John was editor of Aviation Week's ShowNews for nearly two decades. He retired in 2020. His background in business journalism before joining Aviation Week includes stints at Reuters, the American Banker daily banking newspaper and as business news editor at the Milwaukee Journal and the Cincinnati Enquirer.
A lifelong aviation enthusiast, John has been a private pilot for 34 years and won an award at EAA Oshkosh for his restoration of a vintage British Auster army spotter aircraft. He is currently building a 1920s Staaken Flitzer biplane from plans. John attended his first Farnborough Air Show in 1952, when just eight months old.
Bradley Perrett (Singapore), John Morris (Singapore), Michael Mecham (Singapore)
Chinese commercial aircraft builder Comac is aiming to freeze the preliminary design of its 156-seat C919 airliner by the end of this year, working with suppliers and aiming at a first flight in 2014. The suppliers of major systems will be chosen in the first half of this year for the aircraft, which, with CFM International Leap-X engines, is a prospective challenger to Airbus and Boeing, albeit one with huge challenges in seeking market acceptance.
Madhu Unnikrishnan, John Morris john_morris@aviationweek.com
Two of the world’s largest private jet travel companies are on the verge of announcing an alliance that will give them global coverage. Bombardier’s Flexjet, the second-largest fractional ownership program in North America, and VistaJet, which operates the second-largest fleet of private jets outside the U.S., are in negotiations to link their spheres of operation.
—Ameco Beijing is making good progress in dealing with a maintenance manager’s nightmare: how to fill up huge additions to capacity coming on line in the middle of a severe global recession. “We’ve spent the last few years completing our expansion,” says chief executive and joint general manager Andreas Meisel. “Now our work is to utilize it.”
