Leeham News and Comment

Leeham News and Comment was launched in February 2008, primarily concentrating on news, events, and analysis related to Airbus and Boeing. This platform is a natural extension of a section that was part of our corporate site, Leeham.net, which was established in 2005.

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The BWB has a long way to go before flying passengers, freight

3 days ago | leehamnews.com | Scott Hamilton

Subscription RequiredBy Scott HamiltonFigure 1. The Horten flying wing developed by the Germans toward the end of World War II. Credit: Michael Jorgensen via BBC. May 12, 2025, © Leeham News: The Blended Wing Body airplane concept has been around for decades. Its cousins, if you will, appeared in the form of flying wings. The Germans developed the Horten at the end of World War II; it never made it into service. Northrop Grumman developed propeller- and jet-powered flying wings after World War II.
Leeham News and Analysis

6 days ago | leehamnews.com | Bjorn Fehrm

May 9, 2025, ©. Leeham News: We do a Corner series about the state of developments to improve the emission situation for Air Transport. We try to understand why development has been slow. Since we started in October last year, we have looked at:Alternative, lower emission propulsion technologies, ranging from electric aircraft with batteries as energy source, different propulsion hybrids, and new concepts for Jet-fuel and Hydrogen gas turbine engines.
Does an A220-500 need a new wing and engines? Part 2.

1 week ago | leehamnews.com | Bjorn Fehrm

Does an A220-500 need a new wing and engines? Part 2. Subscription requiredBy Bjorn FehrmMay 5, 2025, © Leeham News: We started the articles series about stretching the A220 to a capacity in the A320neo range last week by going through the development of the A220-100 and -300, how it’s designed and compares to the competition in the 100 to 140 seat segment.
Leeham News and Analysis

1 week ago | leehamnews.com | Scott Hamilton

Subscription RequiredBy Scott HamiltonMay 5, 2025, © Leeham News: JetZero, the start-up company developing commercial aviation’s first passenger Blended Wing Body (BWB) airplane, is gearing up to seek private equity funding for billions of dollars needed to bring its aircraft to market. In a media day on Friday, executives and staff briefed reporters on progress to date, production work on the first full-size demonstrator aircraft, technical details and studies continuing an production plans.
Leeham News and Analysis

1 week ago | leehamnews.com | Bjorn Fehrm

May 2, 2025, ©. Leeham News: We do a Corner series about the state of developments to improve the emission situation for Air Transport. We try to understand why development has been slow. We have since we started in October last year looked at:Alternative, lower emission, propulsion technologies, ranging from electric aircraft with batteries as energy source, different propulsion hybrids and new concepts for Jet-fuel and hydrogen gas turbine engines.
Supplier Howmet exceeds expectations despite tariffs

1 week ago | leehamnews.com | Scott Hamilton

By Karl SinclairMay 1, 2025, © Leeham News: Howmet Aerospace (HWM) reported record revenues, record profits and a strong cash position in 1Q2025. Revenues were up 6%, Year-Over-Year (YOY) to $1.94bn, beating the baseline projection of $1.935bn, driven by Commercial Aerospace, which was up 9%. Adjusted EBITDA was $560m, up 28% YOY, crushing baseline estimates of $520m. Cash from operations generated $253m, while $125m was spent on stock buybacks, during the quarter.
Airbus 1Q2025 results: So far, so good, but US tariffs make future results unpredictable

2 weeks ago | leehamnews.com | Bjorn Fehrm

May 1, 2025, © Leeham News in Toulouse: Airbus CEO Guillame Faury and CFO Thomas Toepfer presented the Airbus 1Q2025 results yesterday. All Airbus divisions performed to plan, producing a group EBIT Adjusted of 0.6bn Euro. The company delivered 136 aircraft, which was to plan. The lower deliveries than last year (142) were due to CFM’s extra delivery efforts in 4Q2024, leading to fewer LEAP deliveries for 1Q2025. EBIT at €0.5bn and Free Cash Flow at -€0.3bn were also as planned.
Does an Airbus A220-500 need a new wing and engines?

2 weeks ago | leehamnews.com | Bjorn Fehrm

Does an Airbus A220-500 need a new wing and engines? Subscription requiredBy Bjorn FehrmMay 1, 2025, © Leeham News: For years, the debate has been going on about when Airbus will complement the A220-100 and -300 with a longer, higher-capacity A220-500. In fact, the Bombardier team that designed the A220 as the CS300 already foresaw the prospect of a longer -500.
Teamsters, Boeing have a new contract

2 weeks ago | leehamnews.com | Scott Hamilton

By Scott HamiltonApril 29, 2025, © Leeham News: One down, two more to go this year. The Teamsters Local 174 and Boeing have a new contract. Union members ratified a new contract on April 19. Results were announced on April 21. Local 174 represents about 300 truck drivers for Boeing in the greater Seattle region. A strike could have disrupted production. The union said the “contract materially surpasses all previous contracts for the group.
Boeing wants to remarket China’s airplanes. It’s costly and time consuming.

2 weeks ago | leehamnews.com | Scott Hamilton

China has 130 Boeing airplanes that are identified in the Boeing backlog. On last week’s earnings call, officials said China accounts for 10% of its backlog of 6,319 aircraft as of March 31. This means there are about 500 Chinese-destined aircraft in the “Unidentified” backlog. Reconfiguring airplanes would cost millions of dollars. Backlogs to order materials and complete the work could be as much as two years. Engineering that may be required and regulatory review also could take a year or two.