Aviation Week & Space Technology

Aircraft are ever more connected to the internet, in the cabin, the cockpit and to the maintenance shop.

In this week's defense roundup: Belarus testing weaponized UAV, Antonov to fly light airlifter before 2017, NRO focuses on ground systems and algorithms, and Indonesia test flies first of five retrofitted C-130Bs.

Among 16 Tigers in Australian Army squadron service, an average of only 3.5 were serviceable in 2015.

When aerospace executives look at digital opportunities, too many use the traditional technology lens without sufficiently evaluating business model impacts.

Satellite fleet operators old and new see rising growth in aeronautic, maritime broadband.

With about $40 million a year to spend, the agency’s Convergent Aeronautics Solutions project has so far funded 15 subprojects in three annual selection rounds.

An innovative state bureaucracy? South Carolina’s got one—and it has won two key awards, too.

Despite SpaceX and Blue Origin’s advances on reusable engines, the 16 old space shuttle engines are the only way right now to power flight crews into space.

Now that connectivity is virtually a given, airlines are beginning to look up and down the value chain for low-cost upgrades that generate big savings.

Still to be revealed are the payload masses for Blue Origin’s two New Glenn variants. Both versions of the new launcher will have a 23-ft. diameter. The two-stage version will stand 270 ft. tall, while the three-stage vehicle will be 313 ft.

Video footage from the HUD of a U.S. Air Force F-16 records the dramatic moment when its unconscious pilot is saved from certain death by the aircraft’s Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System.

The unveiling ends months of speculation about Boeing and partner Saab’s mysterious clean-sheet design for the T-X, which seeks to replace the T-38.

Double-bubble, blended wing-body, truss-braced wing, hybrid wing-body—they all sound tempting, but which will NASA pick for its next X-plane and what can it afford?

More and more European low-cost carriers are looking into long-haul flying, following the path of Norwegian, Jetstar and Air Asia X.

ISRO’s satellite center will help train companies to assemble and test spacecraft.

SkyTeam Alliance members Korean Air and Delta Air Lines agree to expand their limited codeshare connections to many more international and U.S. domestic routes beginning in the fourth quarter.

Whatever the outcome of the protracted process to expand EASA’s oversight, it is a given that the safety agency will wield more power in the future.

UAS in the news: Mercedes and Matternet team on drone logistics; Google’s Project Wing delivers burritos; Mitre names counter-UAS winners; Vayu flies medical samples in Madagascar; DJI tests show value of drones for search and rescue.

In 2009, aviation committed to achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020. Now caps will not go into effect before 2021 and will be voluntary at first. For international aviation it is hard-won progress toward preventing CO2 emissions and climate change limiting future growth.

There are key differences between the defense spending cycle that consensus believes will unfold in 2016-20 and prior cycles.

Turkish government changes recruitment laws to let the air force to solve pilot crisis and recruit officers before they graduate from college.

Expect the trade deal to loom large after the election as the A&D industry is offers full support, despite opposition from both U.S. presidential candidates.

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

What you need to know going into the Air Force Association’s annual air and space symposium.

The focus of the investigation is on specific failures, faults and combination of events that might have led to the destruction of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and its payload on the launch pad during preparations for a routine static-fire test of rocket’s first-stage Merlin engines.