Aviation Week & Space Technology

Air Transport World’s Karen Walker and Aviation Daily’s Madhu Unnikrishnan discuss regulatory hurdles to $2.6-billion deal and whether it marks the end of U.S. airline consolidation.

Scientist and former astronaut Janet Kavandi (see photo) has been named director of the NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland. She is a veteran of thre e Space Shuttle missions and has served as NASA’s Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office.

High-speed medium-rotorcraft demonstrators are taking shape, but the budget-strapped U.S. Army has yet to make clear its plans for the way ahead.

Given the scale of the challenges for big aerospace companies, one wonders how anyone succeeds.

The preliminary design review of a U.S.-European ocean-monitoring mission has been delayed by several months as part of a risk-reduction effort following the failure of a radar instrument aboard another climate-science mission.

The carrier is primarily owned by three foreign airlines, so the potential exit of one would have major ramifications.

Alaska wanted more share on the West Coast, so it is buying Virgin America. The jury is out on whether this will work.

DEFENSE The Kuwaiti government has signed a long-delayed contract with Italy to purchase 28 Eurofighter Typhoons. Valued at $8.7 billion, the contract covers 28 Tranche 3 aircraft, the first export Typhoons with Captor-E active, electronically scanned array radars. Deliveries will begin in 2019.

Nelson points out that Pentagon controls 20% of airspace | Defense Secretary floats idea of full-fledged Cyber Command | NATO official defends the alliance

Inflation-adjusted U.S. defense spending through the end of this decade will fall off after 2016 into a sustained period of roughly level annual budgets at about $600 billion.

U.S. national security relies on forward presence in many ways big and small. Technology and defense ambassadorial outposts like DIUx are simply the latest edge of the spear.

April 18-19—11th annual Military Space Situational Awareness Conference. Holiday Inn Kensington Forum. London. See smi-online.co.uk/defence/uk/milspace April 18-20—IATA Ops Conference 2016. Tivoli Hotel & Congress Center. Copenhagen. See iata.org/events/Pages/ops-conference.aspx

The ups and downs of global defense; Alaska air base to welcome F-35As; Pakistan orders Nine Viper Helicopters.

Peru has big plans to reequip its armed forces with new and upgraded aircraft as the country’s economic growth spurt continues.

NASA and space advocacy groups seek continuity in space policy from presidential candidates to keep plans on track and international partners on board.

An ISRO research center in western India is developing a rover and three major payloads for its Chandrayaan-2 quest to confirm the presence of lunar water.

Iberia is the only major network airline in Europe to have created a low-cost feeder for a main hub that is working extremely well.

Piper's approach to keeping all processes in-house ensures that cost, schedule and quality control remain in the company’s hands.

Piper focuses on the training sector as well as promoting it M600 single-engine turboprop amid a fractious market.

As Beijing encourages state companies to seek more nongovernment capital, China Eastern sees a renewed chance for attracting strategic investment. The investor will not necessarily be Delta Air Lines.

An analysis of the latest UAS sightings reported to the FAA shows one-third came close enough to be potentially hazardous, but few required evasive action.

Toughening up GPS; bottle-to-throttle biofuel ready; robot repairs in GEO; autonomous Loyal Wingman wanted; Champ microwave missile puts gloves back on.

Darpa thinks volleys of low-cost UAVs launched and recovered in flight could help manned aircraft break though sophisticated integrated air defenses.

South Korea's Agency for Defense Development plans to build an apparently full-scale mockup of its proposed stealthy design, for assessment of radar cross-section, and eight sub-scale test aircraft.

If the MRJ can be sold at 10 a month and prices close to those in the original business plan, the economy of running production facilities at twice the planned rate and at their limit should go far to offset the program’s development overruns.