2013 plans call for near completion of ADS-B and ERAM

Receives commitments from Southeast Asian customers for 52 aircraft

In North America, 2013 is shaping up to be another year of tests, transitions, challenges and uncertainties for commercial aviation, even after three big airline mergers in the U.S. in recent years, the bankruptcy of a major Mexican carrier and financial troubles at Canada's biggest airline. But a lot of the questions could finally be settled by the end of the year.

Bombardier's future as a major player in the passenger jet business could rest on its new CSeries aircraft. The first flight has been delayed from December until as late as next June, and a key Chinese fuselage supplier fell down on the job. In 2013, Bombardier needs the CSeries to fly and customers to buy. Chinese

Just as the aluminum industry profits by turning one soda can into another, aircraft manufacturers are waiting for the day when composite scrap from their assembly lines, or parts reclaimed at an aircraft's end-of-life, can be made flyable again.

Asian investors continue to take big stakes in the aircraft leasing market. A consortium of three Chinese investors plans to close on a deal to acquire the International Lease Finance Corp. That follows earlier sales of Jackson Square Aviation and the Royal Bank of Scotland's aircraft leasing business to Japanese buyers and Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise's acquisition by the Bank of China.

They have different approaches, but the same aim: to reduce significantly the fuel burned when commercial aircraft taxi. Whether it is a semi-autonomous tow-tug or electric taxiing via powered nose or main wheels, systems are being developed to reduce fuel consumption and emissions during ground operations. WheelTug and Parker Aerospace hope to certificate a powered-nosewheel taxiing system for the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 in 2013, promising an 80% reduction in fuel burn over using engine power.

Responding to the dramatic inroads made by carbon-fiber compositesinto aircraft structures, metals suppliers say their latest lightweight aluminum-lithium alloys can fully replace conventional aluminum and rival the benefits of composites in clean-sheet designs. As direct replacements for traditional aluminum, the new alloys' lower density provides a 3-6% weight reduction, but in new designs that can take advantage of the material's greater stiffness and corrosion resistance, the savingcan reach 25%.