Boeing and Europeans to Study Joint Jumbo Jet : Aviation: International cooperation on the super plane could prevent a fierce marketing battle.
In what could develop into the first international joint venture for a U.S. aircraft maker, Boeing Co. said Wednesday that it will join four members of the European consortium Airbus Industrie to study a proposed super jumbo jet.
The study will examine an aircraft capable of carrying 550 to 800 passengers and flying distances of up to 10,000 miles, Boeing said. The group will not actually begin to design the aircraft, but will consider the general characteristics of the aircraft, the market timing for its introduction and how to structure a joint venture.
A cooperative venture could preclude a cutthroat marketing battle that would bloody both European and American aircraft makers later this decade.
“We think the market, at best, will support only one airplane,” said John Hayhurst, the head of Boeing’s larger-aircraft project, who will share a leadership role in the study with Juergen Thomas, a senior Deutsche Aerospace executive.
Boeing, the world’s largest commercial aircraft maker, declined to discuss the cost of the study. Analysts characterized the effort as relatively minor and estimated that the study will cost at most in the tens of millions of dollars.
Boeing signed the memorandum of understanding with Aerospatiale of France, British Aerospace, Construcciones Aeronauticas of Spain and the Deutsche Aerospace unit of Germany’s Daimler-Benz.
A Boeing spokesman said the agreement does not preclude participation by McDonnell Douglas Corp. in the feasibility study or in any subsequent aircraft development program. A McDonnell spokeswoman said that was a fair representation of the company’s position. “We haven’t closed the door on any aircraft development,” she said.
But the agreement also does not prevent any of the five firms from conducting their own studies of a super jumbo jet outside the group study, the Boeing spokesman said.
Jack Modzelewski, aerospace analyst at PaineWebber, said the agreement is a good development for Boeing if it stops Airbus from launching its own super jumbo jet, forcing head-on competition for Boeing. He estimated that such an aircraft would cost $6 billion to $8 billion to develop.
Neither Boeing nor Airbus believes that the current air travel market could support such an aircraft. Airbus has made it clear, however, that if Boeing were to launch its own program, the European group would respond with a competitive product.
If Boeing and the four Europeans eventually join forces, Modzelewski said, Boeing would expect to get 60% of the program, which is proportional to its control of the world aircraft market.
