Editorial opinion – Page 23
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Opinion
OPINION: Has industry been unfair to Bombardier?
It was 1994, and Airbus was already becoming more than a mere nuisance to Boeing. Tensions spiked at the Farnborough air show, when then-Boeing president Ron Woodard accused his opposite number at Airbus of lying: “I’ve watched him and his nose does grow when he talks.” Airbus repaid the Pinocchio-themed ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Is aviation close to environmental breakthrough?
As a solution to our energy and pollution crises, open-rotor aircraft engines have long been akin to nuclear fusion – promising, but 30 years away. But as our special environment report in this issue reveals, breakthroughs may be imminent.
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Opinion
OPINION: McCain takes aim at F-35
A single organisation based in a monochrome office complex across a motorway from the Pentagon manages a global supply chain with a projected 35-year value of roughly $450 billion; more than the GDP of Austria. Its name is the bureaucratic-sounding Joint Program Office (JPO), and it manages, of course, the ...
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OpinionOPINION: How Perlan mission evokes spirit of adventure
Riding a mountain wave is a lifelong dream for many glider pilots. Once detected, these invisible, oscillating wind currents streaming down from the tops of mountain ranges can loft unpowered aircraft high into the stratosphere. Later this year, the partly Airbus-sponsored Perlan project plans to reach 90,000ft with a two-member ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Why business jet makers are turning to the military
Spare a thought for the small handful of large-cabin business jet manufacturers, because times have been pretty tough of late, with sales taking a tumble.
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Opinion
OPINION: Back to square one for North Sea helicopter safety?
Just when the offshore transportation industry appeared to have emerged from its most recent safety crisis, it is immediately plunged into the next.
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Opinion
OPINION: Can Scorpion jet fight its way to sales success?
When commercial aircraft product launches are stage-managed with a careful unveiling of billions of dollars worth of orders from a few hand-picked customers, the sight of a new military aircraft propelled into development with no announced buyers can come across as a rarity bordering on reckless.
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Opinion
OPINION: Bombardier's new sales Delta for CSeries
Trawl back through Bombardier’s press release archive searching for CSeries stories and two things will quickly become apparent.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why Japan's X-2 fighter is more than a symbol of pride
The first flight of the Mitsubishi X-2 will go down as a milestone in North Asia’s journey to develop advanced combat aircraft.
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Opinion
OPINION: Accident reports must acknowledge pilot pressures
French investigation authority BEA’s final analysis of the Germanwings Airbus A320 crash last year contains 20 mentions of the word “suicide” including, notably, in the primary conclusion over probable cause.
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Opinion
OPINION: The unknown impact of UAV collisions
If a recent report is to be believed, the 137 crew and passengers of British Airways flight 727 on 17 April were among the unluckiest people on the planet. It appears their Airbus A320 collided with a small drone on approach to London Heathrow airport from Geneva. The exact circumstances ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Will fighter aircraft become obsolete?
Are fighter jets still of any use in modern air warfare? A quick glance at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s annual tabulation of weapons exports would certainly suggest so. From Asia to the Middle East, demand for machines designed mainly for air superiority continues to be strong.
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Opinion
OPINION: How 747 gamble paid off for Boeing
Boeing celebrates its centenary in 2016, and the 747 has been a big part of its life for half of the company’s existence. The risks that Boeing took with the original decision to build the 747, and the investment it committed to the production programme, set the benchmark by which ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Virgin America and the flaws in foreign-ownership laws
A sad irony lost in the commotion over Virgin America's announced sale to Alaska Air Group is the critical and unfortunate role played by government restrictions on foreign ownership of airlines.
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OpinionOPINION: Should Italian Typhoons be targeting more than exports?
With the four-nation Eurofighter consortium in a number of dogfights which it hopes will result in fresh export deals to extend production of the type into the next decade, the ability to demonstrate its new “swing-role” performance can surely only serve to strengthen its competitive hand.
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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.