Aviation Week & Space Technology

The bizav sector is confident in upper-market segment growth, but small jets are still suffering.

DEFENSE France, Germany and Italy have formally agreed to launch studies that could lead to development of a European medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft for delivery in the early to mid-2020s. Airbus Defense & Space in Germany is to lead a two-year, €60 million ($68 million) definition study with France’s Dassault and Italy’s Finmeccanica (page 25).

Airbus’s A400M airlifter program has faced some recent setbacks, not least of which is the May 9 crash of a production aircraft on its first flight.

Funding and governance matter, but the largest and least-discussed problem is culture

Climate change charges lodged; Drukair articles lauded; Another CAS solution; call for roomier space exploration crew habitats

Aviation Week chief aircraft evaluation editor Fred George flew left seat in Airbus’s new big twin.

After putting the Airbus A350 through its paces, the ruling is it's a different aircraft than Boeing’s 787, and is a significant advance over the popular A330.

The U.S. Air Force wants to keep its bomber program under wraps. There are at least six reasons why that’s a bad idea.

After nearly 100 years, manned fighters still represent the overwhelming bulk of airpower, but predictions of their irrelevance or obsolescence are still with us.

After years of false starts, a joint European UAV program looks like it may finally progress.

IAF Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel worries that the sale of the Russian S-300 air defense system to Iran could provide a sense of immunity.

A longtime space-engineering company is about to take the plunge into commercial space with a commercial hyperspectral imager for the International Space Station.

The U.S. space agency faces a $150 million bill to human-rate an upper stage for one flight.

An alignment problem with the massive friction-stir-welding tool built to manufacture NASA’s SLS tanks is causing some consternation, but overall the design appears sound.

The bill is expected to support the Obama administration’s $1.1 billion request for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle to carry humans deep into space, including to Mars.

FAA sticks with ADS-B-Out deadline, House examines new ways to watch weather, Boeing floats international sales of the Warthog and a defense spending bill advances.

Japan Airlines, Spirit, Ryanair, Alaska, Allegiant and Copa are the top scorers in Aviation Week’s 2015 Top-Performing Airlines study.

New Top-Performing Airlines rankings use a new source of data, but the methodology behind the results remains the same.

Japan Airlines is the highest-scoring in Aviation Week’s Top-Performing Airlines rankings, with narrowbody operators also featuring prominently in the top 10.

The aircraft maker and launch vehicle manufacturer are using 3-D-printed polymer parts in the A350 and Atlas V booster, respectively

Variable-buoyancy airship patented; cockpit display keeps booms away; quicker ways to deploy unmanned assets; Slovakia’s AeroMobil flying car crashes; faster airport security checks.

NASA’s Greased Lightning has it all: unmanned operations, vertical takeoff and landing, distributed propulsion, hybrid-electric power and efficient cruise. But how does it work?

In the wake of the Airbus A400M crash, London Bureau Chief Tony Osborne, Military Editor Bill Sweetman and Executive Editor James R. Asker discus the effect of crashes and incidents on early aircraft programs. Among the aircraft discussed are DC-10, A320, A380, F-16, V-22, XB-70, Dark Star and several airships.

A century after work began on the first of Cardington's giant hangars, a new generation lighter-than-air vehicle is being prepared for flight testing inside the cavernous structure.

Kay Kratky (see photo) has been named CEO of Austrian Airlines. He succeeds Jaan Albrecht, who has become CEO of Lufthansa/Turkish Airlines joint venture SunExpress. Kratky has been chief operating officer of Austrian’s parent Lufthansa.