Rolls-Royce confirms talks with Boeing on all-new jet

Bloomberg

Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc said it’s holding discussions with Boeing Co about a new aircraft program, lending more weight to rumblings that the US planemaker is stepping up work on all-new model that would plug a gap in its lineup.
“It is fairly well documented that Boeing is exploring the opportunity for a new aircraft,” Rolls CEO Warren East said. “Like the other engine manufacturers, I am sure, we are in dialog with Boeing about that.”
The latest discussions are different from those in early 2019, when Rolls-Royce pulled out of the running to supply Boeing’s then-planned midrange model, East said. At the time, the UK company decided its UltraFan engine wouldn’t be ready in time for the mid-decade timetable Boeing had planned for its so-called NMA. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun scrapped the project shortly after joining the planemaker last year.
The engine-maker is the first major supplier to confirm it’s involved in talks for a follow-on concept that would sit between Boeing’s largest 737 Max single-aisle and smallest 787 Dreamliner wide-body jets. About 20% of aerospace suppliers are discussing participating in the program with Boeing and are hopeful the new plane gets launched, Ken Herbert, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, found in a recent survey.
The US manufacturing titan has been mulling designs to replace its twin-aisle 767 and out-of-production 757 for nearly a decade, while chief rival Airbus SE racked up orders with its A321neo, a plane that sits virtually unopposed in that space. The Toulouse, France-based planemaker said the A321 variant now accounts for more than half its order backlog in the A320 family.
Boeing has said it continues to invest in initiatives critical to its future, even as it slashed its overall research and development budget as the coronavirus pandemic hit and the grounding of its 737 Max battered its finances.