All Opinion articles – Page 31
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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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Opinion
OPINION: Diversity in airline leadership brings success
Lack of leadership diversity in global airlines undermines their commercial success and prospects, writes Christoph Wahl of Egon Zehnder
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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 ...
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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.