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National and industrial ambitions could prompt Tokyo to back the development of a new commercial airliner via a major investment – but things didn’t go so well the last time it tried.
Faced with continued missteps by one of its largest suppliers, Boeing is contemplating rebuilding its union with a company it divorced decades earlier. That move is not without risk, but doing nothing is also not an option.
The Singapore air show was notable for featuring the first international displays by China’s homegrown C919 airliner. Is it time for the ‘big two’ western airframers to start worrying?
Boeing lost out to its great rival for the fifth straight year in 2023 – but more worryingly for the US airframer, it saw Airbus extend its narrowbody sales lead.
Support for the widespread adoption of ‘drop-in’ sustainable aviation fuel is gaining momentum, as milestone flights take off. Now governments and oil companies must get on board.
Despite a development timeline that does not foresee deliveries before 2030, Gulf carrier Emirates has decided to revisit smallest variant of Boeing’s new 777X family.
Stripping Australia’s unwanted NH90 fleet for parts will be a pragmatic move to help address the multi-role helicopter’s major sustainment issues. But European industry must also learn from the programme’s past mistakes.
A ‘spirit of equal partnership’ and harmonious relations between Italy, Japan and the UK have given their GCAP fighter effort a smooth start – but can that continue as all-important workshare discussions advance?
The largest aerospace firms’ latest financials show a muted recovery in 2022 – but long-term there is little to worry about.
Ukraine’s journey towards NATO membership has been boosted by a ‘fighter coalition’ offering pilot training for F-16s – but don’t expect a transfer of such aircraft to end the war.
Over and over this year, executives at US airlines insisted they were taking steps that would ensure their operations run more smoothly this summer. They spoke far too soon.
Large order commitments for narrowbody products dominated the headlines at Le Bourget, but be in no doubt – the aerospace industry is powering towards a more sustainable future.
Returning after a four-year absence, the Paris air show will celebrate an industry that has seen seismic changes since the Le Bourget event was last staged: expect issues relating to the supply chain, climate change, and defence to dominate.
Boeing must hope the latest manufacturing quality issue to hit its commercial portfolio is the last – and not a continuing trend.
No-one disputes the technical feasibility of hydrogen- or SAF-powered commercial aircraft, but quite where these next‑generation fuels will come from is an open question.
Although investigators examining the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crash are rightly critical of Boeing, their failure to adequately probe the pilots’ actions leaves us with an incomplete picture.
A tantalising batch of next-generation combat aircraft programmes are powering up for the USA and multiple key allies – now it is critical that such efforts can deliver success.
While ambitious goals are commendable, Boeing has a great deal of work to do if it is to clear a path to reaching them.
Airbus might not have a stretched A220 on its drawing board yet, but given the frequency with which the so-called ‘-500’ is mentioned at the airframer’s briefings, there is a sense that the aircraft is practically being willed into existence by journalists, investors and perhaps one or two airline customers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin once expressed his dissatisfaction with Aeroflot Group’s fleet choices while grilling then-chief Vitaly Saveliev, who was forced to explain why the flag carrier was overwhelmingly using Western rather than domestically-built aircraft.
Although aviation is cheering the return of customer demand, scaling business up again is proving harder than planned.
While previous editions of the Farnborough air show have been dominated by orders, the theme at this year’s scorching event was clearly sustainability.
Many love it and probably as many others loathe it, but there is no doubt that the Farnborough air show – returning after a pandemic-enforced four-year break – remains among the aerospace industry’s marquee events.
Faced with a backlog for the A320 family that as of the end of April was within touching distance of 6,000 aircraft, Airbus has a problem: how does it deliver all those aircraft to customers in a timely fashion?flight
Russia rejects charges that civil regulator Rosaviatsia will be unable to cope with the addition of hundreds of new aircraft to its purview, but questions regarding its capabilities remain.
