Ask The Editors Roundup

Aviation Week Executive Editor, Commercial Aviation Jens Flottau answers:

Airbus and Boeing were producing widebodies at rates that were arguably too high even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The market for long-haul aircraft has been weak for several years, and Boeing was slow to adjust 787 rates in 2019 after expected orders from China failed to materialize. Airbus also stuck to its strategic goal of producing 10 A350s per month as it ramped up production. The rates have now been adjusted, but many analysts believe they are still high and provide more capacity than the market currently needs.

Aviation Week Fleet and Flight Analyst Daniel Williams responds:

Our annual 10-year Fleet and MRO forecast has just been launched, and as you can imagine, there are some significant changes from last year’s forecast.

Beijing Bureau Chief Bradley Perrett responds:

The short and not very satisfactory answer is inexperience. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) did not have a recent background in complete development of even a general aviation airplane when it set up Mitsubishi Aircraft in 2008 to develop the MRJ program, now called the SpaceJet.

Aviation Week Executive Editor for Technology Graham Warwick responds:

As a way to reduce airliner fuel consumption and emissions, electric taxiing looked technically promising when it was first demonstrated in 2005. But economic reality can be different. One project is progressing toward certification, but others have been canceled or put back on the shelf for future use.

Aviation Week Space Editor and Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief Irene Klotz responds:

NASA has learned to roll with the punches: It parlayed the George W. Bush administration’s Moon-Mars exploration program, known as Constellation, into the Obama-era asteroid rendezvous and relocation effort and now into the Trump administration’s initiative to land astronauts on the Moon in 2024.

Aviation Week Pentagon Editor Lee Hudson answers:

The Netherlands’ Organization for Applied Scientific Research, Physics and Electronics Laboratory designed the Tanker Remote Vision System in 2006 for the McDonnell Douglas KDC-10. It is used on two tankers that serve in both tanking and transporting missions. The technology supports inflight refueling operators by providing a picture of the air-to-air tanking process, even in bad visual conditions.