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Well, if cars are any indication, maybe it'll be more reliable than the American built planes.

Mercifully, though, modern airliners aren’t made by 1970s-era General Motors.

No, that's for small aircraft and their postwar era engine designs. To give you an idea of how slow development is in small aircraft engines, AVGas (Gasoline for airplanes) is still leaded.

That’s more because of how old the fleet is. Modern engines with fuel injection, electronic ignition, turbos, and (optional) constant speed props don’t really care as long as their ECU has a map for it.

New planes also get 50-year old design engines due nobody wanting to pony up $ for certification of new ones...

And significantly more fuel efficient?

Aircraft manufacturers don't tend to make Jet Engines. The MRJ uses a Pratt & Whitney engine, for example [0]. Pratt & Whitney is a US company.

The engine isn't the only bit that affects fuel efficiency, but it is a big part.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Regional_Jet

Manufacturers are actively prohibited from this activity by US antitrust law. The “United” in “United Airlines” was a reference to the joining of Boeing and Pratt&Whitney.

Although aircraft are designed for specific engines, it’s up to the customer to execute a separate purchase agreement for them.

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