How Will the Next Generation Airliner be Produced?
It’s all about production efficiency.
By Bjorn Ferhm
The coming decade is likely to see announcements of new airplanes from Airbus and Boeing. If Embraer decides to move up into the mainline sector, a new airplane from the Brazilian manufacturer should also be announced in the next few years.
This means the clock is ticking toward program launches anywhere between 2027 and 2030, depending on progress from GE Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce in developing new engines.
For the airframe manufacturers, there are important steps before a new program can be launched. One is how the aircraft shall be developed. Leeham News & Analysis, which is now part of AIN Media Group, wrote about it in its series “What’s the Next New Aircraft?” But equally important is, how shall the next new aircraft be produced?
Since June, the Leeham team has published a series of articles about new airplanes, new technologies, new design and new production processes that must be sorted before any of the OEMs move forward. Across the seven parts of this series, we identify flaws and challenges at both Airbus and Boeing, with lessons to be learned as both airframers reshape their approach for future manufacturing.
We call this series “How’s the next new aircraft produced?” We start by going through where the major OEMs are with their legacy production.
