Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
GE’s LEAP engines shipped today should match durability of the venerable CFM56, company says
By Scott Hamilton
May 27, 2026, © Leeham News: GE Aerospace says that CFM International LEAP engines being shipped now will match the durability of the venerable CFM-56.
This was a goal promised when the LEAP first went on sale, competing with the Pratt & Whitney GTF in 2010. PW also promised durability comparable to that of the International Aero Engines V2500. The CFM56 powers the Boeing 737NG exclusively and shares power with the V2500 on the Airbus A320ceo. The LEAP-1A shares power with the GTF on the A320neo. The LEAP-1B exclusively powers the 737 MAX. The GTF entered service in December 2015, followed by the LEAP-1A shortly thereafter. The LEAP-1B entered service in May 2017.
Both engines fell well short of the guaranteed on-wing time.
GE Aerospace’s testing regimen to improve durability for its major engine programs. Credit: GE Aerospace.
Poorer durability than expected for both engines means parts failed or wore out more quickly than expected. Degraded parts also increased fuel consumption. Higher maintenance costs, in some cases significantly higher, offset double-digit fuel consumption savings each engine achieved. PW’s problems exploded into an industry-wide operating crisis as upwards of 700 A320neos, scores of Airbus A220s, and a handful of Embraer E195-E2 were grounded (aircraft on ground, or AOG) awaiting engine repairs or replacements.
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CFM’s joint venture partners, GE and Safran, faced premature engine removals and a smattering of AOGs.
GE’s foam engine wash aims to restore efficiency, improve fuel burn and durability
GE Aerospace developed a foam engine wash that is more efficient and thorough than the standard all-water wash used to clean the engine, restore efficiency, and reduce fuel consumption. Credit: GE Aerospace.
By Scott Hamilton
May 21, 2026, © Leeham News: Jet engines degrade in normal operating conditions compared with new deliveries.
Challenging environments, like the harsh Middle East, accelerate the degradation of parts and, with this, fuel efficiency. In the Middle East, fine dust particles are especially hard on engines.
But degradation also occurs in “normal” environments, as well as super-cold ones.
Volcanic ash can cause catastrophic failure. Note the 1982 incident in which a British Airways Boeing 747 with Rolls-Royce engines flew unknowingly at night into a high-altitude ash cloud. All four engines shut down due to ash ingestion and significant damage. The crew was finally able to restart the engines as the jumbo jet glided toward what seemed like a certain water ditching. The plane made a safe emergency landing.
Dust doesn’t have remotely the same effect. Its degradation to the engine occurs over time.
GE Aerospace has a new foam engine power wash that cleanses the engine. For an Airbus A320neo with a CFM LEAP-1A engine, the wash takes about four hours. Typical intervals for an active maintenance program are about every 250-500 cycles. Widebody engines take longer, about eight hours.
The foam wash replaces a water washing process that’s been around for decades. Pratt & Whitney introduced its water wash system in the early 1980s to clean JT8D engines used by Muse Air Corp’s McDonnell Douglas DC-8-50s and MD-80s.
GE’s foam system is currently used on only five commercial airliner engines: the CF34, LEAP, GE90, GEnx, and the Engine Alliance GP7200 made by GE and PW. The science may be applied to smaller engines used on business jets.
Commercial Engine OEM: Not for the faint of heart. Or the cash-poor.
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By Karl Sinclair
Updated with March 20, 2026, oil prices.
March 23, 2026, © Leeham News: Airlines and lessors around the world are clamouring for their aircraft, which have been ordered and scheduled for delivery years in advance.
As the Trump Administration begins to cobble together an economic plan to combat rising oil prices due to the Iran war, this is especially true in the narrow-body segment, where fuel-efficient aircraft are badly needed.
The IATA fuel price monitor has jet fuel selling at $197/bbl for the week ending March 20, 2026, which applies more pressure on OEMs to deliver aircraft to customers. This is up from a low of $93 a barrel just five weeks prior.
Source: IATA.
While both aircraft manufacturing behemoths, Airbus (AB) and Boeing (BA), struggled to meet their respective master production schedules, one common thread emerges that affects both in the same manner:
Engine makers cannot keep up, even in the best of times.
Across the globe, all the engine producers face their own supply-chain and technology issues. It does not matter if the producer is North American-based, European, or Asian.
Powerplants are a tricky proposition, even for the most established engine-maker.
