Editorial opinion – Page 23
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Opinion
OPINION: Airbus faces price pressure on A380 sales
Willie Walsh’s enthusiasm for the A380 – and disclosure that British Airways is looking at adding up to half a dozen used examples to its fleet – only serves to remind us what an enigma the Airbus big beast is.
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Opinion
OPINION: Boeing defence unit under pressure to win big
While their colleagues in the commercial sector face the challenge of ensuring that production rates can keep pace with record-breaking demand, the folks at Boeing Defense & Space must be wishing for a similar set of problems.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why Airbus, Boeing need supply chain reaction
There are jitters on the Chinese stock market and worries about many emerging economies, but John Leahy has a view on the orders bubble: there simply isn’t one. At the Airbus annual press conference in Paris on 12 January, the airframer’s top salesman again dismissed suggestions that the industry is ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Why aviation won't reach environmental Utopia
Our special report this week highlights the fraught nature of the relationship between aviation and the planet: flying is not environmentally friendly, and there is no easy way around that. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion, then, that new thinking is needed.
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Opinion
OPINION: What accident statistics don't tell us
With 2015 having proven – at least conditionally – to be the safest year on record for airline passenger transport operations, the inquiry into the Tatarstan 737 crash at Kazan is a reminder that such statistics are, to some extent, still dependent on good fortune.
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Opinion
OPINION: Talons drawn for T-X trainer battle
If 2015 was the year of the bomber, the US Air Force’s requirement for a next-generation fighter trainer will be one of the hottest games in town in 2016.
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Opinion
OPINION: Can aerospace sustain record performance?
The world’s aircraft manufacturers were not without reasons to celebrate as 2015 came to a close. Their key customers in passenger-carrying airlines had shrugged off slower than expected economic output and – buoyed by shrewder management and plunging oil prices – expected to report record-breaking profits globally, in excess of ...
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OpinionOPINION: HondaJet secures FAA approval
After a lengthy 13-year development effort, Honda Aircraft’s HondaJet finally crossed the finishing line on 9 December, when the US Federal Aviation Administration awarded full approval for the light business jet.
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OpinionOPINION: Despite impressive figures, Boeing is still playing catch-up to Airbus
Another new Boeing 737 rolled out of the factory in Renton on 9 December. But this time around, the airframer should not assume narrowbody market dominance – or even parity, it appears
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Opinion
OPINION: C-17's departure hands strategic opportunity to Airbus
Aircraft production was officially waved into history at Boeing’s Long Beach site in Southern California on 29 November, as the company’s last ever C-17 took off, for final pre-delivery completion in Texas.
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Opinion
OPINION: Indonesian crash report shows AF447's lessons not learned
This month marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of writer Rudyard Kipling, whose works included The Secret of the Machines – a discourse on modern technology which warned of fatal consequences if the operator made “a slip in handling us”.
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Opinion
OPINION: Second time lucky for UK defence?
Life experience tells us that after making a mistake, it takes guts, humility – or both even – to recognise it and put things right.
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Opinion
OPINION: Airbus narrowbody strategy delivers Neo success
We have become so used to charting catastrophic programme delays – from the A380 to the 787 and CSeries – that when a new type makes certification as advertised, it can come as a surprise.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why playing safe is the best approach
On the surface, the rule is deceptively simple: if the runway can’t be seen, abandon the approach. But it is a rule that doesn’t account for the spectre of temptation. Cloud is a visual siren, beckoning pilots to come a little closer, promising them the comforting view of their destination ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Textron Aviation's bold advance is good news for Wichita
Long before Textron Aviation there was Travel Air. Travel Air launched in 1925 when Clyde Cessna and Walter Beech – two Wichita-based aircraft designers – teamed up with Lloyd Stearman to produce the Model A biplane. When Curtiss-Wright acquired Travel Air four years later, its value had risen by a ...
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OpinionOPINION: Dubai air show sees lack of commercial sales from Middle East
In terms of commercial aircraft orders, this year’s air show was a shadow of its former self, but the region’s airlines may simply be between courses, rather than at the end of the meal.
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Opinion
OPINION: Boeing and Airbus put faith in supply-chain for rate-60
From 2019, the big two airframers will be churning out a total of 112 single-aisle aircraft each month. Airbus believes that rate-60 is sustainable, but headwinds could yet blow it off course.
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OpinionOPINION: Comac and Mitsubishi look to spread their wings
China and Japan are poised to make significant steps on their roads to aerospace prominence.
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Opinion
OPINION: USAF desperately needs LRS-B birth to be pain-free
It has been a long time coming, but the US Air Force has finally picked the manufacturer for its next-generation strategic bomber. But with the B-52 showing its age, time is not on its side
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OpinionOPINION: Does Bombardier's financial housekeeping go far enough?
The CSeries programme has cost the Canadian airframer dearly - and it still can't afford anything to go wrong