It’s little appreciated how aviation is a technological backwater. Even in military aviation there was a choice between the F-22 with a cutting edge airframe and mediocre avionics and the F-35 with a mediocre airframe and cutting edge avionics.
There are a few spots of competition such as wide body aircraft but narrow bodies are a race between a 1968 and 1982 design. The #1 thing that every unit at my university says is holding them back is the local airport, which sucks because they are flying 1990 jets. Jet makers would like to make regional jets that are much more economical and a little bigger, they’d have no trouble filling them because lower costs would lead to a ‘southwest effect’ that would increase demand. Pilot unions won’t let US airlines buy them because of ‘scope clauses’.
There are a few spots of competition such as wide body aircraft but narrow bodies are a race between a 1968 and 1982 design. The #1 thing that every unit at my university says is holding them back is the local airport, which sucks because they are flying 1990 jets. Jet makers would like to make regional jets that are much more economical and a little bigger, they’d have no trouble filling them because lower costs would lead to a ‘southwest effect’ that would increase demand. Pilot unions won’t let US airlines buy them because of ‘scope clauses’.