EADS’ ex-lobbyist quits McCain campaign

It generated a lot of headlines at the time of the USAF aerial tanker contract award to Northrop Grumman when it was revealed that a campaign adviser to Republican presidential candidate US Sen. John McCain one time had… Read More

Boeing loses another defense contract

Make it four. That’s the number of defense contracts Boeing has lost this year. This AP story outlines them. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but Boeing certainly hasn’t done very well since protesting the first loss, that of the… Read More

Government R&D for A350 wing

The Financial Times reported today (May 15) that the UK government will help fund the research and development for the composite wing for the Airbus A350. An excerpt: Aerospace groups are joining forces with the government and regional… Read More

UA-US, DL-NW, Boeing-Airbus

Richard Aboulafia, Addison Schonland and Scott Hamilton discuss the winners (or not) between Airbus ands Boeing in the potential tie-up between United Airlines and US Airways and Delta and Northwest in this 15 minute podcast by AirInsight. (Subscription… Read More

EADS profits on increased production

EADS, parent of Airbus, reported a stronger-than-expected profit on higher production at its principal subsidiary. The details may be found in this AP story. A couple of take-aways: This better performance, despite the worries over the dollar-Euro exchange… Read More

Jumping the gun, perhaps?

Northrop Grumman announced the grounding breaking for its KC-45A tanker even though the Government Accountability Office hasn’t rendered its decision on the Boeing protest of the tanker contract award by the USAF to Northrop. This strikes us as… Read More

Checking jobs at Northrop? Check Boeing, too

US Sens. Patty Murray (D-Boeing) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) have asked the White House to investigate the claim by Northrop Grumman that 48,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created with the KC-30 program. The KC-30 will be… Read More

ILFC 787s face 27+ month delay for all 74 orders

Leasing giant International Lease Finance Corp. revealed today in a federal filing that its entire order of Boeing 787s will be delayed “an average in excess of 27 months per aircraft and span across ILFC’s entire order.” The… Read More

Dueling tanker press releases

In a rare confluence of timing, Boeing and Northrop Grumman issued press releases on the same topic at about the same time. Here they are, in their entirety; our commentary follows after the Northrop release: Boeing KC-767 Tanker:… Read More

Leeham website updated wk/May 6

Our Corporate website has been updated with commentary and links to news articles. This week we put some perspective into the recent stories about potentially new A380 delays and the reports of new delays for the Boeing 787…. Read More