Governments should be ready for the possibility of commercial UAV technology falling into the wrong hands, says think tank.

The civil aviation sector is already a huge trend-setter in the adoption of additive manufacturing, contributing 12% to the industry’s global revenue in 2013, and all indications are that this will continue to grow.

Accurately predicting the maximum-lift performance of transport aircraft is still a challenge, so Airbus and DLR are working to improve computational tools and wind-tunnel testing.

With the goal of eliminating the arrays for nonstructural aerials on current intelligence-gathering aircraft, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is developing spray-on and load-bearing conformal antennas.

One passenger, no pilot; Intel inside UAVs; Tailsitting Tern; HorseFly delivers; Soaring for two.

Virtual reality. Crowd-sourcing weather data. Co-pilots on the ground. Changes are coming to flight operations, maintenance and training. Executive Editor Jim Asker and Avionics and Safety Editor John Croft discuss the next-generation hardware and new techniques that will boost safety and save money.

Research into shape-changing aircraft has picked up but still has a long way to go.

The strongest defense stocks last year had several factors in common that may influence contractor behavior this year.