Author: FlyMarshall Newsroom
Subscription Required By Scott Hamilton and Bjorn Fehrm April 2, 2026, © Leeham News: Boeing is no longer “freighter king.” The March 16 order by cargo carrier Atlas Air for 20 A350Fs gives Airbus a 60% market share of orders for the next generation of freighters. Since the dawn of the jet age, Boeing has had a lock on jet airliner freighters. It vanquished Douglas Aircraft Co and its successor, McDonnell Douglas. Airbus had modest success with the new build A300-600F, with about 100 ordered. But Airbus bombed with the new production A330-200F; only 38 were sold. Figure 1. The…
Alaska Airlines unveiled a new international business class cabin on April 1, 2026. This new product, which will be available on the carrier’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft, has been designed with the new long-haul expansion program in mind. In 2025 Alaska Airlines announced a major strategic pivot, with plans to launch at least 12 new long-haul routes out of Seattle-Tacoma (SEA) to both Europe and Asia. The airline’s new business class will feature fully lie-flat suites with privacy doors, direct aisle access and 18” screens, giving access to an inflight entertainment (IFE) catalogue of 1,500 movies and TV shows. The seats…
The deployment of the one-of-a-kind 737 to MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, to support the Artemis II launch, provided aircraft spotters and photographers with an unprecedented opportunity for a closer look at the NT-43A “RAT 55” and its dorsal turret and radome. As we reported in detail yesterday, the highly-modified Boeing 737-200, the U.S. Air Force NT-43A, better known with its callsign RAT55 (or RATT 55), was among the assets operating around Cape Canaveral to support the Artemis II launch on Apr. 1, 2026. Both on the day of the launch and the day prior to that (when a rehearsal…
Sweden announced a SEK 8.7 billion (~$828 million) air defense procurement package on April 2, 2026, grouping contracts with Saab, BAE Systems Bofors, Nammo, and SISU under the program designation GUTE II. The announcement was made by Defense Minister Pål Jonson alongside Army Chief Jonny Lindfors and representatives from the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV). Idag kan vi meddela att flera luftvärnsavtal till ett värde av 8,7 miljarder har slutits med leveranser 2027-2028. Luftvärnssystemen ska användas till skydd av kritisk infrastruktur och mot drönare. (1/6) pic.twitter.com/nLTi6gAKhu— Pål Jonson (@PlJonson) April 2, 2026 Mobile protection for forces and infrastructure GUTE II is a modular, mobile…
France will shoulder the full development cost of the Rafale F5 after a co-financing partnership with the United Arab Emirates fell apart in late December 2025, La Tribune reported. The breakdown adds billions to a French defense budget already under severe strain, delays deliveries of the next-generation fighter standard, and leaves the accompanying stealth combat drone without a funded program. A €3.5 billion partnership that never materialized Abu Dhabi had been prepared to contribute up to €3.5 billion ($3.8 billion) toward a roughly €5 billion ($5.7 billion) outstanding bill for the F5 program, according to La Tribune. But the deal collapsed after months of impasse…
Rail deliveries of Boeing 737 MAX fuselages from Spirit AeroSystems appeared to slow in March 2026, according to analysis performed by BNP Paribas Equity Research. On April 1, 2026, BNP Paribas Equity Research said that through March 2026, it counted 38 737 fuselages being transported from the Spirit base in Wichita to Boeing’s final assembly facility in Renton. The research firm added that the 38 deliveries were slightly below Boeing’s target production rate at 42 per month. “We believe our data is a good indicator of production over the longer-term but may not match up with BA’s production month to…
Artemis II is NASA’s first mission with crew aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, and the first beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. After a first launch attempt was scrubbed in February 2026, the Artemis II mission launched from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B on Apr. 1, 2026. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are now flying the first crewed Lunar flyby in 50 years. The #Artemis II crew departed the Operations and Checkout building to head to Launch Complex 39B to…
NASA’s Artemis II mission launched successfully on April 1, 2026, sending four astronauts into space on the first crewed US mission bound for the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. NASA’s Space Launch System lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 18:35 local time. The countdown moved ahead without any major issues, apart from a temperature warning involving one of Orion’s launch abort system batteries that controllers treated as a sensor issue rather than a hardware problem. Minutes after the launch, the boosters and core stage separated on schedule, and Orion’s solar arrays deployed as planned. The 10-day test flight…
The destruction of a U.S. Air Force E-3G Sentry AWACS in Saudi Arabia has reignited debate about the procurement of the E-7A Wedgetail. The loss of a U.S. Air Force E-3G Sentry AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) following the drone and missile attack at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, on Mar. 27, 2026, has reignited debate about the aging fleet, putting the spotlight on its replacement. As it has often been reported, the E-3 fleet continues to age and is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain and operate, while the E-7A Wedgetail is still far from being fielded. In fact,…
Chart Supplement U.S. A flight information publication designed for use with appropriate IFR or VFR charts which contains data on all airports, seaplane bases, and heliports open to the public including communications data, navigational facilities, airport diagrams, certain special notices, and non-regulatory procedures. This publication is issued for the conterminous U.S., Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands in seven volumes according to geographical area.