Issue #392: Southern Cross & The Great Escape

The next generation is closer than you think

It was the aviation story of the year, and for once, it was a (mostly) positive one. In January, a Japan Airlines A350 burst into flames at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, but astonishingly, everyone on board survived. It was the first serious incident involving Airbus’s new A350 – the aircraft set to launch Qantas’ Project Sunrise and become the backbone of its international operations. (Hold your emails: I know we’re mixing the A350-900 with the A350-1000 and the A350-1000 ULR, but stick with me.) The incident was notable because the European planemaker received almost unanimous praise from the world’s press for creating an aircraft that could survive those flames long enough for everybody on board to get out. It was one of three huge stories to cross our news desks over the Christmas period. The other being the arrival of Qantas’ first A220 on Australian shores, hailing the start of its monster fleet renewal program and, of course, a door (plug) flying off a 737 MAX in the US.

In other words, next-generation aircraft are the talk of the town.