All articles by Flight International – Page 3
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OpinionAirline bail-outs are rarely a good idea
Is there ever a case for a government bailing out a failed airline – even when its commercial shareholders judge it a bad bet? Plenty of people – including trade unions and politicians representing employees and passengers affected by Flybe’s collapse – believe there is. Particularly when the carrier in question has been providing vital transport links between underserved UK cities.
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OpinionCoronavirus overtakes 737 Max as airline industry’s biggest concern
Covid-19 has seen airlines slash schedules and supplanted Boeing’s 737 Max as the industry’s big story. But what happens when the jet is cleared to fly again?
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OpinionWhy Boeing's venerable Chinook keeps on winning
It may have been a stalwart of military aviation since the Vietnam War, but the Chinook’s appeal seems undiminished.
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OpinionMilitary powers must keep control over machine AI
Not so long ago there was a good chuckle to be had in thinking about how the PC on your desk could outperform the room full of big metal cases with flashing lights and whirly tape reels that was the supercomputer of days gone by.
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OpinionBombardier’s rail sale is last roll of the dice
The mansion that Laurent built is down to its last room. Bombardier – transformed by Pere Beaudoin from humble snowmobile manufacturer to world leader in aviation and rail transportation by the time he handed the chief executive reins to son Pierre in 2003 – will soon be known simply for business aircraft.
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OpinionBoeing’s stealthy approach could yield armed scout win
For the congested US rotorcraft industry, the chance to build the US Army’s next armed scout helicopter is a tantalising prospect and the US airframer’s reatlive silence suggests it has something unique up its sleeve.
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OpinionWhy Boeing must end NMA indecision
Critics joke that Boeing’s New Mid-market Airplane (NMA) launch is taking almost as long as NASA did to get Apollo 11 off the pad, following JFK’s famous man-on-the-Moon declaration.
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OpinionCan UK fund its space-launch ambitions?
The year 1962 dawned with two space powers: the USA and the USSR. Come that spring and the UK also joined the club with its Ariel 1 satellite, sadly lost not three months later to a US high-altitude nuclear detonation.
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OpinionWhy fighter contenders must keep cool in Finnish HX battle
Buying a new fleet of fighters is a huge decision for any nation: not only due to the high capital cost of making such an acquisition, but also because of the heavy responsibility of selecting the right type to defend its citizens for 30 years or more.
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OpinionBribery scandal recovery a bitter pill for Airbus
Airbus insists that it has learned vital lessons from big bribery scandal, but to avoid a repeat will require cultural change, not simply a box-ticking exercise
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OpinionWhy smooth 777-9 test campaign is vital for Boeing
Boeing would surely have liked to celebrate the 25 January first flight of the 777X as a comprehensive and overwhelming victory for the company. A big win for the big twin, if you like.
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OpinionHow high-profile crash put helicopter safety in spotlight
If the Helicopter Association International (HAI), the organiser of Heli-Expo – the world’s largest rotorcraft trade event – was hoping for a quiet few days focussed on the industry’s positive aspects then they will have been sorely disappointed.
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OpinionCould return to the Moon prove a step too far?
By the end of this year or early next, we should get a look at the future of deep-space travel. It will not carry a crew, but NASA’s Artemis I around-the-Moon-and-back flight will demonstrate the capsule, life-support system and mighty Space Launch System rocket being designed and tested to carry ...
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OpinionWhy jet stalwart Embraer is embracing the turboprop
If the stars align, the world could have the first all-new large turboprop passenger aircraft for four decades within five years.
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OpinionFatality-free aviation remains distant dream
After an encouraging series of airline safety figures recorded around the middle of the last decade, some observers pondered whether the prospect of a fatality-free year could be a realistic short-term ambition for the industry.
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OpinionAirbus wins the contest that never was
What’s wrong with a duopoly? Well, when one of the two protagonists drops out, it turns into a monopoly.
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Opinion737 crash response needs transparency from Tehran
Given the rock-bottom relations between Iran and the USA, it is inevitable that the 8 January crash of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 near Tehran has become ensnared by the tension between the two.
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OpinionCan Lockheed repeat F-35 production success in 2020?
One year ago, many observers doubted that Lockheed Martin would succeed in keeping its aggressive production ramp-up for the F-35 on track, given the programme’s troubled past.
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OpinionChanging leaders does not solve all Boeing’s problems
Dennis Muilenburg took the Boeing helm in the summer of 2015 during a relatively benign period for the manufacturer. But as he departs, there is a very different atmosphere at the firm’s Chicago headquarters, where the ongoing 737 Max crisis still has many more questions than answers.
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OpinionNext decade will bring more ‘unknown unknowns’ for aerospace
Predicting which surprises the coming decade might hold for the aerospace sector may well be a hopeless task, but the events that will unfold through the 2020s may be hard pushed to match some of the drama experienced over the past 10 years.