All Opinion articles – Page 22
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Opinion
OPINION: After first flight, Airbus must deliver on A330neo promises
Amid the celebrations about another successful Airbus first flight, there was a large, but unmentioned, elephant formating with the A330neo as it swooped over Toulouse. For despite the apparently smooth maiden sortie, the reality is that flight testing should have been nearing completion right now, rather than just beginning.
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Opinion
OPINION: Elderly 767 could offer a mid-market solution
Something seems wrong with this scenario: an aircraft introduced nearly 30 years ago in a market segment now teeming with new technology could still make a comeback with the same engines and metal wing despite a nearly four-year break in production.
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Opinion
OPINION: Saudi Arabia's aviation prospects may exceed Iran's
The next Middle Eastern growth story was meant to be Iran. Over the past 18 months, many aviation financiers and investors have been eager to talk up the country's potential.
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OpinionOPINION: Is Airbus the winner in CSeries trade dispute?
Whatever Bombardier’s goal was for launching the CSeries programme nearly a decade ago, it certainly was not to shepherd both the CS100 and CS300 into service before handing them over as relatively mature products, free, to Airbus.
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OpinionOPINION: Why new models are good for airline industry
Compiling Flight International’s annual World Airliner Directory – the first part of which appears in our 24-30 October issue – is often a repetitive task.
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OpinionOPINION: Can business aviation break cycle of decline?
Two of aviation’s three economies are growing: military aircraft sales are slowly and steadily on the rise, while Airbus’s and Boeing’s biggest problem is ramping up output without breaking the supply chain.
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OpinionOPINION: Is A380 fleet overtaking 747 a hollow victory?
News that the Airbus A380 fleet now exceeds that of the Boeing 747 will have been met with mixed emotions in Seattle.
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Opinion
OPINION: CR 929 could be an unwelcome widebody rival
It now has a name: the CR 929-600. Say what you will about modern branding strategy, that name certainly works better than the “Chinese-Russian long-range widebody aircraft”, as Comac and United Aircraft (UAC) had previously described the project.
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Opinion
OPINION: EasyJet's electric vision faces steep challenges
Los Angeles-based start-up Wright Electric has a dream that within 20 years every short-haul service in the world will be flown by battery-powered aircraft.
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Opinion
OPINION: Trade ruling poses big questions for CSeries
Despite enjoying the longest bull market run in aviation history, Bombardier’s commercial aircraft division was in a weak position when the day started on 26 September. A cash-critical production ramp-up for the CSeries was plagued by delays, while Bombardier’s sales staff still had not proved – nearly a decade after ...
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OpinionOPINION: National interests are hard to please
National interests are not always easy to reconcile with other priorities.
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OpinionOPINION: ATR and Bombardier should heed Embraer's turboprop warning
Bombardier could be forgiven for thinking the world is against it. With Boeing’s anti-dumping claims still ringing in its ears, there comes a strong hint from regional jet rival Embraer that it is serious about a return to the turboprop market.
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Opinion
OPINION: Boeing investment could spark UK manufacturing
Sheffield, in the north of England, has long been famous for steel making. Processes developed in the city helped revolutionise the industry around the world.
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Opinion
OPINION: A350-1000 order swaps are no reason for panic - yet
Airbus would undoubtedly have preferred that two high-profile conversions away from its newest aircraft, the A350-1000, had not emerged within a week of one another. But the big league, with its big money, has no place for those short on resilience.
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OpinionOPINION: Can software shift safeguard USAF's air dominance?
As the US Air Force contemplates how to field a next-generation air dominance capability by 2030, a key piece of the puzzle may have just come to light.
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Opinion
OPINION: Why Boeing opposes UTC-Collins merger
If any two companies ought to enjoy a close relationship, it is Boeing and United Technologies. From 1929 to 1934, Boeing and UTC even belonged to the same company: United Aircraft & Transport. Decades later, many of UTC's products – including the electric power and generation system for the 787 ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Supply chain consolidation looms
On the face of it, our new ranking of the world’s largest aerospace businesses shows a sector cruising along comfortably and little changed in composition from the previous 12 months. All but one of last year’s 100 highest flyers retained their status in the elite club and – while revenues ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Collision highlights need to heed obvious precedents
Almost nine years to the day after Gol 1907 spiralled into the Brazilian jungle, crippled by a mid-air collision, only fortuitous geometry spared a second 737-800 a similar fate over Senegal.
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Opinion
OPINION: Undisciplined lessors create a race to the bottom
Aircraft lessors are the victims of their own success, it seems. Attracted by the steady returns on offer, a wave of new lessors – particularly Chinese-backed vehicles – have entered the space over the last few years. But, in their efforts to grow, these new entrants have created unfavourable market ...
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Opinion
OPINION: Evidence, not emotion, should steer the search for MH370
For two centuries a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia has lured treasure-seekers convinced that a fortune is buried in a deep hollow within its shores.