Bjorn’s Corner: Geared turbofans

January 13, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: The time has come to go through the reasons why some turbofan engines are designed with a gearbox between the fan and the low pressure shaft. The principle design is shown in… Read More

The Boom SST engine problem, Part 2

By Bjorn Fehrm Subscription required Introduction December 01, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: Boom Technology and Virgin Atlantic plan to offer supersonic business class passenger traffic over the Atlantic. We covered the number of challenges that this poses in recent… Read More

Airbus results depressed from continuing delivery delays

Oct. 26, 2016: Airbus Group reported that its nine months financial results continue to be depressed by delivery delays in the A320neo and A350-900 programs. The Group reported revenues of €43bn for the period and charges that lowered profits…. Read More

Airline assets and lessor assets: Bombardier and Embraer

Subscription Required Part 2. Part 1 may be found here. Introduction Bombardier invented the regional jet. Despite some sales these days, the CRJ was eclipsed by the Embraer J-Jet. Bombardier photo. Oct. 10, 2016, © Leeham Co.: Regional… Read More

Airline assets and lessor assets

Subscription required Introduction Part 1: The Big Two OEMs Oct. 3, 2016, © Leeham Co.: There are airline assets and there are leasing assets. That’s a good airplane but it’s not a good leasing asset. These are the… Read More

Airbus, Boeing cost-cutting

Sept. 20, 2016: Airbus is planning cost-cutting measures to offset program write-offs and delivery delays, according to The Financial Times. One of these delays involves the well-publicized problems with the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbo Fan engine on… Read More

44% supplier shortfall for GTF now showing impact

Sept. 6, 2016, © Leeham Co.: It was a stunning admission, one that produced the biggest headlines at the United Technologies media days in June: 44% of the suppliers on Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbo Fan engine weren’t… Read More

Embraer books 1H2016 loss and lowers guidance

By Bjorn Fehrm August09, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: Embraer presented its second quarter and first half 2016 results on July 29, posting a loss and lowering guidance for the year. The company is in a bridge period on its… Read More

Irkut MC-21-300 analysis, Part 3

By Bjorn Fehrm Subscription required. Introduction August04, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: With the classification of the Irkut MC-21-300 done in terms of its size segment (it’s close to the Boeing 737 MAX 9 in size) and the key data… Read More

Flying the Irkut MC-21 simulator

By Bjorn Fehrm 21July 2016, ©. Leeham Co:Russia’s United Aircraft Irkut division had the good taste to bring a fully functional MC-21 simulator to Farnborough Air Show. I managed to get an hour of take-offs and landings during… Read More