News
Boeing's next airplane will eventually come; what will it be?
9+ hour, 24+ min ago (186+ words) Ortberg became CEO of The Boeing Co. on Aug. 8, 2024. One of his first decisions was to kill the research and development of a concept called the X-66 A, the moniker for a Transonic Truss Brace Wing (TTBW) single-aisle airliner that could…...
Reader Comments Open Forum, week of April 6
3+ day, 11+ hour ago (722+ words) Maintain civility and follow Reader Comment rules. A new Open Forum will be posted weekly. "Category: Leeham News and Analysis "B747 freighters struggle as fuel costs soar" "Analysis from Rotate highlights how yield increases and fuel surcharges are partly offsetting the…...
Boeing's 30-year march to its next new airplane
3+ day, 9+ hour ago (1012+ words) Open to All Readers Boeing announced its 787 program in December 2003, with a formal launch the following spring. The entry-into-service goal for the 787 was May 2008. Boeing planned to design a replacement for the aging 737 platform after the 787 entered service. A new…...
Bjorn's Corner: Blended Wing Body Airliners. Part 4
6+ day, 9+ hour ago (684+ words) In the third article last week, we saw that the large wing surface area of a Blended Wing Body does not come from cruise-phase requirements; it comes from the lift needed in the landing phase, where BWBs lack flaps to…...
Boeing, once the king of freighters, falls behind Airbus going forward
1+ week, 9+ hour ago (173+ words) By Scott Hamilton and Bjorn Fehrm Figure 1. The backlog of new generation freighter orders gives Airbus a 60% market share. Sources: Airbus, Boeing. Figure 2. Boeing dominated the jet freighter market from the 1960s. The recent, old generation freighter market was still overwhelmingly…...
Who has authority to close US airspace-DOD, DHS or the FAA?
1+ week, 1+ day ago (1196+ words) Figure 2. Fort Hancock TFR #FDC 6/1113 courtesy tfr. faa. gov. Figure 3. Screenshot of El Paso TFR #FDC 6/2233 taken prior to deletion from tfr. faa. gov. Reporting on the first airspace closure began with local news site El Paso Matters, which noted…...
Who Controls the Movement of the Aircraft?
1+ week, 2+ day ago (468+ words) By R. Michael Baiada Special to Leeham News So said Bryan Bedford, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, during an appearance at the Washington Aero Club, on Jan 22. Bedford believes telling airlines/users how to operate their aircraft is a…...
Boeing's Starliner history shows safety, quality concerns exist systemically across the company
1+ week, 3+ day ago (295+ words) Editor's Note: The National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) on Feb. 19 released its investigative report of the failures in 2024 of the Boeing Starliner space vehicle. Defects in the Starliner resulted in its crew being housed in the International Space Station…...
Fuel prices up sharply, but not sustained at record levels-yet
1+ week, 5+ day ago (219+ words) By Scott Hamilton and Karl Sinclair Yet, as sharply as prices spiked, they are not yet a record relative to inflation-adjusted prices since the 1973-1974 OPEC-inspired oil embargo and other regional or global events, an analysis by LNA shows. West Texas…...
The state of alternative propulsion aircraft? Part 9.
2+ week, 8+ hour ago (128+ words) Hydrogen can be processed chemically in a fuel cell to produce electrical power, which is then coupled to an electrical propulsion system, such as in hybrids or battery-electric aircraft. The advantage is that the system eliminates inefficient batteries that kill…...