Gates on split tanker buy: over my dead body

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said there will be a split buy on the KC-X tanker program over his dead body. “I’m laying my body down across the tracks,” Aviation Week quotes as saying in this short article…. Read More

Airbus details Watchtower Committee

We previously wrote a story for Commercial Aviation Online about Boeing Capital Corp.’s War Room methodology in tracking the “funding gap” for 2009 deliveries. We posted that story on this website at this link. We followed that CAO… Read More

GE Boss seeks tanker compromise

The head of GE backs a plan to split the acquisition of the KC-X USAF aerial tanker between Northrop Grumman and Boeing, according to this interview done by the Cincinnati Enquirer. GE Aviation will supply the engines on… Read More

Airbus predicts 480 deliveries in 2010

Airbus’ COO-Customers, John Leahy, predicts 480 deliveries in 2010, about the same number as this year, according to this Aviation Week article by Robert Wall.

Boeing takes hard hit on DOD budget

Boeing took a hard hit on the Defense budget announced today by Sec. Robert Gates. The C-17 program will be canceled after the current contract is filled. The CSAR-X helicopter procurement is canceled. The Airborne Laser system based… Read More

Boeing Capital details methodology

Following the annual ISTAT meeting in March, we published a piece about the Boeing view of the so-called funding gap for 2009: the financing shortfall seen by just about everyone except Boeing and Airbus as between $10bn and… Read More

Major shift on split tanker contract

Update, April 3: The New York Times has this long piece on the prospect of a split procurement. Original post: It is a subtle but major shift on the controversial proposal to split the KC-X aerial tanker contract… Read More

Airbus may scrap A400M

Airbus may scrap the troubled A400M program, according to this London Telegraph report of a Der Spiegel interview with Airbus CEO Tom Enders. Peugeot Citroen fired Christian Streiff, who designed the Power8 restructuing program for Airbus but then… Read More

ILFC in perspective

Update, March 26, 2:20PM PDT: Bloomberg News moved this piece in which ILFC’s CEO says he’ll get the lessor out from under AIG’s “cloud.” Original Post: Mega-lessor International Lease Finance Corp. filed its 2009 10K annual report March… Read More

Countdown for ILFC’s 10 A380s

The countdown is underway for the outstanding order of 10 Airbus A380s by mega-lessor International Lease Finance Corp. ILFC was an early customer for the super-jumbo jet and suffered two year delays along with the other customers when… Read More