All articles by Flight International – Page 6
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In depthOBITUARY: Mike Ramsden – former Flight editor
Mike Ramsden, the legendary editor of Flight International during what many would consider the heyday of the magazine and the post-war aerospace industry, will be remembered as an exceptional writer, visionary leader and gentleman of the profession.
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OpinionAviation faces increasingly uncertain outlook
Glass-half-empty people generally do not run airlines; as the old saying goes, the industry has never made money. Like most old sayings, that one is not strictly true – but it is fair to note that “airlines” and “troubled” often go together.
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OpinionMax costs keep rising but airlines have few options
For months, Boeing has framed its 737 Max issues as a temporary, though unfortunate, setback to an aircraft programme that will surely rise again.
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OpinionSafety gains must not be undone by technology
Diligent application of hard-earned experience has made safety a hallmark of modern aviation; let’s not lose our grip on the basics of sound technique.
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OpinionSafran must take blame for Silvercrest failure
To lose one flagship aircraft programme may be regarded as misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. It may be unfair to aim that paraphrasing of Oscar Wilde at Textron Aviation which has suspended the large-cabin Citation Hemisphere 10 years after ending its last attempt to break into unfamiliar territory, with the Columbus.
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OpinionHow the Airbus effect transformed A220 sales
Back when the Airbus A220 was still the Bombardier-owned CSeries, there was always the sense that the twinjet was a good product whose potential was hamstrung by, well, everything else.
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OpinionSaratov and the spectre of fatal fixation
There can be fewer more frustrating accidents than those involving an aircraft that would have been perfectly capable of remaining airborne, if only the crew had concentrated on flying it at the time.
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OpinionPiaggio must spell out role to secure future
If anyone requires a wonderful example of short- versus long-term planning - or tactics versus strategy, perhaps - then they could do worse than study the €700 million ($800 million) lifeline thrown to Piaggio Aerospace by the Italian government.
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OpinionWinning the loser's game of Indian defence procurement
What is worse than losing a military aircraft competition in India? Winning one, say cynics about New Delhi’s dysfunctional procurement system.
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OpinionHow price and convenience will dictate supersonic travel
Decades ago, test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the rocket-powered Bell X-1. Now, Lockheed Martin is building a new supersonic aircraft for NASA designed to reduce the noise from a sonic boom.
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OpinionBoeing should yield to pressure and rename the 737 Max
What’s in a name? For Boeing, that question could become increasingly pertinent as it seeks to rehabilitate the 737 Max.
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OpinionEnvironmental concerns powering electric shift
Twenty years ago, electric or hybrid-electric cars seemed unlikely to catch on. Worries about their performance and reliability, high prices, and a lack of charging infrastructure slowed take-up even among the environmentally concerned.
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OpinionHow will Boeing respond to A321XLR launch?
Ask Airbus about the Boeing NMA and you might start to believe the acronym stands for No More Argument.
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Opinion
Will bigger mean better for merged Raytheon/UTC?
The argument for combining disparate businesses under a corporate umbrella may seem compelling. Operations exposed to a variety of markets buffer a parent company from boom-bust cycles. While industry-expert leaders of the subsidiaries get on with running their businesses, professional managers in head office look after strategy, with access to far greater financial resources.
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Opinion
How superior skills saved the day for E190 crew
Apollo 8 astronaut and former Eastern Air Lines chief Frank Borman once defined a superior pilot as one who used their superior judgement to avoid situations that require the use of their superior skills.
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NewsCalifornia's Ampaire demonstrates parallel hybrid Cessna 337
A Cessna 337 Skymaster powered partly by an electric motor flew on 6 June from a California airport, demonstrating a prototype propulsion system that manufacturer Ampaire hopes to deploy commercially by 2021.
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OpinionNext generation of fighters offers new opportunities
The Paris air show serves many purposes, but none so much as an arms bazaar – expect Le Bourget to be crowded with spangly generals shopping for new fighters.
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OpinionWhy Mitsubishi's pursuit of the CRJ makes sense
Embraer probably views the CRJ as a competitor that just will not go away.
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OpinionBoeing needs a stronger production system post-slowdown
A creaking supply chain unable to keep pace with ever-more-demanding output rates meant that even before the grounding of the 737 Max, Boeing’s narrowbody line was enduring some form of crisis.
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OpinionWhy the LM-100J is a low-risk bet
Cynics might point to the LM-100J – Lockheed Martin’s in-development civil freighter – and conclude that all the manufacturer has done is give a Super Hercules a lick of white and blue paint.