Few would argue with the characterization by a senior Western airframe manufacturer of the Comac C919 as “a serious project by a serious company.” But the clumsy effort by the Chinese conglomerate to certify the ARJ21 regional jet begs the question: Do serious intentions necessarily equate to a serious product?
Washington, D.C., has a reputation for doing nothing, and inaction is often the best-case scenario. But let’s take the time to really consider what you get–and what you don’t get–from a spineless bureaucracy and a feckless Congress. First, what you do get is ill thought-out legislation. What you don’t get is legislation that is desperately needed to protect the safety of the traveling public.
It’s not the U.S. presidential election, but it’s similarly hard-fought and bitter. In a previous post, we reported on the showdown between ATC Global, the long-established ATC conference run by global media company UBM, and the upstart World ATM Congress, advanced by the Netherlands-based Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (Canso) “in association” with the Air Traffic Control Association (Atca) of the U.S.
Reaction to the collapse of negotiations between Hawker Beechcraft and Superior Aviation Beijing seems to be less that of surprise and more about the inevitability of the dead end the two companies reached.
As a non-pilot I have rarely found myself in the cockpit of a jet airplane in flight. In fact, I have been afforded this distinct privilege exactly twice in two distinctly different aircraft.
Virtually every industry and profession in America enjoys the backing of an association and its lobbyists. And it doesn’t matter whether those lobbyists represent funeral directors, textile manufacturers, dairy farmers or dental consultants.
A refreshing perspective on the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme went largely unnoticed last week, when organizers of a conference call to discuss a new study commissioned by the German Marshall Fund of the United States canceled the event due to a lack of registrants.
By the time we first discussed putting Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh on the cover of Business Jet Traveler, I had already been a steady customer of the company for five years and knew all about its astonishing service standards.
Someone intimated I was old this week. Well, actually what he said was, “Dude, you’re so a fossil.”
“I have a Facebook page,” I blurted out in my defense.
“Lame,” was the response.
We’re at it again, hyping the upcoming pilot and mechanic shortage. (How come we never talk about flight attendant shortages?) Maintenance shops are having a hard time finding mechanics, and the new 1,500-hour rule for airline pilots means that airlines that are now losing their 65-year-old pilots to retirement are sucking instructors out of flight schools.
Oh, woe is us! What are we going to do?
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