Aviation Week & Space Technology

Positing that science & technology enables strategy; lamenting and debating fate of JSF; questioning Navy's "new" approach to surface warfare.

Aircelle has named Philippe Couteaux (see photo) vice president-strategy/customer support and services, overseeing nacelle system development and production. Rubin Siddique (see photo) has been appointed CEO of Lufthansa Technical Training. He succeeds Andreas Kaden, who is retiring.

Canada’s backing of Bombardier shows governments are willing to do what it takes in the aerospace arena to keep home-grown champions in the game.

Several new helicopter models will enter an increasingly crowded market during 2016.

Upgrade programs feel the impact as demand for oil and gas helicopters falls away.

Bell’s 525 Relentless is second-to-none for safety and mission optimization, but will the market respond with firm orders?

March 5-12—IEEE Aerospace Conference. Yellowstone Conference Center. Big Sky, Montana. See aeroconf.org March 7—Global Aerospace Summit 2016. Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center. Abu Dhabi. See aia-aerospace.org/news/global_aerospace_summit_2016/

New rules will in theory make passenger flights safer—assuming battery makers and shippers follow the rules.

The first of Embraer’s new generation “E2” series of airliners, the E190-E2, was unveiled on Feb. 25 at the company’s facility in Brazil.

Australia is acting like a country increasingly worried about its security but willing to pay to do something about it—including drawing even closer to its ally the U.S. in the Indo-Pacific region.

Airlines warn a British exit from the EU could hit travelers in their wallets.

Lawmakers draw battle lines on defense budget; FAA creates rulemaking committee for micro UAVs; Foreign Military Sales process remains slow; Culberson makes another attempt to allow the NASA administrator to serve 10 years.

The order backlog for Airbus Group has never been so large. Program execution is now key.

COMMERCIAL AVIATION Embraer rolled out the first E190- E2 on Feb. 25, revealing it is boosting the range and performance of the E195-E2, largest of its second-generation E-Jets, by increasing wingspan and maximum takeoff weight. The 88-seat E170-E2, 160-seat E190-E2 and 132-seat E195-E2 now each have different wings. The E190-E2 is to enter service in 2018, the E195-E2 in 2019 and E170-E2 in 2020.

A network of low-level IFR routes and anti-icing-equipped helicopters may represent the future of air ambulance operations.

Thinking about the next fighter as an airplane first and foremost is a strategic mistake.

Raytheon/Finmeccanica say what differentiates their candidate for the USAF T-X award is that it is operational, low-risk, affordable and safe, unlike the clean-sheet designs of their competitors.

Both plans appear to be extremely bullish for defense, but rapid spending increases may prove difficult for some parts of industry to digest.

Increasing weapons exports; Canada may consider F-35 after all; F-35A operational tests; Minuteman III flies.

Why a merger of relative equals—with Honeywell on top in the end, according to numerous reports—and why now?

The French-led project helps to address the increasing demand for small-satellite launch, and the dearth of options for meeting it.

European officials acknowledge the competitive threat a reflyable Falcon 9 may pose, they seem less interested in reusable launchers than in mimicking a more mundane aspect of the SpaceX business model—volume production of a common engine.

NASA's fire-safety experiments on Cygnus could pave the way for future commercial free-flyers to extend space station research.

Washington will always be home to protests, even if most don’t amount to anything.

GE readies for test runs of its new GE9X, which will be the largest turbofan engine ever produced in terms of physical dimensions.