Editorial opinion – Page 6
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OpinionTen years after debut, can A400M sales take off?
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.
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OpinionThe weird parallel reality of the WTO spat
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.
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OpinionWill technology transform efficiency of flight?
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, ...
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OpinionCan biggest 737 Max variant be a perfect 10?
Amid the safety crisis enveloping the wider Boeing 737 Max programme, it has been easy to lose track of the progress of individual models.
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OpinionEmirates shows restraint in latest order spree
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.
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OpinionSaab's GlobalEye keeps seeking out sales
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.
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OpinionIs 737 Max nearing a comeback?
When will the 737 Max fly again? For months, it seemed one guess was as good as the next. You might as well have asked someone off the street.
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OpinionReady for the next big tanker battle?
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.
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OpinionWill Air France fleet renewal include stretched A220?
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.
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OpinionWhy Trent issues still rattle Rolls-Royce
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.
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OpinionGarmin autoland system is next step toward pilotless future
Just as we did not wake up one morning to find department store lift attendants had disappeared, or light rail systems in our cities suddenly without drivers sitting in the cab, the advent of autonomous passenger aircraft is unlikely to be as much a revolution as a decades-long journey of ...
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OpinionLion Air crash shows whole safety system under strain
Hours after the Indonesian inquiry into Lion Air’s fatal Boeing 737 Max crash published its sobering findings, the US Federal Aviation Administration reassured that it was reviewing the proposed changes to the embattled twinjet’s design. “The aircraft will return to service only after the FAA determines it is safe,” insisted ...
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OpinionWhy Gulfstream is right to think big with G700
Tom Wolfe called them Masters of the Universe in his 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities – Wall Street plutocrats with wealth and influence to control every detail of their lives with a phone call, command, or flash of a credit card. For today’s Masters of the Universe – ...
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OpinionCan Qantas go the distance with Project Sunrise?
On paper, it shouldn’t work. Nonstop flight between the UK and Australia was certainly once a “holy grail” of air transport, and even that was an improvement on being a ludicrous prospect when antipodean travel was an endurance feat involving days in transit and a multitude of refuelling points.
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OpinionWho will prevail in US Army's FARA battle?
As one of the most intriguing current helicopter competitions, the US Army’s search for a Future Assault Reconnaissance Aircraft is entering a crucial few months, before it awards prototype contacts for two bidders to participate in a winner-takes-all fly-off.
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OpinionWill Boeing/Porsche pact turbocharge urban mobility?
There have been hints before that the automotive sector was looking with interest at the potential offered by urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, but the pact between Boeing and Porsche provides the most concrete evidence so far.
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OpinionWhy India must learn from Rafale procurement
Pronouncements at aircraft handover ceremonies are not prone to understatement. Indeed, Dassault hailed its delivery of the first of 36 Rafale fighters to New Delhi as a “celebration of the history of mutual trust” between the French company and India.
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OpinionCould Genx-powered 767-X usurp Boeing’s NMA?
Boeing’s closely guarded studies into what would effectively be a relaunch of the 767 for the 2020s add a fascinating new aspect to the long-running debate about the mid-market sector.
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OpinionCommunist party shows Cold War is back
Beijing’s vast parade on 1 October, celebrating 70 years of Communist Party rule, again underlined – as if there was any doubt – its dream of military domination in the Asia-Pacific.
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OpinionWhy there can be no victors in looming trade war
When the Cold War descended into its sub-zero depths of paranoia, the prevailing assumption was that neither side would dare to initiate a thermonuclear exchange because, no matter how intense the first salvo, the retaliatory strike would be sufficient to obliterate the aggressor.