odds and Ends: The risk on airborne fires; C919 delays; A380 v 747-8I

The Risk of Fire: FlightGlobal has this story about the risk of fires on board (free registration required). The news article is alarming about the risks of lithium-ion batteries, combined with the new composite technology. The page for… Read More

Right-to-Work, Creepy and Right-to-Worse in Washington State

No column we’ve written has gotten more attention outside the blogosphere than the one in which we concluded that if Washington State is to truly become competitive with the South, it needs to become a Right-to-Work state. Gov…. Read More

Airbus adds to information about A330/A350 “Lite”

Airbus provided some answers to some (but not all) of our additional questions posed in our post a week ago about the A330 and A350 “Lite” versions. We noted that Airbus had provided Direct Operating Cost (DOC) comparisons… Read More

C919 program in trouble

COMAC’s bid to develop a 150-200 passenger jet is in trouble. According to this report, CFM doesn’t plan to proceed with an assembly line within China for the LEAP-1C that will power the C919. Concerns over intellectual property… Read More

Mid-size, Twin-Aisle forecasts: the changing numbers; more Odds and Ends

MId-Size, Twin-Aisle Forecasts: The Blog by Javier has an interesting post about the changing mix in twin-aisle, mid-size aircraft from the Boeing Current Market Outlook over the years. The author works for Airbus, but his opinions and his… Read More

Bombardier CSeries first flight target: still in “coming weeks”

Bombardier announced its second quarter financial results today and repeated in its press release the first flight of its CSeries will be in “the coming weeks.” News articles are here and here. An earnings call is at 10… Read More

A380 has “Lite” versions, too

The announcement by Airbus that it will offer Lite versions of the A330 and A350 families caused a much larger stir than we would have thought. As we previously noted, Boeing will offer a Lite version of the… Read More