Archer Aviation

Airbus

eVTOL +2

Airbus is Europe's largest aerospace company, spanning commercial aircraft, helicopters, defence and space. In civil aviation it remains Boeing's only true peer at global scale and is pairing near-term production growth with longer-term work on lower-carbon aircraft technologies, future single-aisle designs and hydrogen propulsion. The company combines a mature global airliner business with broader aerospace capabilities across defence, space and rotorcraft. Q1 2026 was unusually weak - 114 deliveries (vs. 136 a year earlier), revenue down 7% to EUR 12.65B and adjusted EBIT halved to EUR 300M due to Pratt & Whitney engine shortages and Chinese delivery disruptions - but Airbus reaffirmed full-year 2026 guidance of ~870 deliveries, EUR 7.5B adjusted EBIT and EUR 4.5B free cash flow, with a record commercial backlog above 9,000 aircraft. Output recovered strongly through mid-year: official figures reported July 10 showed 351 deliveries in H1 2026 (up ~15% YoY), Airbus's best first half since 2019, and the backlog stood at 9,216 aircraft at end-June. At a measured Farnborough Airshow (July 20-24, 2026) Airbus booked roughly 157 firm commercial orders plus commitments (of a show-wide $84.7B / 353 firm aircraft), headlined by SMBC Aviation Capital's 100 A320neo-family jets, VietJet's 20 A330neos (~$7.4B), and new A350-1000 orders from Riyadh Air and Philippine Airlines, with CEO Guillaume Faury reaffirming the ~870-delivery full-year target. On July 26 Airbus announced a EUR 5B share buyback and raised medium-term targets, and on July 29 it reported H1 2026 results: revenue up 12% YoY to EUR 33.2B on 351 deliveries, powered by a record Q2 (237 deliveries, +39% YoY). Airbus's official July tally, published August 7, showed the delivery pace cooling further to 67 aircraft (39 customers) and 204 gross orders, taking YTD deliveries to 418 versus 373 at the same point in 2025 - still 51 aircraft ahead of Boeing (367 YTD) but below the roughly 85-90/month cadence needed to reach the 870-aircraft target. August's official tally showed a further cooldown to 47 aircraft delivered to 31 customers and 46 gross orders (including airBaltic firming 10 more A220-300s), taking YTD deliveries to 465 - now requiring an average of roughly 100 aircraft a month over the final four months of the year to hit the 870-aircraft guidance. Part of the August softness traces to a production quality issue on the A330neo: Airbus found a stray tool and other quality lapses on the horizontal tail plane (assembled at its Getafe plant) that nearly halted A330neo deliveries for three months - zero handed over in June and July, just one in August, to Starlux Airlines - before Airbus said in early September the root cause was identified, the issue was isolated and unrelated to the Spain labor dispute, and deliveries had resumed. Two other supply and schedule risks continue to shadow the ramp: Airbus's dispute with Pratt & Whitney over shorted A320neo engine deliveries has hardened into a formal damages claim that could go to arbitration, and the A350F freighter has now penciled in a tentative first-flight date around September 24, 2026 (reports August 19-20), with first delivery still targeted for the second half of 2027 - a tight but so-far-unrevised schedule given typical 12-15 month flight-test campaigns. Airbus also confirmed two divisional leadership changes already in effect this year (Lars Wagner as Commercial Aircraft CEO since January, Matthieu Louvot as Airbus Helicopters CEO since April) and a board chair transition, with Amparo Moraleda succeeding Rene Obermann on October 1, 2026. Thousands of Airbus workers in Spain resumed an indefinite strike the week of August 24 after rejecting a pay offer; on August 31 workers voted 81% to keep striking rather than suspend it, and on September 1 SIMA-mediated talks with the three unions leading the walkout (CGT, UGT, UTIL) broke down without agreement, so Airbus shifted to a parallel negotiating track with non-striking unions (CCOO, SIPA, ATP) while the indefinite strike, and its drag on production, continued into early September with no resolution yet. On the defense side, Airbus also picked up two notable wins in mid-to-late August: a $115 million U.S. Army contract (option for two more) for 10 UH-72B Lakota helicopters announced August 14, and a EUR 5.4 billion (~$6.3B) Spain-Poland framework agreement approved by Spain's Council of Ministers on August 25 for the joint procurement of seven A330 MRTT tankers (three for Spain, four for Poland) under the EU's SAFE instrument, to be assembled at Airbus's Getafe site with Polish deliveries targeted by 2030 and definitive contracts still to be negotiated. Airbus's stock has held up despite the noise, with a market cap of roughly $190B in mid-August 2026. Separately, on August 29, 2026 the Financial Times reported that Airbus is reviewing its US small-satellite manufacturing business at Merritt Island, Florida (more than 200 staff and several hundred million dollars in annual revenue), with a sale among the options; Airbus confirmed the review and said it is separate from its planned European space combination with Leonardo and Thales.

