It’s official: United orders 150 firm Boeing jets (100 Max, 50 900ERs)

Press conference Jeff Smisek, CEO United 100 737 Max 9 50 737-900ERs, replaces 757s flown domestically. Jim McNerney, CEO The Boeing Co. Thanks to UA for putting trust in us. Boeing and United go back a long, long… Read More

Farnborough Day 4: wrapping up; big United deal

The Farnborough Air Show for the trade is over. Here are today’s final orders. Airbus: Avolon signs MOU for 15 A320neos. Middle East Airlines 5+5 A320s/A321s. Russia’s UTAir 20 A321s. Synergy Aerospace firms up order for nine Airbus… Read More

Farnborough, Day 3: Even more dull than Day 2

Few little activity today. Orders today Airbus: CIT Aerospace, 10 A330 (five previously undisclosed); China Aircraft Leasing, 28 A320ceo, 8 A321ceo–MOU. Boeing: Avolon (lessors), commitment for 20 737 MAX 8/9 and 10 737-800s. The MAXes are part of… Read More

But what of the runway performance?

Dominic Gates of The Seattle Times has this story in which he has the following observation: Wyse revealed that Boeing, through structural efficiencies, has also beefed up the allowed maximum take-off weights for the three MAX variants. Each… Read More

Future materials: aluminum lithium, standard metals or composities

The Farnborough Air Show isn’t just about orders, though these get all the sex and headlines. While we weren’t at the show, we had a telephone interview with a company called Constellium, previously known as Alcan. Constellium spoke… Read More

Farnborough, Day 2: Dullsville; 737 MAX weights, ranges

Update, 8:30 PDT: If anyone thought Airbus’ John Leahy doesn’t have some orders up his sleeve, get a gander at this from Reuters: Airbus sales chief John Leahy was in typically combative and upbeat form: “The party’s over?…. Read More

Farnborough, Day 1: Orders, Price Calculator and other stuff

McNerney rejects “price war.” A quote from a Financial Times story (see below). He rejected suggestions that a price war had broken out between Airbus and Boeing over the A320 Neo and 737 Max but confirmed the US… Read More

Farnborough underway with CFM press conference

Tweets from Saturday’s CFM press conference: Bernie Baldwin ‏@BernieBaldwin #FARN12 #FIA12 @CFM_engines Part commonality between LEAP-1A and LEAP-1B very little. Jon Ostrower ‏@jonostrower CFM: 737 Max Leap-1B engine core has 10-stage 22:1 pressure ratio in the HPC. 1st… 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