Bjorn Fehrm, Author at Leeham News and Analysis

Bjorn Fehrm occupies a rare position in aviation analysis: a credentialed aeronautical engineer and former military fighter pilot who has translated deep technical fluency into one of the most rigorous independent analytical voices in commercial aviation media. Writing under the "Bjorn's Corner" banner at Leeham News and Analysis, Fehrm has built a substantial body of work covering aircraft performance, economics, and emerging airframe concepts. His current focal point — a multi-part series on Blended Wing Body (BWB) airliners, now into its ninth installment as of early May 2026 — represents some of the most substantive public-domain treatment of a technology that could eventually reshape the economics of commercial air transport. Alongside the BWB series, Fehrm maintains a parallel track examining the state of alternative propulsion aircraft, now in its tenth installment, signaling a commitment to longitudinal coverage of technologies whose timelines extend well beyond typical news cycles.

Fehrm's analytical credibility derives directly from his professional biography. His career arc — Swedish Air Force aeronautical engineer and Draken pilot, contributor to the Viggen and Gripen programs, Saab countermeasures engineer, and holder of four international patents — gives him a working engineer's lens rather than a journalist's. At Leeham, he developed the proprietary Aircraft Model, a performance simulation tool that allows normalized comparisons of airframe and engine data stripped of OEM marketing assumptions. That model has been applied to direct operating cost analyses, fuel burn projections, and fleet planning scenarios, making his outputs usable by operators, lessors, and financiers who need defensible numbers rather than manufacturer slide decks. His access to fly the Airbus A350-900 and the Bombardier CS300 as one of a handful of journalists to do so further distinguishes his pilot reports as operationally grounded, not purely theoretical.

For professional pilots and flight operations departments, Fehrm's BWB series carries specific relevance as airlines and airframe manufacturers begin serious feasibility work on next-generation widebody replacements. The BWB concept, informed in part by NASA's X-48B demonstrator program, promises lift-to-drag ratios in the 20–25 range compared to roughly 18 for conventional tube-and-wing designs — a structural fuel efficiency gain that, if certified and operated at scale, would alter route economics substantially. Fehrm's treatment of passenger compartment challenges in Part 8 and aerodynamic integration in earlier installments addresses the certification and operational realities that marketing materials routinely elide. For Part 91K and Part 135 operators monitoring the long-cycle airliner development pipeline for its eventual downstream effects on used aircraft values and pilot type rating demand, this series provides a technically credible forecast horizon.

The broader context surrounding Fehrm's platform also warrants attention. Leeham News and Analysis, founded in 1996 by Scott Hamilton, was acquired by AIN Media Group in July 2025, consolidating two of the most technically oriented independent aviation outlets under a single umbrella. AIN's reach into the business aviation segment, combined with LNA's commercial airliner depth, creates a more integrated analytical resource for operators who straddle both markets — particularly large-cabin business jet operators and fractional programs that monitor single-aisle and widebody trends for competitive intelligence on utilization, range capabilities, and fleet transitions. Fehrm continuing in his analyst role post-acquisition preserves the methodological continuity that makes LNA's modeling outputs trusted by fleet planners and lenders. His parallel coverage of alternative propulsion — including electric, hybrid, and hydrogen architectures — reflects an editorial judgment that the 10-to-15-year engine development cycle means decisions being made today by airframe manufacturers will define what pilots are flying in the late 2030s.

Fehrm's sustained, series-format approach to complex technical topics is itself significant in a media environment that defaults to episodic coverage of certification events and delivery milestones. The accumulation of nine BWB installments and ten alternative propulsion installments creates a reference architecture that operators, pilots, and analysts can use to track how viable new configurations are becoming — not just whether they exist. For professional aviators and flight department managers navigating fleet planning decisions, capital allocation, and pilot training pipelines in an environment of high airframe prices and constrained delivery slots, that kind of longitudinal technical journalism provides context that no single manufacturer briefing or trade show panel can replicate.