Beta Technologies

eVTOL +2

Beta Technologies is an electric aerospace company building the ALIA aircraft family, electric propulsion systems, charging infrastructure, batteries, and flight-critical systems for cargo, passenger, medical, and defense markets. Founded in 2017 by Kyle Clark, the company went public on the NYSE in November 2025 and uses a stepwise commercialization path centered on certifying its conventional ALIA CTOL aircraft first while scaling motor, charger, and engineering services. By Q1 2026, Beta had grown its aircraft backlog to 991 units worth $3.9 billion, and by Q2 2026 had logged over 190,000 nautical miles of flight testing across a 138-site charging network (targeting 250,000 nautical miles by year-end 2026). Beta was selected for seven of the eight U.S. eIPP launch programs and flew the program's first operational missions on July 10, 2026, using the ALIA CX300 to carry United Therapeutics' manufactured organs across a ~275-nautical-mile Virginia-Maryland corridor, and by August 2026 was running eIPP cargo and medical-logistics missions with partners in New York, Texas, Utah, Maryland/Virginia, and Louisiana. At the July 2026 Farnborough Airshow, Beta unveiled the MV250 - a hybrid-electric autonomous VTOL for military logistics built around a GE Aerospace CT7/T700 turbine and Sikorsky's MATRIX autonomy stack - helped GE, NASA, and Boeing complete the first hybrid-electric flight above 30,000 feet, and signed a term sheet with UK carrier Loganair for up to 10 ALIA CTOL aircraft, positioning Loganair to become Europe's first electric-aircraft airline. Q2 2026 revenue was $14.7 million (up 146% year over year, beating guidance), with FY2026 guidance raised to $42-$50 million and $1.48 billion in cash as of June 30, 2026. H500A motor certification has slipped past its original H1 2026 target, though Beta reported in its Q2 2026 results that it reached agreement with the FAA on the motor's continued-rotation compliance approach and has formal FAA testing underway; CEO Kyle Clark still targets ALIA CX300 type certification in the second half of 2027 (down from an original late-2025 goal), with the A250 eVTOL following around 2028.

Joby Aviation

eVTOL +2

Joby Aviation is a California-based transportation company developing a piloted, all-electric air taxi for commercial passenger service. The company completed FAA Stage 4 certification in late March 2026 and is now in Stage 5 (Type Inspection Authorization), the final gate before U.S. commercial type certification, which analysts expect in late 2026 - Q2 2026 was its strongest quarter of certification progress yet, with five conforming aircraft flying and 12 more in production. On July 7, 2026 the UAE's GCAA certified its flagship Dubai vertiport (VDX at DXB) as the world's first certified commercial eVTOL vertiport, clearing the network for a public launch directed before year-end, and in early August 2026 Joby established a U.S. hub at Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport ahead of planned eIPP demonstration flights there in September 2026. The company reported Q2 2026 revenue of $38.6M (beating estimates), ended the quarter with $2.3B in cash and short-term investments, and raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $115M-$125M. On August 11, 2026 Joby agreed to acquire Ohio-based defense firm Resonant Sciences for about $500M to build a dedicated defense business, and launched a $750M at-the-market equity program to help fund its growth. Joby expects to carry its first paying passengers in the UAE and through the White House-backed eIPP program in the U.S. in 2026.

