Carole Rickard Hedden retired in 2022 as Executive Editor for custom content and Program Excellence for the Aviation Week Network, providing custom content and research to industry executives. She also was Managing Editor of Aviation Week’s Advanced Air Mobility Report. She joined Aviation Week in 1996 as a financial/business editor and has led special projects for more than two decades.
Prior to joining Aviation Week, Hedden worked for over 20 years in the news media and as a corporate communications leader at Fortune 100 companies.
U.S. airlines demand that their MRO providers supply individualized support, creative solutions and use of metrics to drive improvement. If MROs don't, airlines are not shy about taking away work. This is what we found when Overhaul & Maintenance surveyed U.S. airlines to assess the quality of maintenance, repair and overhaul service they receive. In our first survey assessing this area, Israel Aircraft Industries/Bedek garnered the top spot.
Technological challenge ranks No. 1 in considerations by aerospace/defense professionals when looking at employment opportunities. Provided that compensation is similar and disregarding geographic location, professionals ranked technological challenge as the No. 1 issue in an Aviation Week electronic survey conducted on aviationnow.com in 2001 and in focus groups in 2002 and 2003.
Aspiring to be the industry of choice among the most capable engineering and technical talent is one thing--achieving that goal is another. Such is the challenge for U.S. aerospace/defense companies, which will have to replenish their ranks in the years ahead as the workforce ages and other high-tech sectors lure the "best and brightest." Couple this with the fact that the net employment has been steadily declining in the last 15 years and the situation becomes troubling, according to many industry observers.
