The biggest danger facing the global airline industry is not the effects of terrorism, war, SARS and economic downturn. It is that these blows, which have helped ground three national flag carriers and force two American airlines into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, will divert attention from the inherent weaknesses of aviation, which they have worsened. As in the crisis that attended the first Gulf war, many airlines hope that traffic will soon bounce back, and a few terrible years will be followed by fuller planes, happier passengers and a return to profitability. Yet the industry's problems are deeper—and older—than the pain of the past two years implies.
As the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight approaches in December, the industry it launched is still remarkably primitive. The car industry, created not long after the Wright Brothers made history, is now a global industry dominated by a dozen firms, at least half of which make good profits. Yet commercial aviation consists of 267 international carriers and another 500-plus domestic ones. The world's biggest carrier, American Airlines, has barely 7% of the global market, whereas the world's biggest carmaker, General Motors, has (with its associated firms) about a quarter of the world's automobile market.
Aviation has been incompletely deregulated, and in only two markets: America and Europe. Everywhere else deals between governments direction who flies under what roles. These aim to preserve state-owned national flag-carriers, run for prestige rather than profit. And numerous restrictions on foreign ownership make cross-border airline mergers impossible.
In America, the big network carriers face barriers to exit, which have kept their route networks too large. Trade unions resisting job cuts and Congressmen opposing route closures in their territory conspire to block change. In Europe, liberalization is limited by bilateral deals that prevent, for instance, British Airways (BA) flying to America from Frankfurt or Pads, or Lufthansa offering transatlantic flights from London's Heathrow. To use the car industry analogy, it is as if only Renaults were allowed to drive on French motorways.
In airlines, the optimists are those who think that things are now so bad that the industry has no option but to evolve. Frederick Reid, president of Delta Airlines, said earlier this year that events since the 911 attacks are the equivalent of a meteor strike, changing the climate, creating a sort of nuclear winter and leading to a "compressed evolutionary cycle". So how, looking on the bright side, might the industry look after five years of accelerated development？
According to the author, the deeper problems of aviation industry ______.
A．are the effects of various disasters
B．are actually not fully recognized
C．are attracting a lot of attention
D．are not the real cause of airlines' bankruptcy
From Dr. R. S. Scorer of Britain’s Imperial College of Science comes the latest theory about the cause of lightening flashes. Dr. Scorer believes the cause is hail falling through super - cooled clouds, lee particles bouncing off the falling hail acquire a positive charge and rise to the top of the cloud while the hail carries a negative charge to the bottom of the cloud.
According to Dr. Scorer, Benjamin Franklin first proved thunderclouds are charged with electricity. Later investigation showed that the tops of the clouds have a great positive charge and the bottoms a great negative charge.
When the charges become great enough to break down the insulating properties of the air, lightening flashes carry the electricity within the cloud, or from cloud to cloud, or from cloud to earth. But the question remained: how do the charges develop within the cloud？
To seek the cause, Dr. Scorer and his colleagues at the college first duplicated thundercloud currents in a liquid tank. They doubt that mixture takes place only in the tops of the clouds.
Next a study of thunderclouds over the North Atlantic showed that lightening occurs only when the air temperature around the cloud is below freezing. Particles at the top of the cloud begin to freeze, but those in the remainder of the cloud stay unfrozen although below freezing temperature.
To measure moisture, the scientists sent planes equipped with external refrigerated rods into the clouds. The idea was that moisture would freeze on the rods and could later be measured. The men found, however, that some of the moisture particles bounced off the rods. This accidental discovery set the scientists on a new course of action.
In the laboratory, S. E. Reynolds whirled a refrigerated rod through ice particles and found that the particles bounced off the rod acquired a positive charge. This was the missing link. Without hail and super-cooled clouds, he concluded there could be no lightening.
According to the article, Benjamin Franklin was the first to prove that _______.
A．lightening is caused by hail falling through super - cooled clouds
B．thunderclouds are not charged with electricity
C．thunderclouds are charged with electricity
D．lightening was not an invention of the devil
