Developing a new commercial aircraft engine will be tough to justify for Pratt & Whitney without an airframer committing to a single engine type for their next clean-sheet commercial aircraft.
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By Dominic Perry2021-02-25T15:02:00+00:00
Boeing’s failure to launch its New Mid-market Airplane (NMA) was behind the suspension of the airframer’s auxiliary power unit joint venture with Safran, the French aerospace supplier has confirmed.
Safran earlier this month revealed that work at Initium had been halted, blaming the industry downturn.
Source: aapsky/Shutterstock
Responding to a question from FlightGlobal, Safran chief executive Olivier Andries says that “Initium has been frozen for the time being” because it lacked any application for any new APU.
Initium was set up “originally for the NMA”, he says, adding: “As the NMA has been frozen or cancelled we have frozen the joint venture.”
By Jon Hemmerdinger2021-02-08T14:05:00+00:00
Some analysts view Boeing’s fourth quarter 2020 results as a case of a company clearing the decks – dumping a barrel of bad news at the end of a terrible year so as to focus on rebuilding in 2021.
Such might be the case. But a question remains: How does Boeing intend to overcome its multiple pressures?
Those who follow the Chicago airframer have for years waited eagerly for Boeing to firmly reveal where its strategic future lies.
And while chief executive David Calhoun made some mention of a new aircraft programme during the company’s 27 January earnings call, details were spotty.
A new aircraft from Boeing would likely depend on the use of existing composites manufacturing technologies. Pictured here is automated fiber placement (AFP) of the the forward fuselage section for the Boeing 787, performed by Spirit AeroSystems at its Wichita, Kan., U.S., facility.
Photo Credit:
CW
Aviation Week reported on Feb. 2 that The Boeing Co. (Seattle, Wash., U.S.) is in the early stages of developing a new aircraft designed to challenge the Airbus A321XLR long-range, single-aisle jetliner.
According to the report, written by Guy Norris, the plane, dubbed -5X, would be based on the New Midmarket Airplane (NMA) that Boeing had on the drawing board and then shelved when the 737 MAX was grounded in 2019.