NEO - Why the Fuss?
The world has gone mad recently because Airbus want to stick some slighly more efficent engines on their A32x. It feels like another Crash of 2008 but that's a separate story.
What confuses me is if the new engines are about the same weight, size and thrust, why is it such a big deal?
I can see you've got more issues if you are Boeing. You've not got enough ground clearance so you need a new undercarriage. But even then - why can't aircraft be regularly upgraded just like automobiles? Nowadays surely the flight computers are the most tricky part of flying, so as long as you keep the same flight control behaviour does it really matter if there are slight differences in actual flight responses? Slightly different engines surely can't make much difference compared to the normal variation in loads, weather etc?
I suppose I'm saying this because I wish Boeing would just say "OK we'll stick Leap Xs on when they're available and in the meantime just jack up the undercarriage a tad. No problemmo.
Then we wouldn't have this endless Will-they/Won't-they with regard to a totally new aircraft.