Editorial opinion – Page 22
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OpinionOPINION: What's driving Boeing job cuts?
Having never before experienced a “super-cycle” in the commercial aviation business, it’s not always clear what one should look like while we are inside it, particularly after a perplexing announcement, such as a mass staff reduction by Boeing’s commercial unit amidst an historic production ramp-up.
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OpinionOPINION: High-altitude stakes soar for U-2 successor
Since the Space Shuttle’s final mission in 2011, Americans have had to explain to their children that the only way to space now is via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, blasting off from Kazakhstan. This storyline is only being corrected with the development of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragon ...
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OpinionOPINION: Airport security even harder in a heads-down world
Identifying a suspect before they commit an atrocity is worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack because a needle, at least, looks different. The situation might be more accurately compared with trying to find a particular needle in a needlestack.
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Opinion
OPINION: The battle to break into the airliner establishment
This year will bring some fascinating developments for the “tin lovers” as two all-new mainline jets, one backed by the might of China and the other by Russia, enter the fray.
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Opinion
OPINION: Goodbye Finmeccanica, hello Leonardo
Arrivederci Finmeccanica. Buongiorno Leonardo. Not long after the Italian group announced it was consolidating its businesses around a single corporate identity, it has revealed that new identity – a surprising choice, inspired by the country’s greatest genius.
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Opinion
OPINION: Aviation must address a Catch-22 for mentally ill pilots
In the novel that coined the term, Catch-22 described a paradox in which a doctor could not stop a mentally-unstable combat pilot from flying because a grounding request by the pilot would prove that his mind was entirely sound.
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OpinionOPINION: For B-21 bomber project, now comes the hard part
After painful experience with the B-2 and F-35, the US Air Force faces a battle to sell the American public another multi-billion dollar aircraft programme
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Opinion
OPINION: Rotorcraft sector must go back to basics
"There doesn’t seem to be a strategy to expand the industry. We’ve been suckling too long on the oil and gas teat.” However provocative, that stray comment from one of the organising team at the HAI Heli-Expo show neatly captures the state of the rotorcraft sector.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why airframers opposed Honeywell's UTC merger move
Industry consolidation has many useful purposes. Combining two organisations enlarges the economic and intellectual pool of resources, allowing the merged company to accept more risk to compete and innovate. It reduces overlapping back-office functions, making the entire industry more efficient and focused on the most essential tasks: developing, making and ...
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OpinionOPINION: Can Airbus deliver this year with A400M transport?
Early last year, Airbus Group chief executive Tom Enders took the highly unusual and humbling step of publicly apologising for the development and production delays that were hindering the company’s delivery performance on the A400M, and promised to improve the situation.
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OpinionOPINION: E2 roll-out highlights Embraer transition
Embraer’s public roll-out of the E190-E2 on 25 February offered both a snapshot of the company’s remarkable last two decades, and a hint of what’s to come.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why territorial concerns dominated Singapore show
The sun-dappled waters next to the site of last week’s Singapore air show pulled more than a few longing glances from sweaty delegates, but it was a patch of ocean just a few hours by air to the northeast that was preoccupying military delegations at the show.
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OpinionOPINION: Is Air Canada commitment game-changer for CSeries?
Over the eight-year saga of Bombardier’s star-cross’d CSeries programme, few moments seemed more monumental than Air Canada’s new commitment to buy up to 75 CS300s, announced on 17 February.
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Opinion
OPINION: Can NASA's new X-planes transform aviation?
It was the golden age of flight experimentation when Scott Crossfield arrived at Edwards AFB, California, in 1950. The soon-to-be legendary test pilot likened the atmosphere to an “Indianapolis 500 without rules”, as each flight attempted something – a speed, an altitude or some combination – that no human had ...
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Opinion
OPINION: F-35 budget woes deflate transatlantic celebrations
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II has become a lightning rod for quick-hit budget savings in the Pentagon’s latest military spending plan, despite what the programme office would have you believe.
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OpinionOPINION: What next for Boeing?
Having abandoned a clean-sheet design to replace its 737 in 2011, Boeing has moved swiftly towards flight testing a re-engined version. But its focus may now shift to something larger
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Opinion
OPINION: Dassault excels in balancing act
“We had the impression the crisis was over and the world was back to recovery.” The downturn in markets that as recently as 2014 were darlings of Dassault, and its rivals in large-cabin business jets, surprised the French firm’s boss Éric Trappier, but it illustrates the fragility of a sector ...
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OpinionOPINION: Is Boeing at risk of slowing?
A landmark in Boeing’s illustrious, 99-year history passed unnoticed last year, on 20 February, when its shares traded at $158.31. In nearly a century of achievement, Boeing’s market value had never been higher. More ominously, that value was a distinct peak.
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Opinion
OPINION: Is the world ready for new era of supersonic travel?
Those who mourn the passing of the Concorde era have cause to do more than mark last week’s anniversary – now a full 40 years ago – of the inauguration of commercial supersonic air service. For there is much cause to hope that NASA is poised to drive forward into ...