NASA Administrator Charles Bolden took advantage of an international air traffic control conference in Beijing last month to meet with Wang Zhaoyao, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office. Jaiwon Shin, associate NASA administrator for aeronautics, is chairman of the 23-nation International Forum for Aviation Research that met in Zhuhai, China, so the visit apparently fell within the exemption for multilateral conferences in the congressional ban on space cooperation with China.
The Pentagon has selected F-35 development partners Italy and Turkey to handle major maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade work for the single-engine, stealthy fighter in Europe, with facilities operational by 2018. The U.S. Defense Department plans to announce the location of maintenance for the Pacific region this week. Japan and Australia are expected to fare well in those assignments. Italy’s Cameri Air Base will be the site for heavy airframe maintenance. Turkey will initially handle the heavy engine maintenance for the Pratt & Whitney F135.
A 30-ft. long, multi-bay box test article made out of a low-weight, damage-tolerant, stitched composite structural concept called Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure, or Prseus, has been delivered to the NASA Langley Research Center for evaluation.
Renewed discussions around deliveries of the A350 and the future of the A380 along with a less than enthusiastic outlook for future profits left their mark on the Airbus share price last week. The stock was down more than 10% on Dec. 11, the worst decline in six years.
The global airline industry is forecast to benefit significantly from the drop in fuel prices, but part of the improvement will be passed on to consumers as lower fares, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts. The association believes airlines will post a combined profit of $25 billion in 2015, up from $19.9 billion this year, $10.6 billion in 2013 and $6.1 billion in 2012. “We see falling oil prices giving a great boost both to the industry and consumers,” IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said last week.
A $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill designed to keep the U.S. government open for the remainder of fiscal 2015 includes $18 billion for NASA for the year.
Correction: . The Dec. 1/8 article “Uncivil 737s” (page 49) incorrectly stated some of the capabilities of the P-8A. The Navy says it has not seen a “current active plan” to test depth charge capability, and notes that the SLAM-ER is no longer part of the program of record. In addition, the rank of VP-30’s officer in charge of fleet integration for the P-8A and MQ-4C was misstated. He is Cmdr. Andrew Miller.
An item in the Nov. 24 Washington Outlook column (page 20), “Size Doesn’t Matter,” misstated the type of judge who ruled in a dispute over a UAV fine by the FAA. The story should have stated that an administrative law judge initially ruled on Raphael Pirker’s case. The NTSB overturned it.
With the clock ticking toward the first run of the GE9X core in 2015, and manufacturing of the first full engine core components getting underway, GE is counting on these materials to play a critical role in reducing weight and boosting efficiency.
France is slowly replacing its aging Boeing KC-135Rs with Airbus A330 multirole tanker-transports, though defense budget constraints are hindering the transition.
London Bureau Chief Tony Osborne and International Defense Editor Bill Sweetman discuss the U.K.'s recent trouble hunting for a possibly Russian submarine and what it says about their state of readiness.
Will Boeing repeat history by using the parallel 757-767 development model to answer the long-running 737/757 replacement question and, if so, why? The answers lie in the way the 757 and 767 satisfy vastly different markets yet share key design features.
Display electronics were the culprit in the April 19 airborne smoke emergency on a Flydubai Boeing 737-800 (A6-FEK) at 15,000 ft. that was descending into Kiev.
NASA’s new Orion crew capsule flew its first test in space with clocklike precision Friday, using two unmanned orbits that took it deeper into space than any human spacecraft has gone since Apollo 17, and then achieved a bull’s-eye splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Aviation Week's John Croft and Sean Broderick discuss the NTSB's 787 battery recommendations with Jim Asker. Learn how Boeing fail-safed the battery and listen as we discuss how the aircraft was certified and still experienced serious problems.
Lockheed Martin says F-35 pilots are getting the education they need thanks to improved simulation technology incorporated into the program’s full-mission simulators that employ the actual F-35 software used by flying aircraft.
By the end of this decade the U.K.'s Panavia Tornado GR4 will have exited service, the Eurofighter Typhoon will have become the Royal Air Force’s primary ground-attack platform, and the Lockheeed Martin F-35B Lightning II will be just starting its deployment and preparing for land-based and shipborne operations.
Short-term older aircraft disposals take priority as Qantas completes Boeing 737 fleet expansion and ponders long-haul replacement plans, pending a return t0 profitability.
Humans will be noticeably absent from the NASA/Lockheed Martin Exploration Flight Test-1 Orion capsule as it embarks on its first spaceflight, a two-orbit test mission that will include a searing descent through the Earth's atmosphere.
Aiming to reduce flight times and fuel burn on domestic routes in Australia, Qantas is working with air traffic authorities to use more flexible flight paths across the continent.
