DEFENSE France, Germany and Italy have formally agreed to launch studies that could lead to development of a European medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft for delivery in the early to mid-2020s. Airbus Defense & Space in Germany is to lead a two-year, €60 million ($68 million) definition study with France’s Dassault and Italy’s Finmeccanica (page 25).
Capt. Kimball Stone has been appointed vice president-flight of American Airlines. He succeeds Capt. John Hale, who plans to return to flying. Stone was vice president-Integrated Operations Control and has been followed by Lorne Cass, who was the FAA’s director of airport surface efficiency.
Airline industry differentiation in the past decade means a carrier that manages to stick to one strategy or particular niche, whatever it is and however large or small it is, has a greater chance of success.
After putting the Airbus A350 through its paces, the ruling is it's a different aircraft than Boeing’s 787, and is a significant advance over the popular A330.
After nearly 100 years, manned fighters still represent the overwhelming bulk of airpower, but predictions of their irrelevance or obsolescence are still with us.
FAA sticks with ADS-B-Out deadline, House examines new ways to watch weather, Boeing floats international sales of the Warthog and a defense spending bill advances.
A longtime space-engineering company is about to take the plunge into commercial space with a commercial hyperspectral imager for the International Space Station.
An alignment problem with the massive friction-stir-welding tool built to manufacture NASA’s SLS tanks is causing some consternation, but overall the design appears sound.
The bill is expected to support the Obama administration’s $1.1 billion request for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle to carry humans deep into space, including to Mars.
Japan Airlines is the highest-scoring in Aviation Week’s Top-Performing Airlines rankings, with narrowbody operators also featuring prominently in the top 10.
