Sad for the US aircraft industry. The days of 90,000 cycles for products like the 747 are gone. 757's and 767's will probably make it to 90k, but their days are fast approaching. 737max is grounded. The rest of the 737's are seeing pickle fork issues at 25000 cycles.
There's only a single viable vendor for the immediate future now: Airbus.
...unless 787's can be put into non-hub routes like the 1970's and 1980's had, kind of like UA/CO's island hopping.
Has-beens Lockheed, McDonnell/Douglas, British Aerospace, Saab, Swearingen, De Havilland are all gone from the commercial aircraft market. Embraer got acquired by Boeing. Bombardier got acquired by Airbus.
China & Russia combined to try to bust into the market. They have an opening now, but their powerplants just don't have pedigrees or supply chains established.
Last edited by Long Zhiren; Dec 5, 2019 at 3:01 pm