Back Shop Aviation Today: Cyberspace, The Final Frontier

A famous Canadian thinker once said: "The medium is the message." (No, not William Shatner — I’m referring to Marshall McLuhan.) The late Professor McLuhan, a communications theorist, meant that a medium affects individuals and society not merely by the content delivered via the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself. The groundbreaking McLuhan also is credited with inventing the term "global village."

The medium of the Internet conditions your audience to expect information anytime, anywhere, instantly and on demand — regardless of content. That’s a powerful combination of qualities.

Combining the efficiency of online communications with the credible content of print, makes the message even more powerful. For example, this issue of Aviation Maintenance magazine takes a close look at the Phenom, Embraer’s entry into the Very Light Jet (VLJ) market. This topic will be picked up again on Feb. 6, by a Webinar produced by our Web site, Aviation Today. Solid magazine reporting and follow up by a timely Webinar presentation, is a heckuva one-two punch.

The Webinar, called New Market Opportunities, New Aircraft, will feature as speakers: Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis, The Teal Group; and Michel Merluzeau, director, Military and Commercial Airborne Systems, Aerospace and Defense Group, Frost & Sullivan. I will moderate the proceedings. (To register, go to: www.AviationToday.com.)

Webinars, such as the one mentioned above, typically use PowerPoint as their foundation, allowing companies the flexibility to adopt existing content and easily add sound, charts, graphs, screen shots and animations within familiar PowerPoint menus.

The popularity of Webinars is in large measure a function of the global pervasiveness of the Internet. Increasingly, people have broadband access in the workplace. The Internet is ubiquitous, in the office and at home. Consequently, end users don’t simply want access to information — they want to be able to immediately use that information.

To be sure, our Feb. 6 Webinar will encompass need-to-know, actionable information. After two consecutive quarters, most airlines have returned to profitability. Many industry insiders are convinced that the airline crisis is over. Opportunities are emerging around the globe, providing impetus for new aircraft models, such as Embraer’s Phenom.

Aboulafia and Merluzeau, two influential and well-known aviation analysts, will discuss how the growing prosperity in point-to-point business travel is boosting the fortunes of the VLJ, an innovative, light weight and fuel efficient aircraft that some are likening to the "microchip of aviation." VLJs promise to revolutionize aviation. But when it comes to these VLJs, do unforeseen challenges lie ahead? Specifically, this issue’s feature article on the Phenom examines how Embraer expects to support its aircraft.

Regulators are raising alarms about the impact of VLJs on congestion in the skies and are questioning the support and maintenance of these new aircraft. Even before certification of the first VLJ, small aircraft manufacturers are getting hauled before the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Transport Association to address these concerns.

The Webinar also will examine how every network airline has redeployed as many aircraft as possible to international routes, stimulating demand for Boeing’s all-composite 787 Dreamliner. The 787 remains on schedule for delivery to airlines in 2008 with 435 firm orders, making this state-of-the-art jetliner the strongest product launch in the history of the airline industry. Does the 787 serve as a positive bellwether for other manufacturers? Or do under reported pitfalls await the much-ballyhooed 787?

Boeing’s arch rival Airbus is hastening production of the new A350XWB, its wide-body rival to the 787 Dreamliner. How will this increasingly fierce competition pan out? Is Airbus poised for recovery and merely the victim of unduly harsh press coverage? Or is this beleaguered behemoth really as troubled as it seems?

Opportunities abound in the aviation business for manufacturers, suppliers, operators, MROs, and entrepreneurs that are armed with the right market intelligence — the sort of intelligence provided by Aviation Maintenance magazine and related online events, such as our Feb. 6 Webinar. To register for New Market Opportunities, New Aircraft, go to: www.aviationtoday.com.

More than 30 years before the World Wide Web was invented, McLuhan predicted today’s electronic global village. Who knows what new, paradigm-shifting predictions you’ll experience when logged on to an Aviation Today Webinar.