The initial group of astronauts selected to fly on commercial missions to the International Space Station are providing input about human-factors engineering to Boeing and SpaceX.
The space agency is pleased with the progress of the post-space-shuttle commercial approach to developing the spacecraft that will allow it to begin flying astronauts from U.S. soil again.
Norwegian Air International long-haul expansion plans scored a major victory with tentative U.S. Transportation Department approval of its foreign air carrier permit.
NASA engineers will regularly brief U.S. companies on their progress in developing techniques for on-orbit satellite servicing, hoping to spin the technology off into the private sector as quickly as possible.
What are the most important technologies, innovations and novel ideas that have made aviation and space what they are today? What will be important in the future? Listen in as Aviation Week editors debate the key 100—and which should make it into the magazine’s 100th anniversary issue.
Throughout the past 10 decades, Aviation Week has published some of the most iconic aerospace images on its covers. Our editors reviewed the entire 100-year archive of the magazine with its more than 4,500 covers to find what they considered the most historic, prescient and dramatic images. Then we offered that selection to you, our readers, to vote on the best of the best. We received more than 15,000 responses. Here, we reveal what you deem to be the top five Aviation Week covers in defense, space, commercial aviation and business aviation.
World War II and the years immediately before and after were ones of soaring sophistication in aviation. Aircraft gained retractable gear, pressurized cabins, high-lift systems, ice protection, and eventually airborne radar, inertial navigation and digital computers. Pilots gained ejection seats and G suits. Propulsion technology advanced from turbocharged pistons to afterburning turbojets and bypass turbofans. They were decades of transition, the airship fading away and swept wing becoming dominant. They also heralded the future, from unmanned aircraft to solar-powered spacecraft.
What technologies lie ahead for aerospace? Reusable spacecraft and additive manufacturing for sure, but what about flying cars, jetpacks or another attempt at nuclear-powered aircraft? Only the future will tell.
From its unveiling of the B-52 bomber and Boeing 707 jet to the classified RQ-180 unmanned aircraft and China’s anti-satellite weapon, Aviation Week has produced some legendary scoops over the past 100 years. Here are some of our favorites.
The speed at which yields have dropped in recent months is a cause for concern in the boardrooms of Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and International Airlines Group.
