Flight International 2022 12.pdf

(21700 KB) Pobierz
FlightGlobal.com
December 2022
Time for
Uncle Roger’s
festive quiz
Star fleets
Which air forces lead the way in our annual review?
p42
Extra space
A350 interior
enhancements
add 30 seats
p16
US airlines signal alarm
over 5G interference
p18
Australia plans repeat
C-130J purchase
p28
9
£5.25
770015 371334
Master builders
Italian firms’
international
ambitions
p52
1 2
Comment
Tipped for success?
Ellen M Banner/AP/Shutterstock
Growth agenda
While ambitious goals are commendable, Boeing has a great
deal of work to do if it is to clear a path to reaching them
B
oeing’s current strategy
seems to be riven with con-
tradictions. While these are
not mutually exclusive, they
appear a clear source of tension.
Take, for instance, the airframer’s
plan that by the middle of the dec-
ade it will once again be delivering
800 commercial aircraft each year
and raking in $100 billion in revenue.
Achieving those targets would
mean a return to a financial and
delivery performance last seen in
2018 – or in other words, a return
to the good times; a point be-
fore decisions taken by Boeing’s
previous management proved to
be so catastrophic.
2018 was the last ‘normal’ year
for Boeing: by the following March
the 737 Max – the manufactur-
er’s cash cow – was beginning the
20-month grounding from which
the programme and the company
are still struggling to recover.
True, Covid-19 was a crisis beyond
anyone’s control, let alone Boeing’s
– but as doctors will tell you, symp-
toms are more severe if the patient
is already in a weakened state.
Therefore Boeing’s predictions
of a mid-decade rebound rest
heavily on it resolving the problems
that continue to linger: a toxic mix
of external supply chain tension,
geopolitics and issues spilling over
from the Max crisis – undelivered in-
ventory and heightened regulatory
scrutiny, to name but two.
These challenges are not insur-
mountable but will require deft
management footwork – and not a
little luck – to navigate successful-
ly if Boeing is to hit its 800-aircraft
per year target.
Similarly, the company’s misfiring
defence division appears in need
of repair. In the most recent finan-
cial quarter, forward charges were
once more booked against sev-
eral military programmes, a con-
sequence of fixed-price bids that
have left Boeing on the hook for
billions of dollars in cost overruns.
Such loss-leaders are fine if you
can execute aircraft development
without a hitch – but as Boeing has
discovered, they are hugely costly
if you cannot.
Meanwhile, new aircraft devel-
opment remains on hold. Boeing’s
leaders say they do not see suffi-
cient maturity in next-generation
engine technology or production
systems to merit the launch of a
new jet in the short term.
Perhaps so, but there is a feeling
in some quarters that the airframer
is merely justifying its own inertia.
And as many note, there is some-
times a bigger cost to not invest-
ing rather than spending money: all
the time that Boeing does nothing,
Airbus will continue to chip away at
its rival’s market share in the nar-
rowbody segment – particularly at
the upper end, where the A321XLR
faces limited, if any, competition.
What share of the market will
Boeing ultimately tolerate? Based
on total orders for re-engined sin-
gle-aisles that figure is currently
hovering around 44%, but there is a
distinct possibility of further erosion.
If it reaches, say, 30%, Airbus will
have a huge installed base to count
on when the time comes to launch a
Neo successor.
Boeing’s success or failure at
this point is not pre-ordained, but
the mess left after four years of
disruption means there remains
much work for the airframer’s man-
agement to do if it is to achieve its
lofty goals.
See p6
December 2022
Flight International
3
In focus
Boeing: future proofed?
6
Beijing’s Western tilt
10
First export AH-1Z is big hit
with Manama
12
Four bidders vie for Puma
successor deal
14
A350 conjures more space
16
Alleged 5G interference events
rise as bandwidths converge
18
Sriwijaya 737’s throttle snag led
to fatal thrust asymmetry
22
Canberra to double C-130Js
28
F-16 revival ready for take-off
as interest soars
30
VoltAero picks TESI for Cassio
330 prototype airframe
34
Evia Aero aims for zero
35
Evolito leads the charge
36
42
Casualties of war
Russian losses in Ukraine remain unclear
FlightGlobal.com
December 2022
Time for
Uncle Roger’s
festive quiz
35
£5.25
Star fleets
Which air forces lead the way in our annual review?
p42
US airlines signal alarm
over 5G interference
p18
Australia plans repeat
C-130J purchase
p28
9
770015 371334
Rich Cooper
Extra space
A350 interior
enhancements
add 30 seats
p16
Master builders
Italian firms’
international
ambitions
p52
Regulars
Comment
3
Best of the rest
38
Straight & Level
76
Jobs
81
Women in aviation
82
4
Flight International
December 2022
1 2
Contents
In depth
Battle scars
42
War in Ukraine has spurred
equipment transfers to Kyiv
and a NATO procurement spike
Power of one
52
How Avio Aero is evolving into
all-round aerospace champion
The right connections
56
Logic’s boss wants to turn the
firm into a systems integrator
and tier one supplier
Training Master
58
Leonardo bolsters M-346 with
Italian air force partnership
Benign leadership
62
Electronic warfare specialist
Elettronica aims to stay one
step ahead of its bigger rivals
Festive Quiz
66
Test your knowledge of the
past 12 months in aviation
62
66
56
December 2022
Flight International
5

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin