Aviation Week & Space Technology

Extend today’s highway code to the skies or allow vehicles freedom to self-regulate? These are among options for urban unmanned-aircraft traffic control being explored by researchers.

U.S. State Department approves Foreign Military Sale requests, Saudia Arabia inducts F-15SAs into fleet, Indonesian president wants to see final A400M accident report, and Raytheon wins fourth full-rate production contract for SM-6.

As Russia beefs up its military and signals a more aggressive foreign policy, the JSF is essential to guarding NATO's northern flank.

Shark and seal skins, even speed skater’s suits, are inspiring drag-reduction technologies eyed for coating U.S. Air Force transports and tankers to curb jet fuel consumption.

Cathay Pacific has revealed the outlines of its largest restructuring in 20 years, while Malaysia Airlines makes encouraging progress on its more ambitious changes.

Charter operators are embracing the private club concept as way of “democratizing” private aviation.

A small tech company not too long ago, OHB is now set to compete with the bigger satellite OEMs.

Leading aircraft lessor AerCap expects a substantial number of widebody deferrals but argues the market is still strong enough to deal with some turbulence.

Combined, the companies will have a system portfolio spanning the entire aircraft.

President Obama shook up space policy when he took office, and President Trump may be about to do the same.

ESA is planning to outfit the 30-satellite constellation with the same atomic clocks, despite the issues.

First results seem promising from jointly conducted Boeing-Embraer EcoDemonstrator technology test effort using an E170 prototype.

Everyone seems to want to be in on the newly lucrative aircraft financing industry.

Boeing will soon test an air-launched version of the double-range “Harpoon-ER” anti-ship missile in anticipation of U.S. Navy requirements.

United President Scott Kirby is looking to fulfill the airline’s potential with some major organizational moves.

Lockheed Martin X-56A ready return to flight; Aurora LightningStrike vertical-horizontal transition tests; TsAGI ground-effect transport tested; BAE Systems lasers to create atmospheric lenses; U.S. Army tests Hoverbike for rapid resupply.

American Airlines has promoted Hector Adler to senior vice president of product and service delivery, from vice president of flight service. Jill Surdek will succeed him as vice president of flight service. FlexSys Inc., a provider of wing-morphing technology, has hired David Hornick as president/chief operating officer. Hornick had been with Aurora Flight Sciences.

Upcoming aviation and aerospace industry events and Aviation Week Network events

Eyes may be on the T-X competition, but the international market remains ripe for training aircraft.

A lot in Washington is broken these days, but not everything needs to be fixed.

Rolls’s settlement emerges as fraud investigators begin to examine the aerospace industry as a whole.

Here are signposts to follow as the new administration’s choices on defense unfold.

Autonomous systems, terahertz communications, cognitive computing, digitized fabrication—these are the technologies identified as potentially disruptive for aerospace by a panel of experts at AIAA’s SciTech conference.

In this week’s Washington Outlook: why industry experience in government helps the Pentagon get a better deal; McCain’s plans to spend big on the military; a burgeoning space rivalry; and the ongoing attempt to block the sale of aircraft to Iran Air.

Readers weigh in on Factories of the Future article; debate the Persons of the Year selection; discuss Air Force One options and decry ultra-long-range aircraft.