Aviation Week & Space Technology

​The U.S. Air Force has made several general officer assignments: Maj. Gen. Timothy G. Fay has been named director of operations, strategic deterrence and nuclear integration for the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa, Ramstein AB, Germany. Fay, who had been director of strategic plans, deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs at the Pentagon, replaces Maj. Gen. John K. McMullen, who has been named vice commander of Air Combat Command Headquarters, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. Also, Brig. Gen. Douglas K.

Aeroflot Group’s LCC Pobeda is expanding rapidly and will make it harder for other low-cost airlines to enter the market.

Upcoming aviation and aerospace industry events in September and October, and Aviation Week Network events

Readers comment on supersonic aircraft advances; Boeing's 777X pursuit; climate-change doubter terminology; query about amount of space pollution

Aurora Flight Sciences and Sikorsky complete autonomy demonstrations under Phase 2 of DARPA’s ALIAS cockpit-automation program. Both are now bidding for Phase 3, to mature selected technologies for transition to potential customers—military and commercial.

The Australian P-8 Poseidon is due to arrive in November, heralding a decade of change.

After years of declining research efforts, defense primes and aerospace OEMs are repositioning to become the perfect partners for startups via corporate venture capital projects.

NASA is looking for a few good anomalies to help researchers develop an unmanned aircraft traffic management system that will work any time and all the time.

China's Casic says its KZ-11 can hurl 1 metric ton to a 700-km (430-mi.) sun-synchronous orbit, exactly the same that CASC attributed last year to Long March 6.

Dubbed “Baby Boom,” the aircraft is a one-third scale demonstrator for a small supersonic airliner which Boom Technologies wants certified by 2023.

After massively simplifying rules, the FAA is seeing strong growth in remote pilot applications and UAV registrations for commercial uses.

In this week’s Washington Outlook: Heritage Foundation on military options for new administration; Trump may back bilateral space ties with China; and the flood of new UAV pilots.

What do you get when combining Lockheed’s Indago quadcopter, fixed-wing Desert Hawk and optionally piloted K-Max with Sikorsky’s SARA autonomous helicopter?

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

Automation is reaching the point that it may be possible for artificial intelligence and robotics to take much of the routine workload of cockpit crews—and “remember” things no humans could in an emergency. Is this the future?

In this week’s roundup: Singapore air force’s unusual runway, Poland receives two of eight new trainer aircraft, MBDA tests laser technology and Rolls-Royce partners with the U.S. Air Force to maintain Global Hawk engines.

The Trump administration’s stance toward Russia, uncertain Pentagon allocations and geopolitical surpise could roil the U.S. defense industry in 2017.

Two companies offering airborne aggressor services vie for 10-year contract from Canadian Armed Forces.

To meet immediate training and evaluation needs, Nellis AFB in Nevada has turned to contractor agressor fleets, a trend others may follow.

Despite unfavorable conditions, Aeroflot continues to transform itself, showing strong traffic and revenue growth.

Defense training by commercial operators is commonplace in Europe, but aerial aggressor work has yet to take off.

Cockpit automation is ramping up with improved displays in the short term, while data aggregation and interactive systems are in development.

Space policy transition is taking shape slowly following Donald Trump’s surprise election victory.

The first operational F-35A squadron’s participation in an upcoming theater security package will signal the U.S. military’s capability and credibility.

The company has formed the Commercial Information Solutions business unit and launched the Quantix, a tailsitting drone that takes off and lands vertically but transitions to wingborne forward flight for increased efficiency and range.