Flight International - December 15, 2015

ightglobal.com 15 December 2015-4 January 2016 | Flight International | 11

SAA’s A330 swap

deal to go ahead

despite concerns

Air trAnSport p 12

creasing compression levels for

air entering the combustion

chamber, which drives up tem-

peratures inside the core.

Although no hotter than tem-

peratures seen in the widebody

engines of CFM’s joint sharehold-

er GE Aviation, the higher temper-

atures required Boeing to redesign

a part of the engine nacelle that

shields the thrust reverser from

exposure to such heat. But the

original plan to use a titanium

inner wall raised concerns that

Boeing supplier GKN could not

deliver the part quickly enough.

material difference

Boeing has decided to switch to a

material developed for the GE9X

engine, selected to power the

777X, Leverkuhn says. He de-

clines to reveal the substitute ma-

terial, but he says it is closer to

the conventional composite sub-

stance used for such structures in

previous nacelle designs.

GE’s specific approach on the

777X engine inner wall is not

known, but the company has re-

cently developed a new material

• oxide-based ceramic matrix

composites – to perform a similar

role on the Passport engine for

the Bombardier Global 7000 and

8000 business jets.

Boeing had accumulated 2,

firm orders for the 737 Max be-

fore the first test aircraft rolled

out of the factory, but that is still

nearly 1,500 aircraft short of the

backlog for the Airbus A320neo

family. Despite its rival’s 60%

share of the market, Leverkuhn

emphasises that Boeing launched

the 737 Max nine months after

the A320neo, when Airbus had

already accumulated more than

800 orders.

Since the 737 Max was

launched, Boeing’s share of the

single-aisle order market against

Airbus is closer to 45%, but Lev-

erkuhn describes that as “around

50%” of the segment.

“We’re very comfortable with

the way the market is settling out,

which is 50-50 [market share

split],” he says, adding that this is

“not unlike where we are with

the [737]NG and the A320 family

right now. I would expect that to

continue to go on. It’s a dogfight

in every campaign.” ■

It will be used to perform an
expanded set of trials that Boeing
developed for the 737 Max.
“We’re actually going to be
doing things in the test card that
we typically don’t do,” Lev-
erkuhn says. “That is going to
include things like performing
step-climbs to understand how
the engine is going to operate.
We’re going to really do things
that only an airline would do.”

fuel consumption
The Leap-1B powerplants for the
Max are expected to deliver a
15% improvement in specific
fuel consumption, compared
with the CFM56 engines being
delivered to customers today.
Combined with the split-tip
winglets, modified tail cone and
other changes, Boeing still in-

tends to deliver the 737 Max

with a 14% overall fuel-burn re-

duction, Leverkuhn says.

Boeing has “good confidence”

in CFM’s ability to meet the fuel

consumption target, he adds. The

Leap-1B is now expected to re-

ceive engine certification shortly

after first flight of the 737 Max 8

early next year, Leverkuhn says.

The Leap-1B is designed to im-

prove fuel efficiency partly by in-

737 max 8

“We’re comfortable

with how the market

is settling out – it’s

not unlike the [737]

nG and the a 32 0”

Keith leverKuhn

Boeing VP and general manager, 737

Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren

Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren

Split-tip winglets will help contribute to the fuel-burn improvement

The first aircraft – 1A001 – will now enter pre-flight testing,

as assembly continues on the remaining three test aircraft

Biggest single order,

from Lion Air

201

737 max in numbers

Confirmed customers

41

Unidentified orders

647

737 Max total firm

commercial orders

2,

SOURCE: Boeing orders to end-November