Karen Walker is Air Transport World Editor-in-Chief and Aviation Week Network Group Air Transport Editor-in-Chief. She joined ATW in 2011 and oversees the editorial content and direction of ATW, Routes and Aviation Week Group air transport content.
Karen serves on the board of directors of the International Aviation Club of Washington and was the IAC’s President in 2017-2018.
Karen has been writing about the aerospace and air transport industries for more than 35 years and is a recognized authority and commenter on the airline industry. She is a regular speaker and moderator at aviation events worldwide and a commentator on radio and TV news programs. In 2019, she was a judge and a presenter for IATA’s inaugural diversity awards.
Based in Washington D.C., she gained her degree in journalism in the U.K. and is a multiple winner of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s aerospace journalism awards.
She is the recipient of the Aerospace Media Awards 2021 Aerospace Writer of the Year.
GE Aviation’s GEnx-1B engine, which powers the Boeing 787, has been given FAA 330-minute extended-range, twin-engine operations (ETOPS) approval. The FAA approval confirms the engine has demonstrated the reliability to conduct ETOPS flights up to 330 minutes flying time from a primary or alternate airport, GE said. The approval process included a 3,000-cycle ground endurance test in April. The first GEnx-2B-powered Boeing 747-8 was delivered to Cargolux in October. Five more GEnx-2B-powered Boeing 747-8s have since been delivered.
Airbus has completed the first flight of its fuel-saving sharklet wing-tip devices on the company’s A320 development aircraft (MSN 001). The flight marks the start of flight testing to capture data for fine-tuning the flight laws, as well as for certification and performance validation.
