The Economist article is it's usual well researched standard.
If there has
not been corruption in the aircraft industry (all manufacturers) then it will be the first industry in the world to be so.
After 23 years of commercial experience in a wide range of public and private companies, as well as government, I see ever more 'snail-trails' of corruption and opportunites for same.
I hear stories from folks telling me how they bribed people in the 1960s and 70s. I see companies getting cosy with each other for five years and then suddenly finding a new best friend. In due course, the person who negotiated that deal gets promoted. The new man (it usually is a man) then negotiates a fresh supply deal with another company.
This means changing all sorts of interfaces and relationships with the supplier. Five years later and it's all change, as they find that a new supplier can actually do everything better than the last one. Meanwhile, the folks inside the company just shrug their shoulders and watch the boss drive his new car into the reserved parking bay.
If I had have taken the bribes oferred to me when I was purchasing goods and services, would I have been found out? Who knows. I was not buying aircraft and the largest deal where I was oferred a bribe was only half a million pounds Stirling. Imagine the temptation when you are buying aircraft? The temptation is on both sides and is called human nature. We can only hope that we pick up a majority of it.