Friday 25 February 2011

Saj Ahmad at Fleetbuzz gets his facts wrong again and again and again

There is just no end to the number of times Saj Ahmad gets his facts wrong:

Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbo Fan is a frequent target. He recently and perpetually claims Boeing has no interest in the engine. This is just flat-out wrong, wrong, wrong. Boeing is very interested in the engine and is holding close discussions with Pratt to power the replacement aeroplane for the 737.

Ahmad recently cited a Boeing executive on "Pratt & Whitney's need to address questions no one seemed to be asking." This was referring to an article in Aviation Week .However, Ahmad, per his usual M.O., didn't cite the source, probably because doing so would show how selectively he chose his quote to unfairly portray what the executive truly said.

Here is the full, relevant quote from the article:

Piasecki has her own take on maturity of engine designs. For the NEO, Airbus is offering a choice of Pratt & Whitney’s PW1100G geared turbofan (GTF) or CFM International’s Leap-X, the follow-on to the CFM56-7B that powers 737NGs. Both must prove themselves, she says, especially the PW1100G, the maintenance of which she regards as an unknown. “We love the GTF technology,” she says. “We hope to be working very closely with [Pratt] to understand the technology. But nobody seems to be asking such a fundamental question, particularly as it relates to the NEO.”

While Ahmad selectively referred to the maintenance issue, he left out that Boeing "loves" the GTF technology and that LEAP-X must also "prove itself." Ahmad, who fawns over LEAP-X, doesn't at any time mention the questions over LEAP-X.

Another topic on which Ahmad always gets his "facts" wrong concerns the Bombardier CSeries. Ahmad perpetuates his myth that the CSeries does not have US trans-continental range. Once again, wrong, wrong, wrong. Straight from Bombardier's website, the range is 1,850-2,950nm, more than enough to go across the US. Ahmad always and totally ignores the ER version offered by Bombardier with the greater range. This is just another sets of falsehoods he writes. He also conveniently ignores statements by Lufthansa's Nico Buchholz supporting the CSeries and from Virgin America's David Cush that the CSeries could perform all missions, including trans-continental routes, that Virgin needed.

More information will be forthcoming.

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