Commercial capacity in lower Earth Orbit is booming, but it’s unclear what payloads will use all that’s being built up by companies such as SpaceX, United Launch Alliance (ULA), Blue Origin, Arianespace, Energia, China Great Wall and India’s Antrix.
European planners are looking beyond the next-generation Ariane 6 to a completely new LOX/Methane engine that would dramatically lower production costs, with or without reusability.
A 2020 fleet target suggests China Eastern will need approximately 100 more aircraft to support expansion, plus an unknown quantity for replacements, and more again if it reduces the number of aircraft it has on lease. It is close to ordering Airbus A350s.
From rapid surveys of wreckage in remote locations to high-fidelity forensic reconstruction, drones are quickly becoming an essential tool for accident investigators who can use them.
Researchers find significant fuel savings in “minimal” turbo-electric concept, thanks to benefits of a boundary-layer ingesting,electrically driven propulsor and resulting weight savings from downsizing conventional turbofan engines.
Researchers led by Airbus regard distributed hybrid-electric propulsion as one promising option for a post-2035 commercial aircraft. Europe may fly a scaled demonstrator of this, or an alternative configuration, in 2022.
Days before the Pentagon details its request for spending $582.7 billion, Bill Sweetman provides his thoughts on how an “arsenal plane” might work. And Michael Fabey explains why the Littoral Combat Ship might not experience the budget cuts others have predicted.
X-planes, UAVs and a Cold War footing, this year’s budget request has it all. And Aviation Week’s Graham Warwick and Aviation Week Intelligence Network’s Dan Katz analyze President Barack Obama’s last chance to make change.
After an initial communications misstep that resulted in market jitters, Boeing offers an explanation for the dip in 2016 deliveries, to be followed by a big 2017 upswing.
After a nearly two-decade decline in European defense budgets, an increase seems likely, driven in large part by Russian aggression and the so-called Islamic State.
Planned with an abundance of caution after the many missteps of the 787-8 and 747-8 programs, Boeing’s 737 MAX schedule currently calls for first deliveries in the third quarter of 2017, but that could change.
Bill to overhaul the FAA wins Natca endorsement; Defense experts outline the next president’s national security choices; and NASA official urges space companies to respond faster to consumer demands.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter previewed the fiscal 2017 U.S. defense budget: The $582.7 billion top line will conform to last fall’s bipartisan budget agreement but will also be a “major inflection point” in terms of long-term re-equipment of the force.
Airbus comes under attack from environmental groups for weakening Europe’s position on the stringency level for the first global fuel-efficiency standard for aircraft.
By the time the Bonanza received its type certification in March 1947, Beech had taken orders for 1,500, an unprecedented market response. By the time a heart attack felled Walter Beech three years later, it had redefined the personal aircraft forever.
With more than 50% of its aerospace revenues derived from aftermarket services, Rolls-Royce has stepped up its bid for a greater share of the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services segment by launching an aftermarket services program designed for airlines operating aircraft in the later life-cycle stages.
