Editorial opinion – Page 19
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Opinion
OPINION: Bishkek crash highlights loss of airmanship
Four decades, almost to the day, since the unsurpassed catastrophe at Tenerife, investigators in Russia detailed another completely avoidable fatal fiasco involving a Boeing 747, a fog-shrouded runway, and a bewildering absence of situational awareness.
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OpinionOPINION: Can Pentagon's new F-35 chief keep on target?
A military acquisition manager has a tough job. There are schedules to meet and budgets to keep, fickle politicians to placate, penny-pinching from bureaucrats and relentless finagling by contractors.
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Opinion
OPINION: Is this Alitalia's final last chance?
As Alitalia faces yet another round of cost cutting, just how many last chances for salvation can one airline have?
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Opinion
OPINION: Cabin laptop ban is selective, ineffective
Just two hours before the UK parliament became the scene of an armed assault and counter-terrorism operation, the transport secretary had been inside, fending off awkward questions about weaknesses in new enhanced security measures for airline passengers.
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Opinion
OPINION: Dana Air crew failings highlight African safety gap
As IATA stresses a continuing falling accident rate in its annual review of commercial airline safety, the circumstances of the Dana Air crash in Lagos serve to remind that global progress is far from a uniform affair.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why size matters for '797X' project
It has an authority to offer from Boeing, public endorsements from influential airlines and lessors and finally, it seems, a name: the 797X.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why Bell had to impress with FCX concept
For all its storied history of aviation firsts, Bell Helicopter has in recent years become stuck in a rut.
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Opinion
OPINION: Are UK air shows safer post-Shoreham?
For anyone who attended the Shoreham air show in 2015 – or who witnessed harrowing news footage of the Hawker Hunter crash that killed 11 people – the confirmation that pilot error caused the disaster will come as little surprise.
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Opinion
OPINION: Can commercial engine suppliers deliver on innovation?
For all the challenges within its own production system and the wider supply chain, it is engines that are producing the biggest headaches for Airbus.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why safety pays on helicopter programmes
Aerospace, by nature, is an industry of extremes. Costs are huge, technical and financial risks severe. Timescales are long, business cycles fierce. Political winds can be fair or very foul.
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Opinion
OPINION: Should A400M partners prop up Airbus?
Even for a programme with a history as chequered as the A400M, Airbus chief executive Tom Enders’ latest critique of the troubled airlifter was astonishingly frank – and packed with intent.
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Opinion
OPINION: India needs fighters more than factories
Visitors to Aero India this year could be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu. Back in 2011, the soundtrack to the show was the roar of fighter aircraft as eager bidders put their jets through their paces.
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Opinion
OPINION: 737 Max 10 could be lucky 13 for Boeing
A 13th passenger-carrying version of the Boeing 737 is now being seriously pursued in Seattle. If launched later this year, the 230-passenger 737 Max 10 would be 1.68m (66in) longer than the 737 Max 9 and 15.1m longer than the 737-100 that first flew 50 years ago in April.
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Opinion
OPINION: Will Bombardier's new loan stretch far enough?
Bombardier has picked up another C$372.5 million ($282 million) from Canadian taxpayers to repair a fractured balance sheet as it enters the most difficult phase of a multi-year financial rebuilding campaign.
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Opinion
OPINION: Is A380 nearing the end?
Not long ago it was the future. Now the A380 is officially a museum piece. Two flight test examples of the world’s biggest airliner are set to spend the rest of their lives in heritage centres in Paris and Toulouse.
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Opinion
OPINION: The dwindling pool of T-X bidders
Back in October 1986, the US Air Force was faced with a difficult decision. It had received seven responses to a request for proposals to build two prototypes for the advanced tactical fighter competition that ultimately yielded the Lockheed Martin F-22. In the wake of later industry consolidation, the USAF, ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Does being launch customer matter?
In a world where profit is king, it feels odd to see two airlines squabbling over a title that appears to carry no commercial advantage.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why tardy MRJ is worth waiting for
Defending the latest delay to its MRJ programme, Mitsubishi Aircraft official Yugo Fukuhara notes: “Building and certifying a new aircraft is a very complex process and includes a lot of challenges.”
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Opinion
OPINION: Will political change hurt aerospace?
The election of Donald Trump and the UK’s vote to quit the EU were the seismic political events of 2016. Often compared as popular revolts against liberal elites, big government and open immigration, the billionaire celebrity’s administration and Brexit are, in fact, sending their countries on very different courses. Each ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Two heads are better than one for take-off checks
Twenty-first century cockpits have a cancer and, so far, there is no cure. Performance calculation and data-entry errors are unpredictable, liable to arise under certain conditions, taking many forms, with differing origins, and they hide, sometimes undetected, in the mathematical complexity of preparation for flight.
