Its not Airbus. The Chinese Comac C919 and Sukhoi SJ100 are the two main aircraft placing enormous pressure on Boeing internationally. FAA approval is a slam-dunk for them in foreign markets as it renews confidence in the brand and allows them to compete against newcomers that are arguably just as good or better than the max series of widebodies and come in at a fraction of the cost.
Boeing management --and their flat-out inability to out-innovate the competition at cost-- are the real reason behind the push to certify at all cost.
I was going to be snarky and say "Europe, where the largest airplane manufacturer isn't plagued by egregious safety failures," but that fact correction is probably better.
> Both the FAA and EASA along with Canada and Brazil
That’s two interesting other countries, presumably chosen because the presence of Bombardier and Embraer mean Canada and Brazil have some experience in certifying planes? Notably missing are Russia and China who also make planes
And there will never be competition. It cost Cirrus (small, single engine GA aircraft) $100 million to get a type certificate. The Boeing 737 max is still on its original type certificate.
Boeing and airbus is what the (western) world has for big jets. It's a duopoly and has no signs of not being one. Boeing probably shouldn't be a public company either.
The rest of world's aircraft manufacturers are quasi majority state owned enterprises.
Free Trade is the answer. Most national civil aviation organisations defer to the aviation authority of the country where the manufacturer is based. So FAA is trusted/expected to maintain the standards for Boeing.
The last thing Boeing or Airbus wants is to have to prove their aircraft for every country in the world.
Well TBF the soviet planes always looked scary even on the ground and my experiences as a passenger on them were not reassuring either. I don't expect the same of 21st century Chinese aircraft.*
In addition the US and EU may short-sightedly try to protect their aircraft manufacturers but US+EU are less than 45% of world GDP. Plenty of people will be perfectly satisfied with a Chinese plane when their only choices are all foreign manufacturers.
* This isn't to say I want to be first -- I typically wait a few years before flying with a new model, though it's hardly a perfect heuristic: I had no idea the 737-Max wasn't really just another 737.
Clue me in which large manufacturer of passenger plans you have on your mind. There is practically nobody left any more. Boeing, Airbus and Embraer are controlling the market and all of those are directly or indirectly sanctioning Russia right now. Bombardier at this point is practically Airbus. In Russia there is one locally manufactured plane that has some traction from Sukhoi, but it also won't be able to be serviced or produced any more as key components are now sanctioned.
At least Airbus seems to be competent in building safe aircraft.
I would not be surprised though if Boeing's sales drop if the US government brings in tariffs or etc to try and force companies to buy their flying coffins.
The military ones are Russian engineering assisted, iirc. The ones we should look at for airlines would be the Comac C919 ( and progressively C929 and C939).
> Launch airline China Eastern’s tentative February 28 entry-into-service date never materialized [..]
> After regularly operating as part of its route proving, the aircraft appeared to change tempo on February 2. The aircraft flew a half dozen more short flights before February 27 then sat for nearly a month before being ferried from Hongqiao to nearby Pudong on March 23 when it was last seen. There’s been no definitive explanation for the jet’s return to the manufacturer.
Apparently they didn't copied well the stolen designs from American and European manufacturers[1] or there was a quality issue with the delivered aircraft. I think the Chinese government wants EU approval to use European citizens as alpha-testers.
> China Eastern Airlines (600115.SS) said on Thursday it will buy another 100 C919 airplanes in a deal worth $10 billion at list prices, in what would be the largest ever order for the jet made by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).
> The state-owned carrier said it had received a "substantial discount" for the deal and that the planes will be delivered in batches from 2024 to 2031. The list price for the C919 is $99 million but aircraft can be sold at discounts of up to 50%, especially for new models.
50% of the EU and the UE aircraft prices. It should be expected prices dumping, the same that happened when Hawuei and ZTE was subsidizing antennas and selling equipment at lower prices than manufacturing costs in the European Union.
I don't recall if it is just by handshake agreement or in an actual treaty but the country where the manufacturer of a plane operates is the one designated authority over that manufacturer.
FAA issues Airworthiness directives and sets rules Boeing has to follow. EASA largely defers to the FAA (not always but in almost everything).
Similarly the FAA follows EASA when it comes to issues with Airbus.
Both FAA and EASA requirements are roughly alined anyway so it doesn't make that much difference.
Boeing has been coasting on their engineer-led culture from the past. They're only allowed to self-certify on things that are not "safety critical" so having the FAA review that designation seems more useful.
FWIW when Boeing merged with McDonnel-Douglas the GE protégé crew took over. The decision to move headquarters was done deliberately so the machinists and engineers couldn't go complain to the bean counters in person.
Also think about Boeing setting up a factor in South Carolina and fighting so hard to prevent that factory from unionizing. They're focused on giving labor a smaller share of the pie... on some of the most expensive (and formerly profitable) things humans build, with a decade-long order book where every single unit they make is pre-sold years in advance. (Recent screwups have hurt them badly though).
Do you want an airplane built by an accountant-run company that cares about finding the cheapest most disposable workers to build the airplane? Whether it matters or whether the union sucks is irrelevant. The fact that Boeing management was so determined to screw the workers who assemble these planes says a lot and none of it is good.
You are saying that Airbus is close to the limits. It is immensely different than Boeing being the certifier of its own planes, and having two major failures already on record with hundreds dead (the Duncommon airframes and the MAX).
I think Boeing and 737 Max:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/how-the-faa-al...
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