Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Spain becomes fourth country to join Aero Excellence initiative to improve supply chain
Subscription Required
By Charlotte Bailey
Feb. 12, 2026, © Leeham News, Hamburg: The European supply chain support strategy aims to streamline self-assessment and resilience.
Spain is to become the fourth country to join the European Aero Excellence International initiative, a multi-national program intended to help suppliers self-assess their own maturity levels and work towards building greater operational resilience. The announcement was made in December at the Hamburg Aviation Forum.
The relatively new scheme builds on a program first launched by the French Aerospace Industries Association (GIFAS) in 2023 and was co-developed by respective national aerospace and defense associations. These include Germany’s BDLI and the UK’s ADS Group. A representative from each trade association is joined on Aero Excellence’s board by three national industrial members.
Under Aero Excellence, participating suppliers (categorized across five areas) are supported to self-assess their own maturity level before an official assessment is made. Three levels of maturity (bronze, silver and gold) are then awarded by Aero Excellence assessors, a validation recognised industry-wide and intended to negate lengthy separate and repetitive individual assessments.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury previously described Aero Excellence’s intention to establish a universally recognised “maturity benchmark” designed to “strengthen the operational, environmental and cyber excellence of our industries in order to meet future challenges and improve competitiveness.”
BWB hopefuls: JetZero aims for MOM sector; Natilus raises $28m for heart of the market
By Scott Hamilton
JetZero’s Z4 BWB for the Middle of the Market has a larger wingspan than the Boeing 767. JetZero compares its economics against the out-of-production, 1980s designed 767-200ER, not the current generation of wide-body aircraft. Credit: JetZero.
Feb. 11, 2026, © Leeham News: JetZero, a start-up company based in Long Beach (CA), is developing a Blended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft for the so-called Middle of the Market (MOM). MOM is now occupied by the remaining Boeing 767-300ERs and 757s, the older and current generation Airbus A321 and the forthcoming Boeing 737-10. The older generation Airbus A330s and the current generation Boeing 787, Airbus A330neo and the A350-900 also serve the MOM sector.
The design is a 250-passenger airliner, the same size as the larger NMAs that were cancelled. JetZero says the BWB will be 30% more aerodynamically efficient than the aircraft it replaces. The company compares the Z4 economics against the Boeing 767-200ER. It has not compared the Z4 with the current generation aircraft the BWB actually to compete against for sales and costs.
Michel Merluzeau, Sales Engineering and Market Development for JetZero, said the MOM has an “addressable market” is 12,000 aircraft. However, he said this does not reflect the anticipated share that might be captured by the Z4, a figure he did not disclose. Merluzeau was speaking at the annual Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance conference today in suburban Seattle.
The JetZero 250-seat BWB in United’s colors. Source: JetZero
Recovery of the 737 program is unglamorous and arduous: Boeing exec
By Scott Hamilton
Katie Ringgold, VP and general manager of the 737 program. Credit: Boeing.
Feb. 10, 2026, © Leeham News: Boeing’s head of the 737 program yesterday outlined how the company is recovering from six years of crisis, quality control and safety issues and repeated production slowdowns and shutdowns.
Katie Ringgold, the Vice President and General Manager, was at the annual Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance (PNAA) conference in suburban Seattle, said the long road to recovery—which has a few years more to go—has been an “unglamorous” task.
“We took time to deeply reflect on our production system. And some of that you know of what we’ve been accomplishing over the last two years. And make meaningful and arduous changes,” she said. “And I use that word intentionally. It wasn’t just hard changes. It was arduous changes.”
Ringgold noted that Boeing is now producing the 737 at the rate of 42 aircraft per month. This rate was achieved in the final months of last year. Boeing publicly has repeatedly said its goal is to increase the production rate in increments of five approximately every six months.
