Editorial opinion – Page 21
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Opinion
OPINION: Why America still needs business aviation
As the industry prepares to gather for the annual National Business Aviation Association convention in Orlando, the US economy is seven years into a post-2008 upswing – but facing the uncertainty of a presidential election in which there is a chance that the most maverick and unpredictable candidate of modern ...
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OpinionOPINION: Should the search for missing MH370 be extended?
The shock disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in March 2014 is one of the most keenly debated and puzzling aviation mysteries of our time.
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Opinion
OPINION: How the World has changed with Airbus
Forty-two years ago, as Airbus was handing over its first A300 to Air France, much of Asia was a mess. War raged in Cambodia and Vietnam and, at the end of Chairman Mao’s calamitous rule, China’s economy lay in tatters. While Japan, Malaysia and South Korea had embarked on industrial ...
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OpinionOPINION: Qatar's Boeing commitment sends clear message
As the Qatar Airways spotlight swings pendulum-like around its supply chain, OEMs can breathe a sigh of relief when it is not their turn to be in the laser focus of its notoriously demanding chief Akbar Al Baker.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why Europe's independent airframers matter
Sixteen years after its creation as EADS, and as it goes through yet another revamp to make it stronger and more integrated, Airbus dominates European aerospace – alongside BAE Systems, Dassault and Leonardo, the other three giants this side of the Atlantic still making aircraft in the 21st century.
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Opinion
OPINION: Will Airbus rebrand end divisions?
Airbus’s latest corporate iteration appears to mark something of an endgame in its battle against a perennial pandering to compromise during its evolution from consortium to company.
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Opinion
OPINION: MRJ has certification hurdles ahead
For a while it almost felt like the Mitsubishi Regional Jet would never make it to the USA. It is not often that a flight-test prototype aborts its mission twice in two days, but that was just what happened when Mitsubishi Aircraft attempted to ferry its first flight-test article to ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Russian response to MH17 treats public like idiots
You can only imagine investigators’ exasperation at Russia’s schoolyard-level protesting at the probe into the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
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Opinion
OPINION: The risk of complacency over Brexit
When the UK voted to leave the European Union in a 23 June referendum, predictions for the country's airlines and airports were not good.
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Opinion
OPINION: US pilot shortage is fixable, but it will cost
US airlines think they have a problem. Assuming air travel demand remains steady, the number of fare-paying passengers could soon vastly outnumber the supply of pilots required to carry them.
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Opinion
OPINION: Aerospace investment could help South Africa fly
The dilemma is not unique, but for a country that teeters maddeningly between advanced economy and developing world, South Africa’s is particularly poignant. Under apartheid, an isolated and threatened white regime poured resources into training engineers and developing its own military technologies.
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OpinionOPINION: T-X trainer bidders ready for dogfight
With the unveiling on 13 September in St Louis of the Boeing/Saab trainer, the four-way competition to claim the $10 billion contract to replace the US Air Force’s Northrop T-38C Talon fleet is now set.
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OpinionOPINION: Why go-arounds may need simplifying post-EK521
Go-arounds are considered an unexceptional part of day-to-day airline operations, to the point where tabloids treating them as newsworthy dramas can expect to attract a measure of scorn.
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OpinionOPINION: What aircraft designers should learn from Joe Sutter
In a 2009 interview with FlightGlobal, the late former Boeing 747 chief engineer, Joe Sutter, cautioned about reliance on computer-assisted design tools in aircraft development. “There should not be an over-emphasis on what computers tell you, because they only tell you what you tell them to tell you,” he said.
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OpinionOPINION: How East can steer Rolls-Royce through 787 engine trouble
A year into the job, Rolls-Royce boss Warren East’s to-do list shows no signs of shrinking. The engine maker had already braced shareholders for a torrid 2016, due to cyclical pressures and worse-than-expected market conditions, when it emerged that All Nippon Airways is to replace 100 Boeing 787 Trent 1000s ...
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OpinionOPINION: Can local industry deliver on Russia's aerospace ambitions?
In a completely rational, market-driven world, the make-up of Russia’s aviation industry would no doubt look very different.
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OpinionOPINION: Adapted RJ100 is a freight idea
Once bitten, twice shy, as the popular saying goes. But apparently not so for BAE Systems, which has revealed plans to convert its out-of-production RJ100 for a new role, carrying freight.
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OpinionOPINION: Can Airlander revive the airship's prospects?
At Flight International we salute innovation. And Hybrid Air Vehicles, the start-up behind the Airlander 10 – which has re-emerged from its hangar after returning to the UK in 2013 – has it in spades.
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Opinion
OPINION: How to exit a burning airliner
You have to wonder what sort of incentive is needed to spur passengers to evacuate a crashed airliner, if a burning wing is not sufficient.
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OpinionOPINION: Why US Air Force needs a low-cost gun-slinger
Roll the clock back six years to 2010. The US Air Force had just shelved a proposal to stand up a new wing of fighters based on the OA-X, a concept for a propeller-driven, light-attack fighter – reviving the role played by the Vietnam-era Douglas A-1 Skyraider.