Aviation Week & Space Technology

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

Super Puma replacement may be rescoped for multirole mission as commercial market tumbles.

Emirates new order “underscores Airbus’ commitment to produce the A380 at least for another 10 years,” says departing sales chief John Leahy.

Vertical-lift OEMs warn that the best helicopter safety standards and production processes will be inadequate to ensure success of urban eVTOL air taxi market.

The U.S. targets China and Russia in its latest defense strategy, but what’s to stop both powers ganging up against Washington?

Pilot safety, pilot retention and responses to a commentary on President Trump's defense posture dominated the recent reader exchanges.

Aviation Partners Boeing promoted Mike Stowell to president and CEO. ManTech International Corp. promoted George J. Pedersen to executive chairman.

Airbus Helicopters prepares to launch a drone-based urban package-delivery trial service developed with partners in Singapore.

The military has much aging equipment and ammunition that needs to be replaced or upgraded.

Rotorcraft will become a focus of Thailand’s military imports in coming years.

The South Korean army rejected the bulky Surion as inappropriate for the attack mission, but the marines regard it as a candidate for the role.

Are London and Paris balking at the high costs associated with the UCAV demonstrator’s development?

India tests nuke-capable ICBM; court allows U.S. Army/Airbus sole-source deal; U.S. OKs Belgium F-35 sale; weapons tests on Russia’s most advanced fighter.

Proposed acquisitions for the Philippines Air Force include fighters, additional light trainers, airlifters and light-attack aircraft.

Boeing needs to be able to offer what is likely to become a small twin-aisle aircraft at a very low price in order to capture some of the market.

The Navy continues to evolve and mature the Fire Scout maritime patrol UAV despite a limited number of deployment opportunities on the Littoral Combat Ship.

VSR700 program will turn a two-seat training helicopter into unmanned observer.

European Union planning demonstration of unmanned technologies, including naval UAVs.

U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine describes a domain-wide system that would continuously monitor the airspace to identify risks.

Rating commercial crew vehicles on their chance of flight fatality turns out to be a nuanced art and science.

Systems Technology demos a machine-learning approach to maneuvering UAVs on carrier decks by recognizing the same gestures used to direct human pilots.

Jakarta is behind in its contributions to KF-X, known in Indonesia as IF-X, and the finance ministry refused to authorize a payment due at the end of 2017. Photo: Cpl. Casey Gaul/Australian Defense Department

The federal deficit and interest rates threaten to constrain the Pentagon’s budget.

There are multiple factors contributing to the current sluggishness, including aircraft program issues, capacity considerations and airline strategy factors.

Boeing leverages X-43, X-51 and XB-70 design legacy to challenge Lockheed Martin for future hypersonic strike/reconnaissance role.