Why Virgin Galactic is still attracting investment despite continued losses
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
Safety must not be allowed to slip during the ‘new normal’
Aviation safety depends in part on a stable operating environment, but a pandemic and growing geopolitical tension will undermine some longstanding assumptions
Widebodies special
How widebodies caused a revolution in aviation
Air transport entered a new era half a century ago when airframers created a step-change in size and capacity with the first generation of twin-aisles, of which the Boeing 747 was only the first.
How Soviets decided four was the magic number
Call it an air transport anachronism, but just as four-engined airliners are slipping, perhaps prematurely, into the realms of nostalgia, Russian airframer VASO is assembling a new widebody quadjet, the Ilyushin Il-96-400M, at its facility in Voronezh.
Five decades of widebody deliveries and development
Since Boeing handed the first 747-100 (N733PA) to Pan Am at its Everett plant near Seattle on 12 December 1969, the world’s manufacturers have delivered almost 9,700 more widebodies to airlines, governments, air forces – and even some wealthy individuals.
Why 1970 fundamentally redefined air transport
However you look at it, 1970 was an epoch-making year for commercial aviation. The revolution in aircraft design heralded in that year would be the springboard for the airline industry to accelerate capacity growth in a way it could only dream about previously.