Where did the last two years go? It seems only yesterday that we were talking about the discovery of a new virus in China. And while markets across the globe have since broadly re-opened, for Asia-based flightcrew like myself, Covid-19 and its disruptions to life are still an ever-present reality.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to bring war to Europe has had terrible consequences for Ukraine – now Moscow must pay the price for its aggression.
Boeing’s 777X freighter launch was no surprise. But making sure the new jet delivers will be vital to maintaining the airframer’s rekindled relationship with Qatar Airways.
Although 2021 was another largely safe year for commercial air transport, the real danger on board may no longer come from the airframe or the crew but from other passengers.
Stung by two recent major airline defections from its 737 operator family, the embattled US airframer needs to cut the advantage held by Airbus with its hot-selling A321neo-model twinjets.
There was a pleasant sense of a return to normality at the Dubai air show, with triple-digit orders once again unveiled, but whether this recovery will endure remains to be seen.
Commercial aviation is promising to re-invent itself as a less-polluting industry, with 2050 as a goal to reach net-zero carbon. But no-one has worked out who picks up the tab.
As the first decade of service from the 787 nears an end, can Boeing overcome sluggish demand and production snags to revive its early magic experience with the Dreamliner?
Almost 20 years after US and coalition forces arrived in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, the Taliban’s crushing return to power has plunged Afghanistan into fresh instability.
United Airlines has been on an order spree, assembling the building blocks it thinks will be required for 21st century air travel. Is chief executive Scott Kirby a visionary or a gambler?
US regulator deviated from its role with the certification of the 737 Max, ceding too much responsibility to Boeing, but reform is not impossible, argues safety expert John Goglia.
While CFM International has set out its plan to deliver a 20% fuel saving from its next engine, only the entire aviation ecosystem working in concert can speed up decarbonisation.
Apparent accord between three European nations on their future fighter project is positive, but a lack of detail on the agreement’s practicalities leaves many unanswered questions
We hear from an anonymous UK pilot made redundant in the pandemic about further stress caused by the loss of mutual licensing recognition after Brexit – and how to find support.
Once thought of as the future of air travel, the A380 is already heading into retirement, but aviation is keenly focused on the next big thing.
Although long awaited, the UK’s defence review has left many unanswered questions when it comes to future capability.
Whether Ukraine should have closed upper airspace – saving flight MH17 – depended on its view of separatists’ capabilities.
Competence, not gender, should be the only factor to affect success, says Pilar Wolfsteller.
The coronavirus pandemic had a devastating impact in the year just gone, and 2021 might not have too much cheer held in store either.
Don’t expect future combat aircraft projects to eject human crew, says Douglas Barrie of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Cirium’s latest long-term market forecast reflects the impact that the coronavirus crisis is having on the industry, but still foresees strong demand for airliners over the next 20 years.
The UAE’s unexpected approval for an F-35 buy can be seen as just part of a US strategy to strenghten all of its allies in the Middle East region.
While the European airframer is betting on hydrogen to deliver cleaner air travel, its rival in Seattle has yet to reveal its strategy for a sustainable future.
Analysing travellers’ behaviour online to gauge demand is the way forward for network planners, as new research has found
Although commercial aviation is currently being battered by the coronavirus crisis, there are plenty who still regard flying for a living as the best job in the world.
Seattle’s marketing strategy is in the spotlight amid renewed speculation about its commitment to the name. But is a rebrand the right solution?
While many pilots believe they are born aviators, prolonged downtime means refresher training is essential before recommencing flight operations.
Alarming details that emerged in the aftermath of the 737 Max grounding about Boeing’s behaviour during the certification process has created a crisis of confidence unparalleled in the aviation industry. And no one – not just Seattle – should underestimate the extent of mistrust and the time it could take to heal the deep wounds.
