Aviation Week & Space Technology

Reader disagrees with earlier reader’s assessment of the space shuttle’s worth; U.S. aerospace coalition takes issue with recent editorial on airline subsidies; pilot shortage solutions cited; another pilot shortage suggestion offered; a call for A-10 replacement and mission reassignment

Sikorsky has a full plate of helicopter programs, but they are just not profitable enough for parent United Technologies.

European safety agency proposes three-tier framework for regulation of civil unmanned aircraft operations based on the risk they pose.

Lawmaker considers tweaking last year’s congressional restrictions on RD-180 engine purchases; NASA reschedules big-ticket design reviews after inspector general report; and the FAA is in for a change.

Reasons for the surge in mergers and acquisitions vary with the motivations of the involved companises.

Sun Flyer just might brighten the outlook of flight school operators while giving a lift to their bottom lines.

Junta Fukunaga has been appointed general manager of the Corporate Administration Div. of the Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. He was vice president of the General Affairs Department. Other recent job transfers at Mitsubishi are: Toshihiro Kawachi to deputy head from vice president of sales and marketing; Yugo Fukuhara to vice president-sales and marketing from group sales director; Kazuhide Shinoda to deputy head of the Engineering Div.

The U.S. has little to show for the millions of dollars it has invested over nearly a decade for training and equipping Yemeni counterterror forces.

AgustaWestland and Boeing battle it out to upgrade the U.K.’s Apache fleet.

Budget realities and better software may be thawing the U.S. government’s resistance to “non-traditional” space sensors to augment the high-priced systems it has developed and fielded over the years.

Technology for the James Webb Space Telescope may be applied to follow-on observatories with almost twice the aperture.

Governments in Singapore and Hong Kong are throwing their weight behind major airport expansions.

With more than 6,200 receivers in place around the populated portions of the world, Flightradar24 will now turn to the oceans to give the nascent surveillance provider more visibility of long-haul routes.

For almost 20 years, WestJet Airlines had a simple business model. But now it is expanding into turboprops and widebodies. Will it work?

JAXA tries again with quiet-supersonic D-Send; Lockheed adds UAS information to FAA flight services; U.K. extends X-ray inspection to large composites; Russia’s air-cushion UAS; Kickstarter crowdfunding bid for collision-avoidance system.

There used to be stealth aircraft and non-stealth aircraft, but new detection technology is making that distinction more complicated.

Helicopter manufacturers may be closing in on a long-sought goal: eliminating rotor-blade vibration.

Dragonfly Pictures Inc. is developing the Pelican for the precision aerial-spraying role and, potentially, military supply operations.

Health and usage monitoring systems—a necessity for offshore operations—could soon appear on light helicopters, thanks to technology envisaged for wind turbines

U.S. airlines are prepared to spend many millions in their effort to find a regulatory way to stop Gulf carriers.

This table shows runway incursions involving transport category aircraft from February 2009 until early this year at U.S. airports.

Aviation Week editors discuss Airbus and Boeing production: Is there an order bubble that may burst one day? They also talk about the 777 upgrade, the possibility of an A380neo and Bombardier’s CSeries.

Sandy Samuel has been appointed vice president/general manager of Lockheed Martin Commercial Flight Training, Orlando, Florida. She was vice president-operations for Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions and succeeds Jeffrey Wood, who will be moving to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.

Take China’s 10.1% rise in defense spending and make two adjustments: reduce for the effect of inflation, then increase for the effect of officers now being less able to embezzle the people’s money

Pilot shortage articles elicit comment about Norwegian Air; A-10 advocate reminisces; direction of U.S. space policy is questioned; stalls and airmanship are emphasized; frustrated passenger calls for airlines to pay more attention to passenger needs