Aviation Week & Space Technology

NASA vows to become a “smart buyer” to offset budget threat to X-plane plans as it plans larger, piloted flight demonstrators.

Breakthrough’s Starshot plan is looking for exoplanets in the “Goldlocks Zone” of the Alpha Centauri binary system that might support life.

MIT’s unconventional D8 configuration gets more conventional as Aurora Flight Sciences works to turn the fuel-saving concept into a practical product.

U.S. major airlines benefited greatly from depressed fuel prices and offshoots of consolidation, but the boon times appear to be near an end.

Construction of a third hangar will increase Gameco’s MRO capacity and allow more third-party work.

Taking advantage of New START Treaty reductions, the service is overhauling CBM silos for the first time since they were built more than 40 years ago.

Cernan flew in space on Gemini IX and to the Moon twice, on Apollo 10 and 17.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX returned the Falcon 9 to flight status after a successful Jan. 14 launch.

China featured four large low-frequency radars—at least one of which specifies a detection range against the F-22—along with a new, passive radar. Almaz-Antey was also on site promoting Russia’s counterstealth systems.

A modernized U.S. nuclear arsenal could force adversaries to work toward a stable, peaceful international system.

After years restricted by Western sanctions, Iran Air is looking to finally expand its fleet, and Airbus is the first beneficiary.

Turkey is developing the Hurkus into an advanced trainer and a battlefield warrior.

Embraer CEO aims to grow MRO to a quarter of the company’s business as it targets Asia with the E2.

Predix drone swarms; Islamic State group UAVs; laser attack-logging app; Alphabet X ends Titan stratospheric internet project.

The manufacturer believes it can get through the order downturn because its backlog is so large and it has increased production only slowly in the past.

South Korea’s missile-defense system, Chunggung PIP, will go into production in 2017, a year early. Deployment of the predecessor Chunggung anti-aircraft system near the North Korean border is complete

In this week’s Washington Outlook, Mattis pledges to defend NATO, the continued scrutiny of F-35 costs and the FAA proposes a new way to navigate the East Coast.

Safran is hoping changes will help its factories design production lines of the future.

U.S. companies will draw on their experience building scientific and commercial communications spacecraft to develop probes that will explore remnants of the early Solar System.

Aviation Week Avionics and Safety Editor John Croft samples an Airbus vision system designed to provide helicopter pilots with cues needed to fly more safely at night and in degraded visual environments, including brownout and whiteout.

Where you can order up turbulence on cue and barf bags are at the ready for however many takes are needed?

In this week’s roundup, Pentagon allows Raytheon to sell SM-6 abroad, Malaysia to receive light scout attack helicopters, U.S. Air Force’s missile-warning satellite prepared for launch and Morocco to add electronic warfare system to its F-16s.

Airbus buys an electron-beam additive manufacturing machine to 3-D-print titanium airframe structural components for production aircraft.

Airbus and Boeing guidance, until recently, indicated that they expect a 17-year supercycle, but the end came after 12 as the world economy slows.

Tom and Jerry are more than an old-school cartoon, they are now an important cubesat experiment.