Having taken 15 years and counting to get its rocketplanes in service, Virgin Galactic is now talking about supersonic jet travel; don’t book a flight just yet, but keep an eye on the share price
Aviation safety depends in part on a stable operating environment, but a pandemic and growing geopolitical tension will undermine some longstanding assumptions
Closed and sterile cockpits could be required to deal with Covid-19, but this may remove a source of inspiration for future aviators
The downturn hitting airlines across the globe will mean fewer pilots will be required in the short term, but for those made redundant, there are always choices.
Although an airline captain’s decision to proceed on a flight from Greece to Prague with just one engine may seem incomprehensible from the outside, his reasoning is likely to be all-too familiar
Consider this: On a Friday in July 2019, 11 airlines operated 66 flights from Washington DC to New York City-area airports. Fast forward: on Friday 17 July, carriers operated just 15 flights on those routes.
While BA’s move to retire its fleet of 747s because of coronavirus makes perfect sense, the business of aviation runs on romance as well as jet fuel
Although virtual Farnborough event brought industry together, summer is not the same without seeing old friends and new aircraft up close
While aviation deals with the immediate fall-out of the coronavirus pandemic, longer term it must also face up to its environmental responsibilities; hydrogen power could help it meet those challenging targets
Boeing’s defence unit is celebrating a modern-day dogfighting masterstroke, after securing its first US Air Force (USAF) orders for the venerable F-15 in more than two decades.
Measuring the success of China’s first domestically developed regional jet is not as easy as it seems.
Some safety issues are only solvable with sophisticated solutions, but the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning in general aviation are easily abated
Airframer’s recertification flights are positive, but critical US government report and order cancellations show there is still much to do
Can Europe afford to support two next-generation air combat projects amid the downturn – or would joining forces merely clip a future fighter’s wings?
In the realm of aerial combat, the ability to see further and strike faster than an adversary is in most cases the difference between death or glory.
While France has taken a multifacted approach to rescuing its aerospace industry, there is little sign of action on the other side of the English Channel
Passengers sharing airliner cabins with freight? That could be just one legacy of an aviation industry turned upside down by coronavirus and feeling its way to recovery
Tim Clark has delivered his view on the coronavirus pandemic with his usual succinct style: “A $15 trillion torpedo has hit the global economy.” And the fundamentals for the industry’s recovery are largely outside its control.
NASA does wonderful things, and wonderful things often cost big money - but should supersonic flying without big booms be one of them?
True patience involves bearing what is unbearable, according to a Japanese proverb. By that measure, it is fair to say that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), the parent of Mitsubishi Aircraft, has displayed that quality in spades.
Seattle faces some crucial decisions if it is to sustain its dominance in the freight sector
Although over 50 years have passed since Concorde proved commercial supersonic flight was possible, the industry is once again looking to ride a wave of interest in the concept
Doubts about size and shape of many fleets as operators plan their coronavirus crisis recovery strategies
Being an airline pilot in May 2020 is an unnerving experience. A workforce that thrives on mobility is largely furloughed, with many also awaiting redundancy; a small minority, meanwhile, are still operating what few flights remain.
For seasoned observers of the Joint Strike Fighter programme, the revelation that Lockheed Martin’s Block 4 modernisation effort for the F-35 is already running two years late and $1.5 billion over budget will come as no surprise.
Quarantine might not completely kill any tentative recovery in air travel, but it would certainly limit its appeal to the few passengers who are either booking a one-way journey or do not mind spending time cooped up like a dog suspected of rabies.
With the world’s number one aerospace manufacturer facing a barrage of problems, from the Max grounding to the Covid-19 collapse in demand, Alex Krutz, manging director at Patriot Industrial Partners, considers whether a supply chain that is much more robust than in the past can be crucial to getting it through the crisis?
