Aviation Week & Space Technology

Luc Tytgat has become director of the Strategy and Safety Management Directorate at the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Cologne, Germany. He was director of the Pan-European Single Sky Directorate at Eurocontrol. Olivier Ramsayer has been appointed EASA’s resources and support director. He was head of the Resources and Support Department at the European Food Safety Authority. Trevor Woods has been named EASA certification director, effective March 1.

Readers weigh in on choice of Putin as Person of the Year; Defense Department’s pace of technological pursuits defended; Similarity between Boeing Sugar truss-braced wing and Hurel-Dubois design noted; Skepticism about Turkey becoming a major defense exporter; Request for article on ‘Switchblade’ roadable aircraft; correction of airline type typo.

The increasing strength of airlines in the Middle East may present more of a strategic threat to legacy market than the one posed by long-haul, low-cost carriers.

It’s business as usual for U.S. major carriers, as recent low fuel costs will not, as of now, factor into decisions regarding fleet and capacity.

IAG, the only entity willing to invest in European airlines, is nearing a deal to acquire Aer Lingus, subject to government and shareholder approval.

Pentagon ponders alternatives to F-35 should proliferating new threats compromise jet’s stealth.

There are signs of hope that the new House Armed Services Committee chairman will make defense acquisition reform a key priority.

COMMERCIAL AVIATION The starboard Pratt & Whitney PW1217G geared turbofan on the first Mitsubishi Regional Jet was fired up on Jan 13. Mitsubishi Aircraft aims for a first flight in the second quarter. Three more flight-test aircraft are in final assembly at Nagoya, Japan: Wing-body join is complete on the second and underway on the third, and the fuselage is joined for the fourth.

After years of discussion about incremental upgrades or off-the-shelf insertions into older programs, the Pentagon’s next generation of equipment is taking shape. The defense budget plan for fiscal 2016 and beyond features increased spending on new nuclear delivery vehicles and an initiative to pursue advanced fighter engines and a post-F-35 fighter (see pages 26 and 30). Along with that, the request seeks continued aid for NATO and an ongoing emphasis on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

Since unveiling plans in January to build rival networks of hundreds, or even thousands, of Internet satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), SpaceX and OneWeb are prompting comparisons with past ventures that flopped, among them Teledesic and Skybridge, two well-financed start-ups whose visions of delivering high-speed broadband to the masses were thwarted by technical setbacks.

Flying in the dark when manned aircraft are grounded for safety, Lockheed Martin’s Indago small quadcopter provides fire intelligence.

Any budget-driven delay in the Future Vertical Lift program would put at risk industry’s ability to develop an advanced rotorcraft, warns the U.S. Army.

JAXA flight-tests electric propulsion; laser images airflow over A320 in flight; 3-D printing an engine combustor casing; small UAS takes water samples; Bicycle Shop, a nod to the past with an eye on the future.

Kamarudin Meranun, AirAsia co-founder, has been appointed to the new role of AirAsia X Group CEO, where he will spearhead development of the “overarching strategy” for the carrier and its new join- venture affiliates in Thailand and Indonesia.

Our editors discuss adaptive engine technology, sixth-generation fighters, threats to the F-35 and the next presidential aircraft.

NASA and its commercial crew partners open up about their plans, now that the legal hurdles have been cleared.

Early work is underway on an expendable version of the space shuttle main engine, which will power the heavy-lift Space Launch System.

SpaceX-USAF legal settlement offers little near-term gain for SpaceX, but it appears to serve the company’s strategic goals.

The Rise and Fall of a Launch Monopoly?

Students of post-Cold War aerospace are intimately familiar with the Last Supper.

U.S. military planners have now broadly accepted that the only way to meet the advanced performance needs of “sixth-generation” combat aircraft, barring changes to the laws of physics, will be the adoption of variable-cycle, or adaptive engine technology.

Small problems that blighted the helicopter in its earliest days of operation are still causing concerns as operators struggle to procure spares and get rotorcraft back into service.

GE makes strides in lightweight ceramic matrix composite blade technology.

KAL appears to be proposing a design based on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which should be developmentally cheaper than KAI’s KF-X proposal. However, Boeing reportedly has given up supporting KAL’s bid because of a serious image problem suffered by the South Korean company.

Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have reached into their bag of tricks to keep NASA’s solar-propelled Dawn probe in good shape to enter orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, its second stop in the main asteroid belt.