Boeing CEO: New Airplane Design Years Away

Dave Calhoun says his company needs to prioritize digital capabilities first.

Michael Wildes

Monday, June 06, 2022 at 05:14 PM ET

Verified

Boeing says going digital will boost revenue, while eliminating design and production hurdles. [Courtesy: Boeing]

Key Takeaways:

Boeing's CEO Dave Calhoun stated that a new "clean-sheet" airliner design is at least two years away.
The company is prioritizing the significant enhancement of its digital design and manufacturing capabilities, including cloud partnerships, to ensure future products are substantially better and reduce development risks.
Boeing is not rushing to compete with rivals like Airbus, as current propulsion technologies lack the necessary significant improvements; future aircraft will focus on sustainability, advanced cockpits, and autonomy.

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Boeing’s (NYSE: BA) president and CEO Dave Calhoun said any new clean-sheet airliner design would be “at least a couple of years” away. Speaking at a conference for investors recently, the CEO of the aircraft manufacturer said the company needed time to improve its digital capabilities necessary to ensure any potential design would be substantially better.

Improving Digital Capabilities

In a conversation with Bernstein aerospace and defense analyst Doug Harned, Calhoun said that while design teams had progressed privately in testing out the new digital design approaches, more work needed to be done with those tools before any genuine product came.