The situation could hardly be worse for Airbus, Boeing and first-tier suppliers. But for companies further down the supply chain it is. Highly geared and often dependent on a single customer, small- and medium-sized enterprises face a fight for survival as demand dries up. Their only hope is some sort of airline revival before it is too late
FedEx’s crystal ball was clearly having an off-day when it churned out predictions for the Airbus A380 freighter 15 years ago. The US express cargo giant, once the launch operator of the A380F, expected to take delivery of the aircraft in 2008, enthused about a -900 stretched cargo variant, and forecast that passenger-to-freighter A380s would arrive by 2020.
A forthcoming generation of missiles capable of travelling at Mach 5 threaten to overwhelm defences and upset the global power balance.
Collapse of merger with Boeing leaves the Brazilian airframer needing to detail an alternative.
Management changes at US airframer are required as it seeks stability ahead of any recovery
Despite its platform modernisation efforts, the US Army’s helicopter inventory is increasingly showing its age.
The airline industry is effectively being held hostage by organisms a tenth of a micron wide. In future, we may have to live alongside them, as is the case with other diseases
The coronavirus crisis will abate before too long, but how will its impact change the nature of air travel?
Airbus invented the original widebody twinjet more than half a century ago, so it seems appropriate that a Toulouse product looks set to be the first of the breed to become extinct.
Who would be a pilot now? The crisis will have a profound effect on the prospects of the would-be aviators of today, and tomorrow
Before the coronavirus crisis, airlines were forecast to take thousands of new jets. Now, how the industry copes with a wave of deferrals is the next question.
Expeditionary demands have honed the US Marine Corps into a unique force with enviable equipment – but its Pacific pivot means much could change
It is a mark of how quickly the global coronavirus crisis has escalated that when IATA describes the airline sector as being in an “apocalypse now” scenario, no-one is accusing the industry association of hyperbole.
Eleven years after the end of the 2007-2009 Great Recession, the USA is again having “too big to fail” discussions, with the airframer at their centre.
More than a year has passed since the tragic crash off the coast of Guernsey of the Piper Malibu that ended the life of the young Argentinian footballer and pilot David Ibbotson yet unlicensed flights continue.
Significant changes in relationship with EU will only be complicated by changes to regulatory regime
Covid-19 has seen airlines slash schedules and supplanted Boeing’s 737 Max as the industry’s big story. But what happens when the jet is cleared to fly again?
Is there ever a case for a government bailing out a failed airline – even when its commercial shareholders judge it a bad bet? Plenty of people – including trade unions and politicians representing employees and passengers affected by Flybe’s collapse – believe there is. Particularly when the carrier in question has been providing vital transport links between underserved UK cities.
Not so long ago there was a good chuckle to be had in thinking about how the PC on your desk could outperform the room full of big metal cases with flashing lights and whirly tape reels that was the supercomputer of days gone by.
It may have been a stalwart of military aviation since the Vietnam War, but the Chinook’s appeal seems undiminished.
For the congested US rotorcraft industry, the chance to build the US Army’s next armed scout helicopter is a tantalising prospect and the US airframer’s reatlive silence suggests it has something unique up its sleeve.
The mansion that Laurent built is down to its last room. Bombardier – transformed by Pere Beaudoin from humble snowmobile manufacturer to world leader in aviation and rail transportation by the time he handed the chief executive reins to son Pierre in 2003 – will soon be known simply for business aircraft.
Critics joke that Boeing’s New Mid-market Airplane (NMA) launch is taking almost as long as NASA did to get Apollo 11 off the pad, following JFK’s famous man-on-the-Moon declaration.
The year 1962 dawned with two space powers: the USA and the USSR. Come that spring and the UK also joined the club with its Ariel 1 satellite, sadly lost not three months later to a US high-altitude nuclear detonation.
Buying a new fleet of fighters is a huge decision for any nation: not only due to the high capital cost of making such an acquisition, but also because of the heavy responsibility of selecting the right type to defend its citizens for 30 years or more.
