Five reasons for Airbus to proceed with the A320 NEO

Richard Aboulafia, aerospace consultant with The Teal Group, published his monthly two-page newsletter in which he gives five reasons why Airbus should proceed with the A320 New Engine Option (NEO). The newsletter may be downloaded here. We disagree… Read More

Boeing: 787 fire caused by FOD, design changes coming, no word on delay

Boeing issued this press release at 3pm PST Nov. 24: Boeing Initiates Changes to 787 Power Panel, Updates to Software EVERETT, Wash., Nov. 24, 2010 – Boeing [NYSE: BA] is developing minor design changes to power distribution panels… Read More

Snapshot: EADS press conference, mainly on Tanker and USAF faux pas

We attended a press conference today in Washington (DC) with Sean O’Keefe, CEO of EADS North America, that covered a variety of issues but focused mainly on the KC-X tanker competition and most particularly the news last week… Read More

How many ways can the USAF screw up KC-X?

Defense News has this story about the USAF sending Boeing and EADS proprietary information about each company’s bids to the other by mistake. How else can the government screw this competition up? If you read the post carefully,… Read More

54 failures on QF A380

The Associated Press, via this story in The Seattle Times, details the in-flight emergency of the Qantas A380 after the No. 2 engine suffered an uncontained failure. The account is very dramatic, particularly when the as-yet untold story… Read More

737RE? Forgettaboutit

In what is, perhaps, the clearest signal Boeing isn’t going to re-engine the 737, and that it will take on the Airbus A320NEO head-on with an upgraded model, take a look at the last line of the AerCap… Read More

Boeing repositions two 787s, probe continues

Update, Nov. 17, 4:30PM PST: This article from Europe talks about efforts by Safran group to acquire Zodiac, which is a supplier on the Boeing 787. The article refers to possible interest (or lack of it, actually) by… Read More

Tanker shortage cancels Red Flag exercise

Update, Nov. 17: EADS now is predicting the tanker contract award will slip to next year. This is entirely consistent with what we have been hearing (first quarter) and what we understand Boeing believes as well. Original Post:… Read More

Updates on Airbus, Boeing events

Aviation Week has this long and detailed story about the Airbus A380/Qantas engine failure. Qantas A380s remain grounded indefinitely. KING 5 (NBC, Seattle) has this account of the Boeing 787 fire. KIRO TV (CBS, Seattle) has this item… Read More

Airbus has its challenges, too

While headlines have understandably been focused on Boeing this week, Airbus has its problems, too. The Qantas A380 Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine uncontained failure continues to generate news stories. The QF 32 flight details still are emerging, and… Read More