Posted on 01/06/2020 7:47:52 AM PST by NorseViking
Europe's Airbus has become the world's biggest plane maker this year as its US rival Boeing struggles to get its bestselling MAX jets back in the skies.
Airbus — which has trailed Boeing since 2012 — delivered a record 863 aircraft in 2019, Reuters news agency reported, citing airport and tracking sources. Boeing, on the other hand, had delivered just 345 planes by the end of November and is on course for its worst performance in more than a decade, mainly hurt by the grounding of the MAX aircraft.
The US plane maker delivered 806 aircraft in 2018, slightly more than its European rival's tally of 800.
Boeing's 737 MAX jets have remained grounded since March last year following a fatal crash of the plane in Ethiopia that killed 157 people. The tragedy took place less than five months after another MAX crashed in the Java Sea off the Indonesian coast, killing 189 people. The grounding has cost the plane maker more than $9 billion (€8 billion) so far.
Boeing, which is also facing several compensation claims from victims' families and airlines hit by the grounding, has reported just 30 new orders for its MAX planes since the crash in Ethiopia. The plane maker said last month it would suspend production of the beleaguered aircraft in January amid concerns that the grounding would last well into this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
With Boeing it’s cheaper to pay claims than it is to fix problems.
I was really impressed with the ride on the AB380 flying from San Francisco to Italy.
Okay, totally misread the headline. I though, “Even if the crew are topless, I wouldn’t fly on Airbus.”
“Airbus topples Boeing as biggest plane maker”
Just a symptom of the wretched state of PC social justice warrior corporate America.
“...has reported just 30 new orders...”
They want them for aviation curio museums.
Even if the FAA recertifies the Max there’s a number of other countries that are signaling they will never certify these planes for service.
Seriously, the reputation of the Max is now the thing that is not salvageable and Boeing should simply cut their losses and come up with a new design.
So when will they be no longer propped up by the Euro governments?
Delivery requires acceptance.
Airbus has done a number of business-smart things, Boeing has cut costs by outsourcing to China and India to generate quarter-over-guarter short term results. Unfortunately they can’t make the CEO’s firing retroactive by about 5 years.
Boeing brought it upon itself with the 737 max fiasco.....but yeah, Euroweenie’s celebrating like 1999.....
No wonder the ceo was fired. He will only get $30 to $40 million for his golden parachute. If only the victims of Boeing had parachutes.
Amazing. Airbus was government subsidized to help it compete with Boeing. We can shoot ourselves in the foot but some do it in the head.
Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Do you have any idea how long it would take to bring a clean-sheet design from the drawing board to certification?
For reference, the 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's last clean sheet design, took from 2003 to 2011 to be fully developed and certified, and was billions over budget. Boeing has so far built just over 900 Dreamliners, but is not expected to break even until aircraft 1100.
The original purpose of MCAS was to address a handling issue in a narrow regime of flight, and was a sound concept. The implementation of MCAS with its lack of redundancy, lack of sensor failure detection, and a poorly executed last minute increase in MCAS scope and trim authority have been the disaster.
All of those concerns have been addressed, and are in work to be certified. Once they are certified, by each country individually, the aircraft will go back into service.
Perhaps you don't recall the problems that Boeing had in developing the 787, including in-flight lithium battery fires and engines that self-destructed during testing.
Nobody knows or cares about those problems today, because they were addressed, corrected, and the flying public happily step onto 787s every day.
The same will happen to the MAX. With the 737-NG still in service, the average flyer may barely realize s/he is on a 737 at all, let alone if it is an NG or a MAX.
All the flying public cares about are $79 tickets to Orlando.
It helps that Airbus is also big in space technology and helicopters. Their decision to own 51% of the Bombardier C Series program is proving to be a very smart one as many airlines now want the plane.
“Delivery requires acceptance.”
Haven’t seen reports of cancelled MAX orders. Have some been cancelled?
Boeing outsources to China and India in order to get orders from China and India, just like Airbus does.
“The implementation of MCAS with its lack of redundancy, lack of sensor failure detection, and a poorly executed last minute increase in MCAS scope and trim authority have been the disaster.”
There’s a Youtube video of a reenactment of one of the crashes. The plane hit the ground almost vertical. The pilot turned MCAS on and off. How could plane’s control system point the plane almost vertical into the ground? How could it prevent the pilots from manually leveling the plane?
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