747F demand will come back, says Boeing

Subscription Required Update, July 22, 2016: Boeing yesterday announced it is taking an after tax charge of more than $800m against the 747-8 program. It also cancelled plans to increase production of the 747-8F from the current 0.5/mo… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: Flight tests

19 February 2016, ©. Leeham Co: Last week I described how Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation (MAC) issued a press release on Christmas day communicating MAC would be doing structural reinforcements on their test airframes before continuing flight testing. MAC… Read More

Boeing delivers 762 airliners, gets 768 orders in 2015

Jan. 7, 2015: Boeing racked up 762 airliner deliveries last year, a record, while booking 768 orders–a book:bill of fractionally over 1:1. Boeing throughout the year had largely guided a book:bill of slightly better or slightly lower than… Read More

Pontifications: Mitsubishi nears first flight for MRJ-90

Aug. 3, 2015, © Leeham Co. Mitsubishi is just a few months away from beginning flight testing on the first commercial airplane designed and built in Japan since the NAMC YS-11 in the 1960s. The 60 passenger turbo prop had… Read More

Single-aisle values, lease rates stable; smaller mainline jets struggle

Special to Leeham News and Comment By Gueric Dechavanne Collateral Verifications Feb. 8, 2015: Apart from a few unfortunate events, the industry has been moving along quite nicely so far in 2015. Used single-aisle aircraft values and lease… Read More

Boeing 2014 orders: 1,550 gross, 1,432 net

Update, 8:45am PST: Boeing sent us this breakout of 777 and 737 orders: 777-300ER: 49 777 Freighter: 14 777X: 220 737 MAX: 891 Original Post: Boeing received 1,550 gross orders and 1,432 net orders in 2014, one of… Read More

World’s dud airliners: a poll of your choices

Dec. 29, 2014: Now’s your chance to vote on what you think are the world’s dud airliners. Here are the parameters: Post World War II. A commercial airliner that entered service–not a prototype or a concept or a… Read More

Lufthansa to use A340s in “lower cost” operation; our analysis against the 787

Subscription required. By Scott Hamilton and Bjorn Fehrm Introduction Low cost long haul service is gaining traction, but previous efforts proved difficult to be successful. Dating all the way back to Laker Airways’ Skytrain and the original PeoplExpress… Read More

Odds and Ends: 787 donation; Alenia sues Bombardier over CSeries; 2016 777 delivery slots opening up

787 donation: The Boeing Co. handed over 787 test airplane #3 (ZA003) to the Museum of Flight Saturday in an elaborate ceremony marking an unprecedented donation of a modern airliner to an aviation museum. To be sure, the… Read More

Del Smith, aviation icon, dies

Del Smith, an icon in aviation for decades, died in Oregon. Smith was the founder of Evergreen Aviation, an MRO in Arizona and the highly regarded air museum that houses the Spruce Goose in Oregon. Evergreen cargo airlines… Read More