Airbus insists that it has learned vital lessons from big bribery scandal, but to avoid a repeat will require cultural change, not simply a box-ticking exercise
Boeing would surely have liked to celebrate the 25 January first flight of the 777X as a comprehensive and overwhelming victory for the company. A big win for the big twin, if you like.
If the Helicopter Association International (HAI), the organiser of Heli-Expo – the world’s largest rotorcraft trade event – was hoping for a quiet few days focussed on the industry’s positive aspects then they will have been sorely disappointed.
By the end of this year or early next, we should get a look at the future of deep-space travel. It will not carry a crew, but NASA’s Artemis I around-the-Moon-and-back flight will demonstrate the capsule, life-support system and mighty Space Launch System rocket being designed and tested to carry ...
If the stars align, the world could have the first all-new large turboprop passenger aircraft for four decades within five years.
What’s wrong with a duopoly? Well, when one of the two protagonists drops out, it turns into a monopoly.
After an encouraging series of airline safety figures recorded around the middle of the last decade, some observers pondered whether the prospect of a fatality-free year could be a realistic short-term ambition for the industry.
Given the rock-bottom relations between Iran and the USA, it is inevitable that the 8 January crash of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 near Tehran has become ensnared by the tension between the two.
One year ago, many observers doubted that Lockheed Martin would succeed in keeping its aggressive production ramp-up for the F-35 on track, given the programme’s troubled past.
Dennis Muilenburg took the Boeing helm in the summer of 2015 during a relatively benign period for the manufacturer. But as he departs, there is a very different atmosphere at the firm’s Chicago headquarters, where the ongoing 737 Max crisis still has many more questions than answers.
Predicting which surprises the coming decade might hold for the aerospace sector may well be a hopeless task, but the events that will unfold through the 2020s may be hard pushed to match some of the drama experienced over the past 10 years.
Boeing had been hoping that its problems would be, if not be ended, then at least on the way to being solved as 2019 draws to a close, but that no longer appears the case.
Boeing stockpiles undeliverable aircraft after a fatal crash grounds its most popular model and undermines confidence. Meanwhile, Airbus throws in the towel on the superjumbo era, Bombardier bows out of commercial aviation, Embraer nears the end of the road as an independent airliner-maker and Mitsubishi confronts reality – again.
It has certainly taken a long time, but Airbus at last looks to be entering smoother air with its long-troubled A400M Atlas tactical transport.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the World Trade Organization dispute has nothing to do with the boasts about penalties and tariffs, or the squabble over who gained the greatest advantage from government handouts – but rather the potential realities that might have materialised if the controversial financial support had never existed.
In his classic A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking freely admitted he struggled to visualise multiple dimensions – barely coping with two. If the physicist who upturned thinking about black holes, relativity and quantum mechanics could not quite grapple with the shape of the universe (or in his case, ...
Amid the safety crisis enveloping the wider Boeing 737 Max programme, it has been easy to lose track of the progress of individual models.
For the second time in four short years, Saab emerged as one of the surprise high fliers at the biennial Dubai air show – but its repeat sales success with the GlobalEye surveillance aircraft was just reward for a decade-plus relationship forged with the United Arab Emirates’ military.
Emirates is renowned for its huge aircraft orders, and this year’s Dubai air show was no disappointment. But dig a bit deeper and it quickly becomes clear that the airline has actually been quite restrained in its spending.
Much as an army cannot march on an empty stomach, an air force can have only limited effect without the range- and endurance-boosting support provided by in-flight refuelling tankers.
Rolls-Royce’s admission that its final fix for problematic parts on the Trent 1000 TEN engine will now not arrive before 2021 brings to mind Lady Bracknell’s famous quote from The Importance of Being Earnest.
Air France-KLM chief Ben Smith summed up one of the French flag carrier’s problems to investors during a briefing on its modernisation strategy.
Tim Clark never knowingly pulls his punches, but the Emirates president has clearly run out of patience over the seemingly endless inability of aircraft and engine manufacturers to deliver service-ready hardware.
