Five years later than planned, billions of dollars over budget and despite multiple attempts to kill it, the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter is finally beginning its operational use with the U.S. Marine Corps.
COMMERCIAL AVIATION Evidence is strengthening that a section of airfoil found washed ashore on Reunion Island on July 29 is a flaperon from a Boeing 777, possibly Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370), which disappeared on March 8, 2014. Barnacles indicate the debris has been floating some time, and Indian Ocean currents suggest the part could have drifted from the arc west of Australian where the search for MH370 is focused. For updates, see AviationWeek.com/mh370
Mark Jenks (see photo) has been named head of Seattle-based Boeing Corp.’s 787 Dreamliner program. He succeeds Larry Loftis, who retired on July 31. Jenks’s responsibilities will include reducing the $27 billion in combined unit losses that have accumulated during production of the aircraft. He was most recently program deputy general manager.
The Pentagon may be looking toward Silicon Valley for cutting edge ideas, but it still needs the leadership and experience of its legacy primes, including in a new role guiding the new players.
A sudden surge in demand for the combat jet has the French air force struggling to provide training and technical support to export customers while meeting overseas commitments
Despite the failure of two cargo supply missions within a year, commercial space companies are full-speed ahead with their next experiments and payloads
Until now, Hainan Airlines and other HNA carriers have lacked a passenger airline at Shanghai with local privileges. When they convert Yangtze River Express, they will have one
Rapidly growing Chinese tourism, despite slower economic growth, is driving the increase in international air traffic, especially to other Asian nations.
It’s been a busy week for unmanned-aircraft developments, including: naval debut for 3-D-printed UAV; Sony enters small-UAV services market; prescriptions arrive by UAV at free clinic; record claimed for swarming UAVs; unmanned wingman to the rescue; and the acoustic anti-drone sensor.
A 1932 paper by famed German aerodynamicist Ludwig Prandtl inspires NASA Armstrong work on a tailless flying-wing aircraft that could eventually fly on Mars
