The view from Paris...Texas (almost)

The view from Paris...Texas (almost)

I am not at Paris with my Flight colleagues, so I can review the day's events from the air-conditioned comfort of my Washington, DC office. Looks like things went much as expected: Airbus and Boeing squaring off in the orders battle as Rafale and Typhoon duked it out for flying display honours. A couple of things caught my eye. One was the comment by Boeing Commercial Airplanes' boss Scott Carson that the timeline for a 737 replacement is being paced by advances in engine technology. Not a surprising comment, but one that makes clear the engine makers are under the gun to produce improvements that will take the heat off airlines as they labour under disproportionate blame for global warning. The other was the agreement between the US FAA and European Commission aimed at reducing CO2 emissions on transatlantic flights through air traffic management measures. Carson says, and I agree, that ATM improvements offer \"the quickest and greatest short-term gains in reducing emissions\". While the engine manufacturers get on with the \"hard\" stuff, the air transport industry needs to move quickly to do the \"easy\" stuff and show the public it is taking global warming seriously. \n