Eve Air Mobility

eVTOL +1

Eve Air Mobility (Eve Holding) is the Embraer-backed eVTOL developer, spun out of the EmbraerX innovation arm in 2020 and NYSE-listed since a 2022 SPAC merger, with Brazilian BDRs on the B3 since 2025. Its lift-plus-cruise aircraft - eight fixed-pitch lift rotors, a pusher propeller, Embraer fifth-generation fly-by-wire, four passengers plus a pilot, ~100 km range - flew its full-scale engineering prototype for the first time in December 2025, completed a 59-flight hover/low-speed test block in May 2026, and on August 3, 2026 flew its first partial transition flight with the pusher propeller engaged, reaching a stabilized 27 knots. Eve holds one of the industry's largest order pipelines: ~2,700 aircraft (~$13.5B at list price) in non-binding LOIs from 27 customers across nine countries, plus ~$500M in binding orders from Revo (São Paulo) and Japan's AirX. ANAC type certification and entry into service are targeted for 2028, with the aircraft design set to freeze by year-end 2026 ahead of a first crewed conforming-prototype flight in the second half of 2027. The company reported $531.3M in total liquidity at Q2 2026 that it says funds it through certification, and a Taubaté, Brazil plant scaling to 480 aircraft/year. It also sells Vector, its urban air-traffic-management software, to 14 customers.

Vertical Aerospace

eVTOL +1

Vertical Aerospace is a Bristol, UK-based eVTOL developer building Valo, a piloted electric air taxi, and is the last major independent European player after the collapses of Lilium and Volocopter. Founded in 2016 by OVO Energy's Stephen Fitzpatrick, it listed on the NYSE in 2021 and survived a 2024 financial restructuring that made Mudrick Capital its controlling shareholder. In April 2026 its VX4 prototype completed the world's first piloted two-way eVTOL transition flight under civil DOA regulatory oversight - only the second company globally to achieve piloted transition - and its third full-scale prototype joined the test campaign in June 2026. The production aircraft, unveiled as Valo in December 2025, is backed by ~1,500 conditional pre-orders worth ~$6B from American Airlines, Avolon, Bristow, GOL, and Japan Airlines. On July 13, 2026 Vertical re-baselined its UK CAA/EASA type certification target from 2028 to 2029, and it is also developing a hybrid-electric Valo variant with up to 1,000 miles of range for defense and logistics markets.

Boeing

Civilian Aircrafts +1

Boeing is one of the world's largest aerospace companies, spanning commercial airplanes, defense and space systems, and aftermarket services. The 2026 turnaround gathered pace through the first half of the year: 314 commercial deliveries in H1 2026 (its best first half since 2018), a Q2 net loss of $428M on $24.6B of revenue that nonetheless produced the company's first positive free cash flow quarter (+$631M) in over a year, and a record total backlog of $715B including more than 6,200 commercial aircraft. The 737 MAX line reached rate 47 per month in May 2026 and gained a fourth final-assembly line - the Everett 'North Line' - in July, with rate 52 targeted for early 2027. At the Farnborough Airshow (July 20-24, 2026) Boeing booked 170+ aircraft led by SMBC's 100-jet 737 MAX order, while the long-delayed 777X neared its certification finish line even as Emirates declined to accept the first 10-11 early-build 777-9s over their age and GE Aerospace temporarily paused GE9X engine shipments pending a durability fix. The FAA certified the 737 MAX 7 on August 3, 2026, clearing the smallest MAX variant after nearly a decade of review, and on August 10 Boeing agreed to sell its Wisk Aero, Insitu, and SkyGrid subsidiaries to Archer Aviation for a near-20% equity stake. July's delivery pace cooled to 53 aircraft (down 17% from June and now trailing Airbus by 51 aircraft year-to-date, 367 vs 418), and on August 21 Boeing's roughly 17,000 SPEEA-represented engineers and technicians rejected the tentative contract their own bargaining councils declined to endorse (64.3% and 71.9% against, respectively) and authorized a strike if no new deal is reached before the current contracts expire October 6. Boeing shares fell about 7.5% on the news, cutting market cap to roughly $170B (from ~$183B in mid-August). On August 26 the FAA finalized an airworthiness directive requiring inspections of certain 787 Dreamliners over shim gaps at lower side-of-body splice plates. Boeing remains one of the two central global commercial-jet manufacturers alongside Airbus, with its trajectory now hinging on sustaining the 737 ramp without reintroducing defects, closing out 737 MAX 10 certification, avoiding an engineers' strike, and steering the 777X's remaining ETOPS testing toward 2027 certification.