Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo replica is making its air show debut

As aerospace and defense suppliers head to this year's Farnborough air show, two of their biggest customers present a stark picture of an industry going in two directions. Boeing Commercial Airplanes is hoping to roll out big orders for its reengined 737 MAX narrowbody jet at the show, further proof of airlines' seemingly insatiable appetite for more efficient aircraft.

As forces withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, Paradigm Services looks to civil sector

With several members facing debt crises at home, the European Space Agency (ESA) is paring Earth-observation spending plans ahead of a key budget meeting in November. The initial five-year, €1.9 billion ($2.4 billion) proposal for ESA's fourth Earth Observation Envelope Program (EOEP) will instead involve €1.6 billion over four years, says Volker Liebig, ESA director of Earth-observation programs.

CEO says he hopes new and returning players will help foster more choice and competition

Jim McNerney on commercial and defense plans and programs.

Russia has claimed the successful test of a prototype of new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The new missile was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk spaceport in May and its warhead reached a designated area in the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The military also said the missile will have improved capabilities to overcome anti-ballistic missile defenses being deployed by the U.S.—an important new priority for Moscow after years of trying to forestall U.S. missile-defense developments.

Walter J. Zable, the aerospace industry's oldest and longest-serving CEO and a pioneer in the field of global positioning, died June 23 of natural causes at a San Diego-area hospital. He was 97. Zable founded Cubic Corp. in 1951 in a San Diego storefront. Long before GPS was invented, the company developed a satellite-based technology that identified the location of land masses and enabled the U.S. military to pinpoint targets to improve the accuracy of ballistic missiles. Later, Cubic fielded the world's first instrumented air combat training system.