Three Points: Reactivating A380s, BizAv’s big picture, flying the B-36 Peacemaker

Issue No. 46

The A380 is back, sort of. Airlines are reactivating the double-deck aircraft ahead of the loosening of COVID-related travel restrictions that promise to breathe life into dormant international routes. Just don’t call it a comeback for the superjumbo.
By all metrics, business aviation in 2021 is thriving. Back above 2019 levels, the industry is seeing a strong uptick in new development and commercial activity. Yet, in examining Honeywell Aerospace’s successive 10-year forecasts, TAC steps back to look at the uncomfortable big picture for the industry’s trajectory.
What was it like to fly on the Convair B-36? We listen to a first-hand recollection about an aircraft that needed six turboprops and four jet engines just to get off the ground in the early years of the Cold War.

Jon Ostrower

Jon Ostrower is Editor-in-chief of The Air Current. Prior to launching TAC in June 2018, Ostrower served as Aviation Editor for CNN Worldwide, guiding the network's global coverage of the business and operations of flying. Ostrower joined CNN in 2016 following four and half years at the Wall Street Journal. Based first in Chicago and then in Washington, D.C. he covered Boeing, aviation safety and the business of global aerospace. Before that, Ostrower was editor of the award-winning FlightBlogger for Flightglobal and Flight International Magazine covering the development of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and other new aircraft programs from 2007 to 2012. Ostrower, a Boston native, graduated from The George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs with a bachelor's degree in Political Communication. He is based in Seattle.

Analysis

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The A380 is back, sort of. Airlines are reactivating the double-deck aircraft ahead...

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