New UTC CEO throws cold water on PW GTF growth

The new chief executive officer of United Technologies Corp., Gregory Hayes, threw cold water on hopes and dreams of Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary, that the successful small- and medium-sized Geared Turbo Fan will grow into the wide-body… Read More

Assessment of Lessors in Airbus and Boeing backlogs, narrow- vs wide-body

Subscription Required Introduction Nov. 30, 2014: Airlines now lease about 50% of their aircraft under a variety of mechanisms: operating, finance, leveraged and Islamic leases, just to name a few. There are operating leasing, special purpose and “house”… Read More

MTU investors day: views of its engine programs, future airplane timelines; separately, Embraer COO interview

Nov. 30, 2014: MTU Investors Day: MTU is a major participant in engine development and supplies, participating on the GEnx, GTF and GEnx program. It’s also a member of the joint venture in International Aero Engines and it’s… Read More

Mitsubishi rolls out MRJ90

Mitsubishi rolled out its MRJ90 regional jet, the first passenger airliner to be produced in Japan since the YS-11 turbo-prop in 1962. The MRJ90 challenges the Embraer E-175/190 and E2 and the Bombardier CRJ900. The smaller MRJ70 won’t… Read More

Odds and Ends: Airbus to lower A330 rate; Mitsubishi MRJ rollout Saturday; Delta retiring 747s; Enders slams German government; MC-21

MC-21 will claim 10% of world market: So Irkut claims. Here’s a 10 minute video.   Update, 7am PDT Oct. 17: Airbus announced it will lower production rates on the A330ceo from 10 to nine a month in… Read More

Embraer becomes #3 commercial aircraft company on E-Jet families

Free content. Introduction Embraer is now the #3 commercial airplane manufacturer, after Airbus and Boeing and supplanting Bombardier, capturing 50% of the orders and 60% of the deliveries in recent years. We examined the relevancy of the 100-149… Read More

Leeham News launches Premium plan, companion to free content; engineer joins staff

Free content. Leeham News and Comment (LNC) today launched a Premium subscription plan as a companion to free content. LNC has provided news and commentary since February 2008, providing industry-leading information and insightful analysis, principally focuses on Airbus,… Read More

New and Derivative airplanes: Some good, some not; Part 1

First of two parts. Earlier this year, Airbus officials said they will concentrate on improving existing airplanes once the A350 enters service. Boeing followed by saying it would not take any “moonshots” and develop new airplanes, at least… Read More

Assessing the 70-90 seat regional jet sector

Introduction Major orders last week for Bombardier and Mitsubishi and the release of the Airbus Global Market Forecast provide an opportunity to look at market segments that don’t get a lot of attention in the shadow of the… Read More

Odds and Ends: Order bubble, revisited; MRJ lands JAL; MH370

What order bubble, Revisited: We recently asked the question, What order bubble? The orders don’t stop coming. Boeing landed a big fish with a large order from BOC Aviation, bringing net orders to 918–easily on the path to… Read More