Japan’s F-X fighter competition results will determine next year whether the national industry can sustain its tradition of domestic production of fast jets or instead be forced to accept a suspension and the risk of losing skills.

Chinese commercial-aircraft builder Comac will deliver the first ARJ21 regional jet in May 2010, slipping the schedule from 2009 as the aircraft enters its delayed flight tests. The aircraft, China’s first advanced jetliner, made its first flight on Nov. 28, eight months later than scheduled at its rollout a year ago and two years later than planned when the project was launched.

The proposed merger of Qantas and British Airways is attracting minimal opposition in Australia, improving the chances of a successful deal. The Australian government looks like treating the proposal to form a dual-listed company to combine the airlines as a purely commercial matter that it would not obstruct. Negotiations are at too early a stage for Canberra to consider the deal formally under foreign investment laws, but the government’s statements so far reveal no sign of any nationalist urge to block such a deal.