Aviation Week & Space Technology

South Korean Parliament Refuses To Lift F-35 Budget

Aerospace & Defense 2017 is the latest version of our annual predictor of trends to watch across all the fields we cover. With that issue in the bag, we talk with our top editors about what to look for in 2017.

Growing size and diversity of the commercial drone market begins to attract established unmanned-aircraft manufacturers, while military market grows ever more international.

Pentagon faces decisions on critical and complex military space systems as the commercial satellite communications market continues to evolve.

Embraer wants to stimulate demand for aircraft by narrowing the gap between business aviation and commercial airlines.

In addition to the many first flights, deliveries and service entries that will occur in 2017, production increases and market questions loom.

In this week’s roundup: Italy receives Conformal Airborne Early Warning aircraft; Northrop adds refueling capability to E-2D Hawkeye; Antonov rolls out An-132 prototype and Bulgaria is in the market for secondhand fighters.

Private sector space initiatives are expected to continue and perhaps be bolstered under Trump administration.

Carriers in South America’s biggest country look for ways to access fresh capital or consolidate to cope with ongoing economic crisis.

Digital imagery provides the model for a new approach to assembling complex aircraft structures from small and simple, mass-produced building blocks.

Boeing touts $10 billion in cost avoidance by replacing the B-52’s TF33s with eight regional jet-class engines.

The industry must coordinate international and national rules for maintenance-technician schools and foreign repair station drug/alcohol testing among others in the new year.

U.S. airlines' new services to Cuba still underutilized as tourism faces obstacles, but carriers remain confident about the future.

The U.S. Air Force bought the legacy presidential aircraft from Boeing for just $249 million back in 1986 but expects to spend $3.2 billion on the new Air Force One.

New engine work starts in Boeing Propulsion South Carolina as 737 MAX inlet production ramps up.

For an aircraft not even conceived as part of Boeing’s original 21st-century airliner family plan, the 787-10 has the potential to take a significant slice of the replacement market for Airbus A330-300s and 777-200s.

The first American to orbit Earth and the oldest person to ever fly in space was both a straight arrow and a self-promoter.

New technologies for commercial aviation focus on greater speed, lower emissions, and improved tracking.

Developments in defense technology to watch in 2017 include drone countermeasures, jamming improvements, and directed-energy weapons.

Amazon’s latest delivery drone; Turbulence downed Facebook’s UAV; JAXA’s new turbofan testbed; Intelsat touts smaller satcom for UAVs; Drones check Texas roads and railways.

The Missiles Defense Agency validated the shipborne Standard Missile-6 against a medium-range ballistic missile in a significant test off the coast of Hawaii.

Sierra Nevada Corp. and Turkish Aerospace Industries are making a surprise pitch of their Williams International FJ44-4M-powered Freedom Trainer for the T-X program.

Armed German Eurofighters are supporting the expanded Baltic Air Policing Program.

New Qantas services will boost Australia’s share of longest 787 flights

President-elect Donald Trump's Dec. 12 Twitter attack on F-35 costs is not the first time his tweets have had an impact on defense stocks, following on the heels of his Boeing Air Force One comments the previous week.