Program Management

NTSB investigators found evidence of metal fatigue in the left engine of the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport Apr. 17 after the pilots initially reported an engine fire. A woman died after an apparent engine explosion blew out a window and caused the cabin to depressurize.

Growing experience in delivering goods by drone may be coming to the U.S. as part of an FAA pilot program to accelerate commercial use of unmanned aircraft.

“Airlines will look at efficient small single-aisle [aircraft] as their second type for their single-aisle operations,” says one industry executive.

Boeing has new master contracts with many top-tier suppliers under its Partnership for Success cost-cutting project, but has an inflection point been reached?

Industrial giant Siemens is aiming for a leading position as a supplier of electric propulsion systems to aircraft OEMs.

U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson is concerned Boeing is focusing on the commercial side of the house at the expense of the new tanker.

Impact of rising costs could jeopardize other astrophysics pursuits.

Belgium’s future fighter program has been thrown into turmoil after it emerged that cheaper options to extend the life of the country’s F-16s had been hidden.

Boeing is about to start an exhaustive effort to transition the U.S. Navy’s carrier air wing to the new-and-improved Block III Super Hornet.

Yates Electrospace is still pursuing ever-higher electric-aircraft speeds, but its first product is a disposable cargo glider.

An extended period of sustained demand for global air cargo lift has Boeing optimistic about its freighter product line, including its slow-selling 777F.

Airbus is positioning the A330neo to operate on true long-haul routes such as from the U.S. West Coast deep into Asia or from India to the U.S. East Coast.

Germany’s Lange Research Aviation is developing a fuel-cell-powered surveillance aircraft with 40 hr. endurance when flown unmanned.

The aerostructures subsector, responsible for providing airframers the largest subassemblies, could become a lot more intimate in the next few years.

With the next-generation jets, Embraer looks to break into segments of the airline market to which it so far has not had access.

Joby Aviation is using Simcenter STAR-CCM+™ software to perform the simulation for the design and development of its cutting-edge electric propulsion concepts.

While volume building structures for the speedy supersonic aircraft wouldn’t be as large as its commercial airliner business, Spirit says it is interested in the work.

Aviation Week editors talk with Airbus Space Chief about the OneWeb venture into the small satellite, low Earth orbit market and navigating the dramatic changes in the industry.

The heads of the U.S. Army say they “won’t stand for delays” on the multiservice Future Vertical Lift program, despite a re-phasing in the fiscal 2019 budget.

The large U.S. helicopter concern Era Group intends to take two AW609s in 2020.

France’s armed forces ministry launched a program on Feb. 28 to renew the country’s fleet of electronic intelligence aircraft with three special-mission Falcon jets.

Growth opportunities from the digital transformation of the commercial aviation sector will come from better airport, air traffic and airline operations, as well as through predictive maintenance and better asset tracking, Frost & Sullivan consultants said in a recent report.

The Pentagon advanced research agency plans to launch a program, called Blackjack, in fiscal 2019 to leverage commercial mass-production capabilities to demonstrate a proliferated smallsat constellation in low Earth orbit that can constantly keep track of “very large numbers” of targets.

Government auditors are warning the NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope is exhausting schedule and cost reserves.

Boeing has begun a three-year program in Australia to develop technologies for autonomous vehicles and deepen its understanding of how to satisfy regulators.