Aviation Week & Space Technology

The procurement strategy for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s new Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle likely will be released with the fiscal 2016 budget plan.

By 2035, nearly two million would-be flights—12% of total demand for travel—will never take place because of reduced airport expansion plans.

Business aircraft manufacturers finding that size matters, as offering multiple mid- and large-size cabin models is critical to success as market rebounds.

2014 was a year in which world peace broke out as long as your standard for conflict was declared and open war between nation-states. The actual picture was very different, with two major wars in the Middle East and a European state facing the real threat of being dismantled.

Myriad factors, including geopolitical tensions, a cluster of commercial space setbacks, global airspace safety and programmatic blows mean that 2015 could prove tricky for all aerospace sectors.

The growth potential in many Asia-Pacific markets offers airlines an opportunity unrivaled in any other global region. However, carriers here are also facing the fact that to tap into the expected bonanza, they must remain financially viable in the short term. This is one of the challenges facing most Asian airlines in 2015—growing sufficiently to ensure they can grab their share of the action without creating capacity oversupply. Market data show that the balance tipped too far toward supply in 2014, and now a readjustment is needed.

The push to have more defense industry-related manufacturing built indigenously is hurting India in the short run, but the benefits could outweigh the pain.

Tom Williams has been named chief operating officer of the Airbus Group. He has been executive vice president-programs and succeeds Gunter Butschek, who has left the company. Didier Evrard, who has been head of the A350 program, has been appointed to follow Williams. Klaus Richter, chief procurement officer of Airbus and Airbus Group, has been promoted to a member of the Group Executive Committee. He also will be the national representative for Airbus in Germany.

All sectors of A&D have met with or are facing divergent factors that will determine much of their direction in the coming years.

Airlines are showing by their orders that they are willing to accept the reengined derivative concept for narrowbodies as well as widebodies. And manufacturers in Asia are edging further into the civil aircraft production field.

MRO providers finding growth opportunities in narrowbody heavy checks and cabin upgrades as operators seek to extend lives of existing aircraft.

Orbital Sciences Corp. will buy a new rocket engine to replace the surplus Russian engines tentatively implicated in the Oct. 28 failure of an Antares launch vehicle with a load of cargo for the International Space Station.

The tanker/transport market is shifting with the availability of competitive alternatives outside of the U.S. increasing worldwide.

IAG eyes Aer Lingus, which would broaden its reach into Ireland and the U.K., but even more attractive to the group is the Irish airline’s 3% share of London-Heathrow slots. With these, IAG could stage more profitable long-haul flying.

Something clearly needs to be done to bring more women into aerospace engineering.

The U.S. market again is playing a leading role in all major aviation segments.

Beautiful, But Misidentified The aircraft “coming slowly together within the doors of the WWI-vintage hangar,” in the beautiful photograph taken by Richard Mallory Allnutt on page 67 in your annual photo issue ( AW&ST Dec. 15/22, p.

First flight of the Dassault Falcon 8X is set for the first quarter of 2015 following the Dec. 17 rollout of the ultra-long-range business jet at Merignac, France. Powered by three Pratt & Whitney Canada PW307D engines, the aircraft has a projected range of 6,450 nm (11,950 km) with eight passengers and three crew and an expected maximum speed of Mach 0.9. The cockpit will feature Dassault’s EASy flight deck, based on Honeywell Primus Epic integrated avionics with optional wide-angle head-up displays.

An incorrect biography was published in the Dec. 15/22 article about winners of the 2014 Aviation Week Photo Contest on page 70. The winner of second place in the General Aviation category is Ricardo von Puttkammer of New York. To see this biography and those of other winners, go to AviationWeek.com/photowinners

Russia’s drive to reestablish a super-power-like weapons industry continues to pay off, as arms sales there continue to grow. A report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) on annual trends and data in worldwide arms production and sales—excluding China, due to a lack of data—shows Russian companies’ business surging, while sales for those in leading NATO member states mostly dipped or remained the same for 2013 and 2012.

Brazil’s plans to field an operational air wing on the aircraft carrier Sao Paulo has passed another milestone with the issuing of a $106 million, five-year contract to Elbit Systems of America to complete the upgrade work on four U.S.-surplus Grumman C-1A Trader aircraft. They will serve as carrier on-board delivery (COD) aircraft and refueling tankers.

A five-engine Russian Angara-5 launch vehicle demonstrated its ability to place a two-ton payload in geostationary orbit Dec. 23, launching a dummy

Johann-Dietrich Woerner, chairman of the executive board of the German Aerospace Center, is scheduled to begin a four-year term as director general of

NASA’s Kepler space telescope has detected its first exoplanet since it started operating with only two of its four reaction wheels functioning

The FAA is not quite finished with its official rules for small unmanned air systems (UAS), those under 55 lb. In the meantime, the agency did produce a public service announcement aimed at people receiving UAS as holiday gifts. “Many will be excited when they unwrap the box and find an unmanned aircraft. How do you make sure you stay off the naughty list?” the video asks, proceeding to list a number of operating guidelines.