Bradley Perrett covered China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. He is a Mandarin-speaking Australian.
Before joining Aviation Week in 2006 he was a macroeconomics, politics and aerospace journalist with Reuters. Perrett holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Macquarie University, Sydney. He left Aviation Week in 2020.
Three decades ago, carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, commonly known as composite, was beginning to appear in commercial aircraft. It was not cheap and could not, at that time, be applied to anything like an entire airframe. With the Boeing 787, an almost completely composite aircraft is now in service. The problem of cost remains, but a second phase of the composite revolution is now underway, with manufacturers looking for ways of eliminating autoclaves—the costly, energy- hungry pressure cookers that are traditionally used to cure the material.
The history of civil versions of military jet airlifters is not encouraging. The idea of building rear-loading freighters for commercial operators seems to occur to every company that develops such aircraft for an air force. What does not occur is great success.