Ringgold, during her stage appearance, confirmed reporting by LNA in January that the 737’s North Line at the Everett widebody plant will be activated about mid-year. In this report, LNA noted that Boeing’s current 737 production plant in Renton will be capped at a rate of 47/mo. The North Line will be needed for Boeing to achieve rate 52 and beyond, ultimately toward a target of 63/mo.
Despite some turbulence, SPEEA exec sees progress under Boeing’s Ortberg
By Scott Hamilton
Ray Goforth, executive director of SPEEA, Boeing’s engineer and technicians union. Credit: SPEEA.
Feb. 10, 2026, © Leeham News—Seattle: When Kelly Ortberg became CEO of The Boeing Co. in August 2024, he said that one of his first tasks was to reset the testy labor relations with the unions.
The results so far have been mixed. Ortberg’s immediate labor contract challenge was with the powerful IAM 751 union. The contract for its 32,000 workers expired 34 days after Ortberg assumed office, and negotiations were underway. Union members went on a 53-day strike before the financially ailing Boeing agreed to most of the demands.
Contract negotiations with a branch of the Teamsters union were concluded successfully without a strike. However, a different district of the IAM, 837 at the St. Louis defense plant, walked out for more than 100 days before a contract was accepted.
A new contract with the newly acquired Spirit AeroSystems plant in Wichita (KS), represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), was agreed without a strike. SPEEA praised the contract as achieving its goals.
Next up is the contract with Boeing’s engineers and technicians, also represented by SPEEA. This contract expires this fall. The union’s negotiating teams will be appointed this month. Procedural meetings with Boeing will begin afterward before proposals are exchanged and negotiations begin.
SPEEA has been at odds with Boeing before and after Ortberg’s appointment as CEO. Ray Goforth, executive director of the union, said in an interview with LNA last week that he’s seen improvements in its relationship with Boeing under Ortberg. But on the day of the interview, SPEEA accused Boeing of violating the current contract by reassigning up to 300 engineering jobs from the Seattle area to the 787 production facility in Charleston (SC).
Related articles
- Boeing touts safety progress but opposes SPEEA initiative
- Boeing reports mixed employee survey results; intimidation, retaliation still reported
- Strike slowed progress toward SMS, ASAP initiatives
- Boeing, SPEEA at impasse over ASAP safety program
Outlook 2026: The state of the major eVTOL projects
Subscription Required
By Bjorn Fehrm
February 9, 2026, © Leeham News: The eVTOL market saw a sobering 2025 after two of its high flyers, Lilium and Volocopter, both ceased operations in 2024. The remains of Volocopter were bought by Diamond Aircraft, which now markets a stripped-down VoloCity as a Light Sports eVTOL.
Further players ceased in 2025, with Hyundai’s Supernal halting further development, as did Airbus with its CityAirbus. Textron halted Nexus development, then shuttered the division, and Overair ceased operations after Hanwa stopped investing.
We have one VTOL that received local Chinese Type Certification in 2023, and one in 2024. EHang got the Type Certificate in 2023, Production Certificate in 2024, and Air Operator Certificate (AOC) in 2025. The drone multicopter looking Ehang EH216-S (Figure 1) was cleared to operate tourist flights in China. The other Chinese project was AutoFlight’s Prosperity five-seater, which achieved Chinese Type Certification in 2024.
Figure 1. The only certified eVTOL, the EHang EH216-S. Source: EHang.
The almost euphoric enthusiasm over eVTOLs that existed before COVID, where car manufacturers got involved as this could be the thing that took over personal transport for crowded cities, has now calmed down, as the operational use of the current generation of eVTOLs is 10 to 15-minute missions in fair weather, replacing helicopter services from the airport to the city centre.
The original story was different as early developers like Joby Aviation painted with a broad brush. There were statements about 150nm trips, 200 kts speeds, and unbeatable economics, with batteries that lasted 10,000 flights. What investors and pundits didn’t understand was that these were unrelated statements about physical limits: there was no AND between them.
Bjorn’s Corner: Faster aircraft development. Part 26. AI speeds up processes.
