Are we on the cusp of a personal jet age? Is the civil tiltrotor doomed? Do the big Gulf carriers need yet more aircraft? Will Boeing and Northrop Grumman do a takeover tango and can Rolls-Royce carry on as we know it? And, is anybody going to the Moon? Time will tell - but meanwhile at Flight International, we've scanned the horizon for clues to make a few predictions.

Following months of painful trimming as part of a broad turnaround programme, Malaysia Airlines (MAB) looks set to receive a boost from its newly announced codeshare agreement with Gulf major Emirates Airline.

In the factual vacuum between a highly-publicised air crash or incident and the release of details from the investigation, secondary issues tend to dominate the public discussion.

One year after Malaysia state investment fund Khazanah Nasional announced its radical 12-point recovery plan for Malaysia Airlines (MAS) there are signs of progress, but analysts are still dubious about the carrier's prospects.

Just over one year ago in April 2014, SriLankan Airlines joined the Oneworld Alliance. Not content to hold the ceremony in the capital city of Colombo, the carrier deployed one of its Airbus A340-300 aircraft to fly media and dignitaries 150km to the newly built, but remote, Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambontota. One participant described it as a logistical nightmare.

When the excitement over the debris discovery on Reunion dissipates, there will be a realisation that the balance between known and unknown has tipped only fractionally in the investigators favour.

Malaysia Airlines describes the apparent retrieval of the first debris from its missing flight MH370 as a "breakthrough" in the investigation.

Even if the flight-control surface discovered on the island of Reunion is confirmed as part of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, it is highly unlikely to aid the search for the Boeing 777-200ER.