In 1966, shortly after the death of his wife's father, Laurent Beaudoin became president of the family business, a Canadian snowmobile company. Just 28 years old, he had to fill the big shoes left by the visionary Joseph-Armand Bombardier. Beaudoin would prove up to the task—and then some.

“USAF Prepares Industry for Cutbacks,” warned an Aviation Week & Space Technology headline, followed by a story that discussed the death of aircraft companies, shuttering of facilities, a Pentagon briefing to industry leaders with “a blunt warning of things to come” and a diminished role for manned aircraft in national defense. That article didn't appear recently, however. It was written in 1957—the first time the Laureate awards were presented.

Training providers reprogram upset prevention and recovery training

Even as the Obama administration pushes to have the FAA fund itself with the traveler-paid Airport and Airway Trust Fund, the White House predicts the fund's balance will grow steadily over the next decade. White House budget documents lay out a road map to wean FAA from general-fund contributions. As of 2015, the FAA budget request would have the trust fund cover 93% of FAA's operations, as well as its Airport Improvement Program, facilities and equipment, and research, engineering and development accounts.

The new P-8, a linchpin of the U.S. Navy's low-profile maritime patrol force, has been pushed into the limelight from its traditional mission of submarine-hunting to join the massive search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared March 8.

SpaceX delayed its third commercial cargo flight to the international space station (ISS) because of “payload contamination” problems in the unpressurized “trunk” of its Dragon spacecraft, but don't try to find out what those problems are. “We've had some issues with payload contamination that we will be addressing,” says Sam Scimemi, ISS program director at NASA headquarters, during a March 14 Space Transportation Association presentation. “We're going to have to assess that and replace some parts and get the rocket ready for launch again.

The case for a scaled-up successor to the Boeing 757

Changing market dynamics seen protecting mountainous backlogs