Boeing’s quest for NMA steers it away from its history

What if Boeing set out to design an all-new commercial airplane that didn't push the boundaries?

Avatar photoJon Ostrower·
Aircraft DevelopmentIndustry Strategy
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What's inside?

– When is Boeing’s Board of Directors expected to vote on granting authority to offer the NMA?
– Will the 797 be more or less-electric than the 787?
– Boeing’s own Spruce Goose

The first in a series focusing on Boeing’s road to developing its next all-new commercial airplane.

It’s hard to miss the large well-lit display case in the lobby of Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ suburban Seattle corporate campus. It’s where the company shows off its Collier Trophies. The 525-pound bronze trophy is on permanent display in Washington, D.C., but winners get a take home-sized version of their triumph.

The 107-year old trophy is awarded by the National Aeronautic Association to the flying innovation that pushes the frontiers of air and space. The highest honor in U.S. aerospace is an homage to soaring higher, faster and farther. The holy trinity of flying’s most romanticized objectives.

Boeing is awarded the Robert J. Collier Trophy in May 2012 for its development of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Boeing won the trophy every time it set out to design, build and mass-produce a twin-aisle jetliner. The jumbo 747 won in 1970, the 767 (and 757) in 1982, the 777 again in 1995 and its troubled, but no-less path-breaking 787 Dreamliner won in 2011. Each opened new frontiers of commercial flying technology.

And with each successive airliner came tremendous and growing costs. Every leap in technology and performance more costly than the last.4

But what if Boeing set out to design an all-new airplane that didn’t push the boundaries?

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Jon Ostrower
Jon Ostrower is Editor-in-chief of The Air Current, where he leads coverage of the global aerospace and aviation industries. Prior to launching TAC in June 2018, Mr. Ostrower served as Aviation Editor for CNN Worldwide, guiding the network’s global coverage of the business and operations of aviation. Mr. Ostrower joined CNN in 2016 following four and a half years at the Wall Street Journal. Based first in Chicago and then in Washington, D.C., he covered Boeing, aviation safety, and the business of global aerospace. Before that, Mr. Ostrower was editor of FlightBlogger for Flightglobal and Flight International Magazine covering the development of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and other new aircraft programs from 2007 to 2012. He is also an instructor at the University of Southern California in the Viterbi School of Engineering's Aviation Safety and Security program. Mr. Ostrower, a Boston native, graduated from The George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs with a bachelor’s degree in Political Communication. He is based in Seattle.
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