No immediate effect from WTO ruling

Update, Sept. 6: There is a report out of Germany that the WTO found state loans to Airbus to be acceptable. The conflicting information and enigma goes on. Update, 2:00pm: The New York Times says 70% of the… Read More

Former defense official favors split tanker buy

George Talbot of The Mobile Press-Register has an article about John Lehman, a former defense official in the Reagan administration, favoring a split buy for the KC-X program.

USAF Cadets work on tanker fuel burn reduction, and other things

US Air Force Cadets are designing wing refinements for the aging fleet of Boeing KC-135R tankers to improve fuel efficiency by 8%, reports CleanTechnica.com. Why a bunch of cadets? Perhaps because the US Air Force Academy in Colorado… Read More

EADS Earnings Preview

EADS, parent of Airbus, announces its 2Q09-1H09 earnings July 28. Here are some topics that ought to be covered and questions analysts and reporters should ask:

WTO Countdown

It looks like the long-awaited, and long-overdue decisions on the complaints between the US and Europe over “illegal” subsidies to Airbus and Boeing may finally be about to be issued. The London Times reports that a decision is… Read More

And now a word on the tanker

Let’s take a diversion from Boeing’s Soap Opera over the 787 Line 2 and will-they-stay-or-will-they-go. CNBC has a long piece plus several video clips with Ralph Crosby, the CEO of EADS North America, on the KC-X tanker issue…. Read More

Random Thoughts, July 6

Here is another in our occasional stream of random thoughts. Bill Virgin and Manufacturing Alert Bill Virgin, a former columnist with The Seattle PI, was zapped when the print edition shut down and it became a web-only publication…. Read More

First report on AF447

This BBC story is a good one on the first French analysis of the crash of Air France 447. Most surprising is that the investigators believe the A330-200 was intact when it hit the water in what sounds… Read More

Customers to watch on production trends

Here is a piece we did for Commercial Aviation Online: The debate continues whether production rates on the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families should be reduced. Both manufacturers are in a tug-of-war with their supply chain over… Read More

Random Thoughts/Update, Good bye Line 2

Update, 9:20 AM: Flightblogger just posted this: Boeing to buy Vought, Line 2 to go there. This is step one in the allusion below to big news coming out of Boeing that affects Puget Sound. Original Post: ANA… Read More