BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

Bombardier C-Series:  Savior or a curse? Any Canadian reading the business news lately knows that Bombardier is in trouble . Layoffs, less-than-hoped demand for the C-Series , and requests for bailouts have made headlines for the Canadian aerospace company.  Some of the blame for this is directed at Bombardier's management practices.  Bombardier utilized a two-tiered investment structure, in which shares owned by its two founding families (Bombardier and Beaudoin) are worth far more than shares available to the general public.  Thanks to this, 13% of the shareholders enjoy a 54% of the voting power.  Combined with Bombardier's niche position in the marketplace, investors are likely to think twice . The question is:  Do we let Bombardier fail? Some may be tempted to let natural selection take its course.  "Darwinism" and all that.  Doing so would pretty much devastate Canada's aerospace industry, however.  Canada would still have pl...

[Note:  This post was initially shown in gripen4canada.blogspot.ca .  I am including it here as proof that Canada can indeed design and build a great aircraft! Many Canadians look back in time at the Avro Arrow and the potential it promised.  A grand military construction project that was years ahead of everything else, perfectly suited for Canada, and worthy of our pride. Yet people tend to forget about another Canadian military aircraft that originated in the 50s.  One that was the most advanced and capable model of its day.  One that was designed, built, and flown in Canada,  the CP-107 Argus. It's easy to understand why the Argus doesn't have the same mystique as the Arrow.  A big, lumbering, piston-propellor anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft just isn't as sexy and exiting as a sleek, mach 2 jet fighter.  (Otherwise, Tom Cruise would be flying a S-3 Viking in  Top Gun , instead of a F-14 Tomcat.) The Argus was no less impo...