This begs the question:
Why doesn’t someone new enter the market and pick up the slack in production? If not someone new, how about a current aviation industry corporation, with an installed engineering base, who can invest and transition into commercial engines?
GE 2026 Outlook: From LEAP Momentum to 777X Certification and the Rise of RISE
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By Chris Sloan, Tom Batchelor and Charlotte Bailey
January 22, 2026, © Leeham News: After a strong 2025 marked by rising output, expanding services, and improving execution, GE Aerospace enters 2026 with momentum building across four major programs that define its near- and long-term outlook: the GE9X and the long-delayed Boeing 777X as certification advances toward a 2027 entry into service; the LEAP program as record production levels combine with durability improvements that are beginning to take hold; the widebody GEnx franchise steadily growing its installed base and aftermarket contribution; and the RISE Open Fan as a high-risk, high-reward investment in next-generation single-aisle propulsion.
Throughout the year, strengthening supply-chain performance, rising engine deliveries, and robust services growth translated into improved financial results, reinforcing confidence that GE Aerospace’s operational recovery is gaining traction. Further detail was revealed when the company reported full-year 2025 earnings on Jan. 22. The company will test whether this momentum can be sustained—converting higher volumes, maturing reliability initiatives, and disciplined investment in future technologies into durable earnings growth, even as certification timelines stretch and the industry remains cautious about launching the next clean-sheet aircraft.
GE Aerospace’s latest engine application. Credit: GE.
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Blade-out design for CFM’s RISE; 2nd A320 line in Mobile
By Scott Hamilton
Arjan Hageman. Credit: GE Aerospace.
Oct. 22, 2025, © Leeham News: The Open Rotor engine and its evolution, the Open Fan, promise dramatically lower fuel consumption compared with evolutions of the ducted fan engine. The Open Rotor has counter-rotating fans, while the Open Fan has a single rotating fan with stators that do not rotate behind it, which can be adjusted or pivoted for maximum efficiency.
Open Rotor testing in the 1980s proved noisy, offered slower cruising speeds than conventional jet engines, and caused vibration that transferred to the vertical tails of the Boeing 727 and McDonnell Douglas MD-80 test beds. Questions about maintenance and concerns over blade failure were paramount.
Developers of the Open Fan, GE Aerospace, and Safran, under the CFM International brand, say objections to the Open Rotor design have been overcome. The noise is lower than that of the CFM LEAP engine, according to testing. The cruising speed is now projected to be comparable to today’s Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAXes. Maintenance durability, reliability, and dust ingestion testing aims to overcome entry-in-service maintenance shortcomings of the LEAP and competing Pratt & Whitney GTF engines.
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However, industry and airline officials LNA talks to aren’t yet convinced that blade out concerns have been resolved.
“We’re designing for blade-outs,” GE’s Arjan Hageman, vice president for the future of flight at GE, said in an interview with LNA earlier this month.
Trump tariffs beginning to hurt US aerospace companies; EU competitors to benefit
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By Scott Hamilton and Karl Sinclair
Sept. 1, 2025, © Leeham News: New policies by President Donald Trump in the first six months of his second administration in trade, with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) are causing a what may become a significant shift in defense spending that will benefit European companies.
The added business could strengthen those that also participate in commercial aerospace, to the detriment of US companies, notably Airbus.
US companies that for decades were the major suppliers to allies are already beginning to see European countries redirect spending to EU firms. Following Trump’s imposition of high tariffs on certain EU countries and others on Aug. 1, US defense companies have been hurt. India canceled deliveries of Boeing 737-based P-8A Poseidons.
Figure 1. Boeing P-8, based on the commercial 737 NG. India suspended delivery of the P8 due to the Trump tariffs. Credit: Boeing. Airbus now proposes a rival airplane based on the A321.
Airbus, Rolls-Royce, MTU, and others expect to benefit from these changes. And, as these companies see more defense work coming their way, then—at least in theory—their commercial business will benefit from stronger balance sheets, profits, cash flow, and perhaps the corporations’ technology.
In an interview at the Paris Air Show in June, the consulting firm Accenture told LNA that it is beginning to see key trends and increases in the defense sector.
Figure 2. Spain and Switzerland canceled orders for the Lockheed F-35. Credit: Lockheed. Airbus stands to benefit, among other EU-based defense contractors.
