Boeing Offers B737NGE New Generation Engine for American Airlines Order

While Boeing lost out to Airbus in the American Airlines order battle by

1. Losing supply monopoly of more than 2 decades
2. Number and Price of aircraft ordered (Airbus has 60 more orders and 265 more options)

it also wins with 43.5% (100 B737 + 100 B737NGE  vs  130 A320 + 130 A320NEO) of the order and less than 22% (40 B737 + 60 B737NGE  vs  85 A320 + 280 A320NEO) of the options.

However, the big Boeing win is that it has stabilized its design position on the B737 - Re-engine. This is also a win for airlines that operate B737's, specially Southwest Airlines, that now has their flight efficiency path assured for the next 10 years.

As to the B797 New Small Airplane, I think Boeing will still pursue this for 2020 introduction but will cover the 150-below passenger count to cover the Bombardier CSeries competitor, and plug the hole in its product line range. As I have said before, it can be a win-win situation for them if Boeing and Embraer can cooperate on this.

My preferred name for the new B737 variant is Boeing 737 NGE - New Generation Engine/Enhanced.

Way Forward For Boeing

With the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Boeing outbalanced Airbus in product mix innovation. Airbus reacted with the A350 that morphed into the A350XWB when it did not get market traction. But thanks to production delays on the 787 program, Airbus has clipped Boeing's 6 year product introduction advantage to just 2 years, assuming no A350 production woes also. The 787's success in the market was to a degree also a disadvantage in a market hungry for more efficient planes. Boeing had no 787 production slots available for more orders leading to an also robust order book for the yet to fly A350. With the 767 win in the USAF tanker competition, Boeing may leverage this to offer an updated 767 at big discount to sell to airlines that cannot get into the long 787 order line.

With the Airbus A320NEO, Airbus seem to be outbalancing Boeing in the large bread and butter single aisle airliner market. While it is accepted that the present 737NG has lower operating costs than the competing A320, the reengined A320NEO will surely beat the 737NG in operating costs. By how much remains to be seen.

The A350 is basically a 2 engine replacement for the A340 that got clobbered by the Boeing 777. It is also an A330 replacement in its shorter fuselage versions. Airbus had an excellent choice of size configuration in the A350 by basically positioning it between the 787 and the 777 and effectively competing with both with a single product. However, with Airbus' recent decision with the A350-1000 modification by lengthening, reengining and wing reforming, the A350 has basically morphed into 2 families. The A350-1000 is now configured to compete with the very successful 777-300ER, and the shorter A350 versions as A330 replacement and 787-10 competitor.

The 787 and 747-8 programs are completing its design-certification processes and going to production ramp-up. This will free a lot of design resources of Boeing that will open the way for refresh and/or new design aircraft programs.

If I were Boeing, I will implement the following:

1. A low cost reengining of the 737 that can cover the 757 replacement market for 2014

2. A 777-8 for 2018

3. 797 new design 737 replacement for 2020

4. 767NG from the KC-46 that is derived from a USAF milspeced KC-767I

AirPino - Multi Purpose Light Aircraft Integrating Rural Pilipinos

 


The Philippine Aircraft Industry has shown its capability to produce for the many and varied aircraft requirements of the country in the past. It has designed and/or fabricated various aircraft from the 1950’s such as the XL series of the 1950’s, the Islander, the S-211 jet, the Bolkow helicopter, the Defiant 300 and numerous others. As a developing country, the requirements for aircraft is increasing specially given the archipelagic and mountainous geography.

The AirPino Project is the local manufacture of a multipurpose light aircraft that can be used for

1. Rural Air Transport providing for Inter island, Cross mountain, Inter Province transport
2. Agricultural Functions such as rainmaking, aerial survey and monitoring, crop dusting
3. Private Users for executive transport, charter operations, recreational flying, skydiving, tourist transport
4. Promotion of forestry development through aerial reforestation of all bald and denuded mountains, monitoring of illegal loggers and log transport, and firebombing of forest fires
5. Protection of mineral resources through aerial monitoring of large mines and mineral transport
6. Environmental monitoring and protection of  rivers, bays, mine tailings, etc.
7. Government Functions such as liaison, VIP transport, aerial project monitoring
8. Export product to other developing countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia
9. Base for aviation industry development

Required for parallel development is the capability building for the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) for Philippine aircraft certification. This is necessary for the AirPino MPLA to be viable commercially. The CAAP will also have to enter into bilateral treaties with its corresponding organization in other countries to enable the export of Philippine-made aircraft to these countries.

Design Requirements

1. Designed for easy production and easy maintenance using modular construction
2. Plane configured to expedite exports to other developing countries
3. Use of composites for technology expertise development, including possible use of laminated bamboo
4. P10 million per unit bare cost objective
5. Adoption of low cost COTS technology for augmented VFR such as GPS, electro-optics, IPad
6. Preparation for other model configurations
7. 5 seats plus cargo minimum size, to 8 seats