Aviation Week & Space Technology

Jan. 27-29—Microelectronics Reliability and Qualification Working Meeting, The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, California. See www.cvent.com/d/9rqnfl Feb. 1-3—Routes Americas. Denver. See www.routesonline.com/events/172/Feb. 1-3 Feb. 3-6—National Business Aviation Association Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference. San Jose, California. See www.nbaa.org/events/sdc/2015/

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.

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.

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

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

The renewal of Germany’s rotary-wing fleet is being given a top priority as the country resumes spending on defense equipment. Officials have been charged with closing an €8 billion ($10 billion) deal, pending since March 2013, with Airbus Helicopters.

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.

According to company officials, the T-X Hawk is likely to feature an F-35-style single screen display in both the front and rear cockpits. It will also have a structurally different wing with fewer pylons—five instead of the current seven

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.

"You are a demanding customer, sometimes a little bit too demanding,” Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier told Akbar Al Baker, the CEO of Qatar Airways. He

Data from NASA’s Curiosity rover and analysis of the ALH84001 meteorite provide new information about methane and ice on Mars.

On July 1, Johann-Dietrich Woerner will begin a four-year term as the next director general of the European Space Agency. He is currently chairman of the executive board of the German Aerospace Center.

Aggressive expansion in Europe by the deep-pocketed Gulf carriers has been the topic of emotional debates among politicians and airline boards.

U.S. airlines completed one of their most profitable years in 2014.

Aviation Week editors discuss what they expect in the year to come and what genuinely surprised them in 2014.

For the customer, the most important difference between new fighters is not whether they’re stealthy, but how long they’re expected to be around.

Additive manufacturing and electric propulsion are among the new technologies promising improved satellite performance with lower costs.

Boeing’s selection of two suppliers for key elements of the 777X avionics system and digital backbone means the status quo for some 787 providers and a changing of the guard for others.

The sheer number and diversity of vehicles with which civil aviation will be sharing airspace has helped spur technologies, especially those that are efficiency-related.

The overall helicopter market, which has been fairly moribund in recent years, appears likely to get a boost from the loosening of civil regulations in China.