“Obviously, things are changing in terms of the dynamics,” said Jeff Wheless, Growth & Strategy Research Leader at Accenture. “I think certainly from a NATO perspective, I think folks are increasing their spending.”
Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, said that Trump’s pressure on NATO countries to increase defense spending to 5% of their budgets paid off. For decades, NATO countries were committed to a 2% spending level, but often failed to meet this commitment.
“Europe is spending by far less money on defense acquisitions than the US,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury in response to an LNA question at the Paris Air Show. “It’s a ratio of one to four or one to five. On top of that, Europe is procuring a lot from the US. I think the message is loud and clear from the U.S. that Europe should take better care of its own security.”
What’s the next new aircraft, Part 5
By Scott Hamilton and Bjorn Fehrm
July 31, 2025, © Leeham News: We wrap up our five-part series today on What’s the Next New Airplane in the coming decades. We now look at Airplanes 9-13 in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. The 13 airliners we look at in the series. Source: Leeham Co.
These are the (9) COMAC 929, (10) Eco-version of New Light Twin, (11) CFM Open Fan single aisle, (12) the Boeing 787 re-engine, and (13) the Airbus A350 re-engine.
What’s the next new aircraft? Part 3
By Scott Hamilton and Bjorn Fehrm
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July 24, 2025, © Leeham News: In Part 3 of our five-part series on examining the potential next generation of aircraft in the coming decades, we take a closer look at Aircraft projects 1 to 4 in our Figure 1.
Figure 1. The 13 airliner ideas we look at in the series. Source: Leeham Co.
These are the (1) A220-500, (2) Boeing’s Transonic Truss Brace Wing (TTBW), (3) Boom’s Overture Super Sonic Transport (SST), and (4) the Blended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft suggested by leading proponent Jet Zero.
What’s the next new aircraft? Part 1
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Part 1 of 5
By Scott Hamilton
July 17, 2025, © Leeham News: Some urge Boeing to take the plunge “now” to launch a new airplane program.
Institutional knowledge is slipping away, these people say. Boeing hasn’t launched a new airplane since December 2003 (the 787), they note. The 737 MAX is selling at a poor second to the Airbus A320neo family. Boeing continues to lose market share.
This illustrates the variety of aircraft being discussed for the next decade or more. Boeing already decided to nix the Transonic Truss Brace Wing aircraft (#2). Credit: Leeham News.
On the other hand, Airbus is in no hurry to launch a new airplane program—or so it says. It can’t keep up with current demand.
Beginning today, LNA will take a five-part look at what the potential new airplanes and/or airplane technologies are for the coming decade or more. Having recently attended the Paris Air Show, we have the latest to supplement our years of study in this arena.
We look at 13 airplanes and concepts (we don’t examine eVTOLs and pure-battery-powered aircraft). These are numbered for identification—not for any ranking of likelihood of proceeding to a real program.
Today’s Part 1 identifies and describes the 13 aircraft.
It’s official: MTU’s engine leader named CEO of Airbus Commercial from Jan. 1; future of Open Fan and A220-500 shifts to him
The future of the CFM RISE Open Fan on the Airbus A320neo successor family loses its biggest proponent within Airbus with the retirement of Commercial Aircraft CEO Christian Scherer. His successor is CEO of MTU Aero Engines, a big supplier to CFM’s rival, Pratt & Whitney and the PW1100 GTF engine. Credit: Leeham Co.
By Scott Hamilton
July 10, 2025, © Leeham News: It’s official: Lars Wagner becomes CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft on Jan. 1. He will succeed current CEO Christian Scherer, who will retire after 40 years at Airbus.
Word of Wagner’s appointment leaked months ago.
Lars Wagner, CEO of MTU Aero Engines. Credit: MTU.
Wagner joins Airbus on Nov. 1 to begin a two-month transition. He is currently the CEO of MTU Aero Engines, a position he assumed in 2023. He joined MTU in 2015. Before that, he held various positions at Airbus. He is an engineer.
Wagner’s appointment may cast a question over GE Aerospace’s campaign with Airbus to choose the RISE Open Fan engine for the latter’s new single aisle aircraft intended to replace the A320neo family.
During the Paris Air Show last month, Airbus Group CEO Guillaume Faury said Airbus plans to decide on the engine to be selected for the A3XX around 2027-2028. A program launch target is 2030 with an entry-into-service target of 2038.