Aerospace

Autonomous systems, terahertz communications, cognitive computing, digitized fabrication—these are the technologies identified as potentially disruptive for aerospace by a panel of experts at AIAA’s SciTech conference.

New uses for additive manufacturing, sometimes in combination with more traditional methods, could be a game-changer in the spare parts industry.

ATR is converting 1980s design drawings to more contemporary digital mockups.

NASA vows to become a “smart buyer” to offset budget threat to X-plane plans as it plans larger, piloted flight demonstrators.

MIT’s unconventional D8 configuration gets more conventional as Aurora Flight Sciences works to turn the fuel-saving concept into a practical product.

China featured four large low-frequency radars—at least one of which specifies a detection range against the F-22—along with a new, passive radar. Almaz-Antey was also on site promoting Russia’s counterstealth systems.

Predix drone swarms; Islamic State group UAVs; laser attack-logging app; Alphabet X ends Titan stratospheric internet project.

Safran is hoping changes will help its factories design production lines of the future.

Airbus buys an electron-beam additive manufacturing machine to 3-D-print titanium airframe structural components for production aircraft.

Airbus and Boeing guidance, until recently, indicated that they expect a 17-year supercycle, but the end came after 12 as the world economy slows.

AIAA’s SciTech conference is happening this week in Grapevine, Texas. Listen in as our editors discuss the new developments, highlights and big questions facing the aerospace community.

High fuel prices drove interest in electric taxiing. With oil prices low, pushback time savings is also a driver.

The FAA’s new enhanced-flight-vision rule paves the way for airlines to install technology to fly as if in clear weather all the time, but will they buy it?

The minimal change in design is expected to be cheaper and faster to develop and still compete aggressively against Airbus’s A321neo.

Vanilla sets record; Latitude advances VTOL; Singapore drone traffic management; EHang air taxi progress; more unmanned news.

Top U.S. officials revamped acquisition of weapons, engaged non-traditional companies and pushed for new technologies and thinking in the Defense Department.

FAA’s Part 23 rule, and Europe’s pending CS-23 revamp, enable certification of GA aircraft using industry standards that can evolve with advances in technology.

The aviation ecosystem as we know it is likely to change dramatically in the next few decades.

Robotics and additive manufacturing are just two technological enablers of future aerospace manufacturing.

Dassault Systemes is working with Wichita State University to find the best ways to train and attract qualified personnel for future aerospace manufacturing.

The environment will remain tough for airlines in Europe, with significant challenges caused by Brexit, overcapacity and terrorism

Watch Chinese drone maker EHang's progress in ground and flight testing of the large multi-rotor vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle.

HyperMach Aerospace’s combined system is designed to generate sufficient power to propel the aircraft to the edges of hypersonic flight and suppress booms and drag with plasma.

Flirtey delivers convenience; Groen’s gyroplane drone; AquaMAV flies and dives; DHS selects drone startups; Leonardo’s Solo in Italian tests.

Whether the Trump election in the U.S. or the Brexit vote in the UK, 2016 delivered shocks to the global aerospace and defense industry that will reverberate through 2017.