Boeing Bets Comeback on Trump, China and an Elusive New Plane

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Boeing in China just before we get to today.

[00:00:02]Just give us some some background going back to the 1970s, Richard Nixon's visit and how then Boeing was kind of seen as this diplomatic tool until then.

[00:00:14]As is now, Boeing has been the diplomatic tool for the US, and Boeing has been crucial in kickstarting aviation across the world, including in China, where the aviation sort of boom started with the the Boeing 707.

[00:00:28]Before that, who had a lot of Russian planes in China.

[00:00:31]And so getting the 707. And then airlines in China have subsequently ordered the 777, the 747, the 737 Ng and the Max.

[00:00:42]And so Chinese airlines currently operate thousands of Boeing aircraft, and they haven't placed a new order in about almost a decade.

[00:00:52]So the last time they place an order was when Trump visited back in 2017.

[00:00:57]And so the next phase of aviation in China is really dependent on whether or not the, uh, Boeing gets a brand new deal from the Chinese airlines.

[00:01:07]Why? Why in ten years, was it all the problems at Boeing say that that China backed off?

[00:01:12]Was it the relationship between the U.S. and China?

[00:01:15]What was it? It was a combination of multiple things.

[00:01:17]So China, remember, was one of the first countries to ground the 737 Max after those two fatal crashes, and then the rest of the world followed, and the 737 Max was grounded from 2019 to 2020. And thereafter, we went into the pandemic when airlines stopped purchasing and sort of hunkered down to preserve cash. And since then, the the diplomatic relationship hasn't been the greatest. And so we haven't really seen the orders that Boeing's been hoping would materialize actually materialize.

[00:01:49]One thing that's different this time around, though, versus the 1970s, is that there's a home grown. I'm not going to call it a competitor yet, but Comac, the Chinese state planemaker, sort of their version of Boeing, built with more state support. They have the their version of the 737 that is actually flying in China now. Absolutely.

[00:02:08]So the Comac set, uh, the Comac C9 one nine is basically, uh, sorry, C 99 is basically a competitor to, uh, the 737 and the A320 that Airbus makes.

[00:02:21]The problem with that plane, though, is that the volumes that they're producing in, uh, not really sufficient for, uh, China to sort of depend on those planes.

[00:02:30]So they're still sort of growing production.

[00:02:32]I mean, it takes years to ramp up production to the levels that Airbus and Boeing seem to do every month. So Boeing is currently aiming to make 42 073 sevens a month. That's that's much more.

[00:02:46]That's more than like Comac can make in a over a in two years.

[00:02:49]So, wait, uh, help me understand this because we talk about Chinese manufacturing and say it's the envy of the world, right?

[00:02:56]Robotic automatic. You know, manufacturing.

[00:02:59]Why is it that they haven't kind of conquered this?

[00:03:01]They are very good at studying, uh, what other folks are doing and figuring it out. So why haven't they succeeded?

[00:03:08]So to that extent. It takes a couple of things.

[00:03:11]I mean, one, the Comac plane depends a lot on Western avionics.

[00:03:16]The engines are made by CFM, uh, which is a joint venture between Safran and GE. The avionics and other things are also made in the West. And so they are ramping up production, taking basically building a plane, which takes years of it takes years to ramp up production because it's just too complex in terms of getting certification, making sure the plane safe, making sure it sort of performs to the expectations.

[00:03:43]So that takes a while with that, with those planes.

[00:03:45]I mean, I know we're we're I'm sort of going off topic here, but I know where you're going to go. Yeah.

[00:03:49]With those. But I think the regulatory environment with European regulators in the FAA, would they ever approve a Chinese made plane to fly in the US or in Europe? So so China is actively trying to get the, uh, Comac plane certified in Europe at the moment.

[00:04:04]But at the At the regulators still haven't cleared it.

[00:04:06]And remember, even getting the 737 Max, seven and ten, which is a variant of an existing product that's in has taken years for Boeing, and they're still not at the finish line for that model. So getting a brand new jet in China certified will take a while. All right.

[00:04:24]So let's get to the fate of Boeing, right.

[00:04:27]Um, I thought it was fascinating, um, that the plane that has been so popular, um, was in developed today was in development back when Nixon was in China. So talk to us about the future.

[00:04:41]Like what comes next. Right.

[00:04:42]Because it's they've got to be thinking about where do they go next.

[00:04:45]Absolutely. And so for Boeing, the biggest challenge is trying to get to the next generation of aircraft.

[00:04:52]And a lot of aircraft manufacturers look at revolutionary ideas.

[00:04:56]I mean, Boeing famously toyed with thrust based wings where you had trusses supporting these really long, thin wings, but and there was, uh, GE and CFM is talking about their ISE program, which is open rotors, and those are sort of rotors that so they perform like a jet engine, but they obviously are sort of more fuel efficient. But they have those big rotors that are outside. So Boeing, we understand, is going for something that's more evolutionary than revolutionary, where they aren't sort of issuing all those sort of big ideas and saying, let's get something that looks more or less similar to what we have today, but with more fuel efficient engines, longer wings, and that would be able to use the existing infrastructure, but without having to sort of I mean, airlines have dealt with revolutionary change with even just the engines on the A321, which the new GTF engines, which have been significant sort of problems for a lot of airlines.

[00:05:57]And, uh, fair to say that Boeing learned with the debacle around the 737 Max and retrofit essentially retrofitting. Exactly.

[00:06:06]Airframe. I mean, Boeing has sort of learned to the set of the 77 Max that the 737 families, probably at the end of it, sort of like you can the last you can sort of stretch it out and sort of take it further into service. I mean, they have to sort of start with a brand new design, but they will try to keep it within sort of the evolutionary range rather than sort of go for something completely radical, because airlines don't really want to experiment.

[00:06:31]They want something that's reliable, that gets their customers from A to B more efficiently. So still human beings as pilots, not autonomously flown. I mean, no windows in the air.

[00:06:42]We don't know really. I mean, but we could do that.

[00:06:44]I mean, look at what the military planes really fly themselves, right?

[00:06:49]You really if you think about the systems that are on those big jets, that there are systems today that can land a plane safely and all of that.

[00:06:56]But at the same time, in tricky situations, pilots do step in, right?

[00:07:01]And shout out to the pilots, I'm just going to throw it out there.

[00:07:04]Listen, do I listen? Do I think automation is great?

[00:07:07]But do I want somebody as a like a human as a backup just in case, like something goes wrong? I mean, it's difficult.

[00:07:13]I mean, you seen those videos on Instagram with the way more driving off with someone's bags in the boot. I mean, imagine planes flying there.