American Airlines may buy longest-range Airbus to plug Boeing gap

Seeking Alpha ^ | June 2019 | Carl Surran

[CondoleezzaProtege]

American Airlines (AAL +2.1%) is weighing whether to buy Airbus' (OTCPK:EADSY +3.2%) proposed A321XLR aircraft as a potential replacement for its aging fleet of 34 Boeing (BA +1.2%) 757-200 jets, Bloomberg reports.

The proposed XLR variant plane, with a redesigned fuel tank that would extend the range of an existing long-distance A321 version by as many as 900 nautical miles, would be able to fly from American's Dallas hub to central Europe.

American is one of a handful of carriers whose fleet decisions will play an outsized role as Airbus and Boeing vie for dominance in a middle-distance segment that overlaps the largest single-aisle and smallest twin-aisle aircraft.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

It's going to be awhile before the whole Boeing 737 MAX scandal is unpacked for all its lessons -- provided there is genuine transparency and their high-powered legal team doesn't succeed in keeping all the gory details from the public. It's important to keep in mind though, that the story largely began in the late 2000s-2010 when Airbus sales of their A320neo peaked.

Boeing was in the process of designing a whole new airplane, but fears of Airbus gains on the American market forced them to drop their plans and instead rush efforts to 'maximize' their existing 737 model. All to save time and money.

It's worth noting that right now, it's not just Boeing MAX planes proving to be a (deadly) problem. Their latest batch of military aircraft are showing signs of shoddy manufacturing and other problems as well -- frustrating our Air Force.

Boeing needs new leadership. And fast.

If only they had waited and invested in designing a whole new commercial aircraft. The story would be a lot different now.

[onedoug]

A-321. Great airplane.

[Hulka]

“It’s worth noting that right now, it’s not just Boeing MAX planes proving to be a (deadly) problem. Their latest batch of military aircraft are showing signs of shoddy manufacturing and other problems as well — frustrating our Air Force”

Please provide info on military aircraft (plural) issues.

[FtrPilot]

Bookmark for later

[HChampagne]

American should wait for the 797.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

On military (2019) :

“One visibly angry general bashed Boeing here for chronic problems with key components of the AH-64 Apache gunship that hold the rotors together in flight — but that’s just the most glaring example.” - Breaking Defense

US Air Force again halts Boeing deliveries
https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/04/02/politics/air-force-boeing-kc-46-delivery/index.html

Army tells shoddy suppliers: shape up!
https://breakingdefense.com/2019/04/army-tells-shoddy-suppliers-shape-up/

And on the commercial front, also this year:

Top Exec at Boeing’s troubled South Carolina plant is out
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/business/boeing-787-dreamliner-south-carolina.html

Scrutiny drawn to Boeing ‘s manufacturing of the Dreamliner jet:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/20/boeings-dreamliner-jet-now-facing-claims-of-manufacturing-issues-nyt-report.html

[Moonman62]

If only they had waited and invested in designing a whole new commercial aircraft.

...

Do you have any idea how much money that costs and how much time it takes, not just for Boeing, but the airlines, too?

You don’t seem to have a problem with Airbus modifying their A321 to save money and time.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Yes but the return on investment in a new, innovative plane would have been well worth the wait! Now look where they’re at and all they stand to lose! Regarding Airbus A321 - from my understanding, the foundational structure does not present the same aerodynamic/gravitational challenges as the Boeing 737 — when it comes to things like placement of the new engine on the plane, how far high it is off the ground, etc...

I just posted US Army’s frustration with Boeing among others:
https://breakingdefense.com/2019/04/army-tells-shoddy-suppliers-shape-up/

[CodeToad]

Biggest lesson Boeing will NOT learn: When you worry more about being liberal than building good products, you destroy the company.

Boeing is an extremely Democrat/liberal company. Republicans/conservatives not welcome.

Remember, in January 2019, while the 737 Max problem was being denied by Boeing, Boeing paid Obama $10 million for his library for him to give a lecture to the executives.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Indeed that too. And as someone has pointed out in another discussion: moving the headquarters to Chicago.

And plants to places like China...

[Moonman62]

Just to be balanced and fair why don’t you research Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines to see how bad they are?

[Dr. Sivana]

You don’t seem to have a problem with Airbus modifying their A321 to save money and time.

I don't know about aircraft, but in something just as complex, microprocessors, some designs lend themselves to redesign and scale better than others.

Back in the 1980s, the Motorola 68020 series was a better architecture than the "brain-damaged" 80286 from Intel. The old Mac II series used those chips. Unfortunately for Motorola, the 68020/68030 technology did not scale well and was running out of juice with the 68040 series, and Apple and company had to change over to the PowerPC series which was radically different, while Intel moved seamlessly along, patching and extending the 80286 into the 80386, 80486, Pentium etc.

[Cold War Veteran - Submarines]

Lest we forget the stories history of the 737. The -100 and -200 we not exactly the pinnacle of success. If folklore is true, the plane truly needed a T tail but the gray beards at Boeing refused putting the horizontal stabilizer at its Boeing-traditional position low on the plane. Boeing fought stability issues for years. But they stuck it out and it became one of the most widely sold planes ever. New aircraft designs are painful to mature. The transition from the lab to air is somewhat of an art despite all the science. Easier today with CAD and advanced modeling but still it takes time and testing. That latter point is when management gets antsy and starts to pressure completion leading to disaster

[CondoleezzaProtege]

I’m sure Lion Air’s purchase had something to do with Barack Obama’s promotion of Boeing products upon his trip to Indonesia at the latter part of his presidency. (Boeing donated a cool 10 million dollars to the building of his presidential library by the way.)

Ethiopian Airlines is one of the few economic African success stories and has a stellar safety record.

[Hulka]

Thanks. Good to know that out of the 100’s of weapons Boeing makes and has under development, there are a few that need work.