By Bjorn Fehrm and Henry Tam
February 6, 2026, ©. Leeham News: We have completed a detailed, step-by-step analysis of the certification requirements a Part 25 Air Transport airliner in the 200-seat segment must meet.
In our series, we have seen work that could benefit from an AI agent, and other work where we conclude it will be difficult.
We begin this week by outlining areas where we expect AI to reduce the number of work hours required to complete a task. We will attribute these AI-driven work-hour reductions to the appropriate areas of the aircraft Program Plan in Figure 1.
Figure 1. A generic new Part 25 airliner development plan. Source: Leeham Co. Click to see better.
Outlook 2026: The airliner projects that promise new technology and lower emissions
Subscription Required
By Bjorn Fehrm
February 5, 2026, © Leeham News: We survey new entrants that deviate from the classical gas-turbine tube-and-wing airframe concept and offer airliners the promise of lower emissions and, hopefully, lower costs.
We will do this by starting with those closest to certification and delivery, then tapering off to those who currently fly on PowerPoint.
If we didn’t apply this filter to what we consider real projects, we would describe over 50 entries, with additional ones announced with airline orders every month over the last few years. Few of these have progressed beyond plans, which is why we focus on those that have.
Overall, it’s amazing that 11 years after the Airbus E-fan battery-electric aircraft flew at the Farnborough Air Show in 2014, we still do not have a single certified alternative-propulsion passenger aircraft. We have one light-sport two-seat trainer, the Pipistrel Electro Velis, but nothing else.
Figure 1. The Airbus E-Fan at the Paris Air Show in 2015. Source: Wikipedia.
Singapore Air Show reports only one airline order today
Feb. 4, 2026, © Leeham News: It was another quiet day for commercial aviation at the Singapore Air Show.
One airplane orders was announced, by Tigerair of Taiwan, for just four Airbus A321neos. Pratt & Whitney inked an order for its GTF engine to power A321s for Vietjet.
And that was it.
In other news via LNA’s AIN news partner:
Few orders announced today at Singapore Air Show
Feb. 3, 2026, © Leeham News: There were few orders announced today at the Singapore Air Show.
Boeing and ATR were the only announced commercial orders. Embraer revealed a previously announced order for the C-390 tanker-transport. And that was it.
In other news from LNA’s news parter, AIN:
Fourth EU Clean Aviation funding proposal recognises hydrogen’s upcoming importance
Subscription Required
By Charlotte Bailey
Feb. 3, 2026, © Leeham News: The European Union co-funded Clean Aviation project has announced its fourth call for proposals, with an initial draft set to be followed by a formal version issued this month.
The upcoming call will provide up to €329.5m ($386m) in EU funding for disruptive new aircraft technologies, providing an estimated €824m ($966m) when combined with input from the private sector.
Speaking at the November 2025 Sustainable Aero Lab’s Future Aviation Festival in Amsterdam, EU Clean Aviation executive director Axel Krein explained that the next round will focus on technologies applicable to short-to-medium range aircraft, including regional aircraft architectures.
These will be augmented by the development of “transverse activities” (such as applicable certification standards) and other complementary “fast track areas.” The largest of five separate funding streams will be allocated to the development of ‘Ultra-Efficient Short to Medium Range (SMR)’ aircraft, with €130m ($114m) split across five projects.
The research and technology roadmap focuses on demonstrators up to ground testing, “addressing all key technologies,” states the proposal. This will validate the performance of technologies up to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6.
Flight demonstrations could also be used to validate testing “in realistic operational conditions.” Clean Aviation expects to complete a flight test demonstrator configuration freeze by the end of 2026 to support the start of flight testing by the end of 2029. A hybrid-electric Ultra-Efficient Regional Aircraft has been proposed as the baseline concept for this 50-100 passenger regional aircraft. Clean Aviation will also award €40m ($46m) for the development of an “advanced airframe for ultra-efficient regional aircraft.”