As it prepares for the 737 MAX, Boeing is adding more automation and fuselage buildup capacity at its Renton factory south of Seattle. But it is keeping options open for the transition of the new airplane into the existing 737 Next Generation final assembly line.

Big shows are made for big news, and while there is no golden rule in the air transport business that says new product launches are best saved for major air events, Boeing hopes this year's gathering at Le Bourget will be the perfect venue for the go-ahead of the 787-10X.

The already relentless pace of the Trent engine program for the Boeing 787 is accelerating to new levels as Rolls-Royce ramps up flight- and ground-test development work on new and major derivatives of the Trent 1000.

There is little doubt that the Air France-KLM Group is in bad shape; its shares are trading at a fifth of their value in the company's glory days in 2007. Of all the elements contributing to Air France-KLM's debt (close to €6 billion, or $8 billion) and losses (a €530 million operating loss for the first three months of this year), the culture of complacency was probably the most damaging.

In 2011, a Chinese aero-engine industry executive told Aviation Week that, if necessary, the country would muster its resources and develop the CJ-1000 commercial turbofan on its own, so determined was it to end its reliance on Western imports. Two years later, it looks like all those resources had better be mustered. The industry's attempt at luring U.S. and especially Western European help is looking increasingly bleak, though it has secured Russian assistance and has employed expert Western engineers.

Fastjet has already faced more than its fair share of troubles in trying to establish a pan-African low-cost operation. Now its chairman has resigned, and auditors are questioning the airline's reliability.

When Japanese industry launched Mitsubishi Aircraft and the MRJ in 2008, the regional jet was intended to enter service late in 2013 as the only aircraft in its class with the decisive advantage of an advanced new engine. In accepting the cost and risk of the unconventional geared engine and in adopting a long, slender wing optimized for modest cruise speed, the developers were betting on high fuel prices.

In early April, when Larry Lawson arrived at Spirit AeroSystems, the company had completed a quarter with earnings, revenues, operating margins and deliveries that exceeded analysts' expectations. So the new president and CEO began his tenure with a built-in lift from the previous year's troubles—a $590 million pre-tax charge for failing to meet delivery and cost targets—that prompted his arrival.