A 2015 mandate for controller-pilot data link communications (CPDLC) in European airspace above 28,500 ft.—Flight Level 285—will represent the most lucrative opportunity in the airline retrofit market in 2013 for avionics makers.

Lockheed Martin’s decision to open an engine shop in Montreal started out as an asset acquisition effort to bolster the company’s existing capabilities but quickly grew in scope when company executives saw greater opportunity in starting a stand-alone operation, a company executive tells Aviation Week.

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.

Repair station executives are bullish on 2013 business prospects, with more than half the respondents to a recent survey expecting revenue improvement in 2013. The survey, conducted by the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA), generated 180 responses, the association says. Big-picture takeaways include a more bullish outlook than last year’s survey, and a range of services driving the growth.

As the outlook for heavy maintenance on the global single-aisle fleet of 13,000 aircraft shows only modest growth during the next 36 months, there will be pockets of opportunity, particularly among Latin American operators. Based on the most recently compiled data, heavy maintenance visits (HMV) will generate about $1.4 billion in annual sales, with C checks accounting for nearly $1.3 billion each year through 2015, concentrated strongly in the U.S., U.K. and Brazil.

Sepang Aircraft Engineering is part-owned by EADS

Industrial robots are becoming a common sight on aircraft production lines, laying up composites, drilling holes, inserting fasteners and inspecting structures—automating repetitive tasks that require painstaking precision and drive up the touch-labor costs in aircraft assembly. Now robots are headed for the overhaul center. Lufthansa Technik and Helmut Schmidt University have developed an 8-axis robot that automatically strips the paint from parts using plastic-bead blasting, reducing the time required while improving quality.

Technologies that allow complex contoured parts to be produced simply and cost-effectively are enabling metallic structures to hold their ground against composites as manufacturers strive to cut cost and weight out of their aircraft. Working with Airbus, France's Dufieux Industrie has developed the milling mirror system to replace hazardous chemical milling of curved aluminum fuselage panels to reduce their weight. One machining center has a high-speed milling head, working in synchronization with its twin with a support head.